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In Memoriam:
Curtiss Blake (1940–2004)

Curtiss Blake, his wife Sigrid, their daughter, Christina, and her boyfriend, Robert Toney, died in a plane crash in Anchorage, Alaska in July.

Blake was born in Amery, Wisconsin. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in music education and his master's degree in composition from the University of Minnesota, where he also completed most of the work toward a Ph.D. in music.

Blake moved to Alaska in 1971 and worked for the Anchorage School District as a music teacher from 1971 until he retired in 1994. His work included composing and arranging music for programs throughout the school district and music instruction at many of Anchorage's schools.

After his retirement, he gave private lessons, composed and arranged music for band, and continued his record collecting activities.

Blake began purchasing horn recordings in 1958 when he enrolled at Augsburg College. Hampered by a student's budget, he accumulated material sporadically until he began his studies at the University of Minnesota (1962–1970). Inspired by the university library's holdings of composers' complete works and other resources, Blake began to seek out recordings of the many new works to which he was being introduced. After finishing a composition degree at the university, Blake moved to Alaska and began to build his collection in earnest.

“Anything with a French horn in it he loved,” his surviving daughter Jennie Blake said. Although Blake originally conceived his collection as one that would feature the horn as a solo instrument, his vision expanded to include recordings of the horn in chamber music, jazz, and occasionally popular idioms. Orchestral works that feature the horn were also included.

Over the years, Blake dealt with dozens of auction dealers, from whom he sought out-of-print and unusual items appropriate to the focus of the collection. In addition, he collected current-issue materials on obscure labels that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. A member of the Association of Recorded Sound Collectors (ARSC), Blake was also in contact with many others who shared his interest in collecting.

By 1988, the Blake horn collection numbered over 4000 items in 78 rpm, LP, cassette, compact disc, and open reel formats. With letters of support from hornists and the International Horn Society, Mills Music Library received a grant to purchase it. Since that time, the library continued to acquire his recordings, most recently as donations. The Blake collection boasts well over 7,000 items, a large proportion of which are included in MadCat.

From the outset, Blake intended for his collection to be a part of a library's holdings. Since the spark for collecting began in such a setting it seems only fitting that it should ultimately enhance a similar one. He believed that by placing the material in a forum for public use, he becomes part of a continuum that extends from the past and into the future—from the great libraries of ancient civilizations to the unfolding lives and careers of today's students of the horn.

The Blake Collection has been significant for both UW students and outside researchers. The collection was first documented in Rebecca Dodson "From Anchorage to the Internet: A Major Horn Recording Collection Goes On-Line" (The Horn Call 25/1 (November 1994): 49–50). The collection provided the impetus for Dodson’s 1997 D.M.A. dissertation, “A Descriptive Discography of Horn Music based on the Curtiss Blake Collection,” University of Wisconsin, 1997. In addition, Amy McBeth, in her work A Discography of 78rpm Era Recordings of the Horn (Greenwood, 1997), relied heavily on the Blake Horn Collection for her research.

The Mills Music Library is honored to be home to the Blake Horn Collection. A reception had been planned to recognize Curtiss Blake and his contribution, which would have coincided with his annual September visit to his mother, who still lives in Wisconsin. In its place, we are organizing a recognition ceremony for sometime next spring. We join the family in mourning their loss.

[Some information in this tribute was derived from the Dodson article noted above. Ed.]