Vol. 4, no. 1 — September 1997
Sowerby, Gottschalk Compositions Arrive in Donations
by Steve Kurr
Two recent gifts to Mills Music Library contain significant collections of compositions by two American composers. The first is part of a donation from Ruth Pilger Andrews, a Madison organist, who passed away in July of 1996. During the 1930s and 1940s, Mrs. Andrews studied with Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory in Chicago. Sowerby (1895–1968), a Michigan native, spent much of his career in Chicago, beginning in 1913 with the premiere performance of his Violin Concerto by the Chicago Symphony . In 1946, his Canticle of the Sun won a Pulitzer Prize. Sowerby was best known for his organ works, and Pilger's donation reflects this. Her collection represents a total of forty-four Sowerby compositions, with a vast majority of them being organ pieces. The remainder consists of works for piano, chorus, or instrument with organ accompaniment. Most interesting are the annotations by Sowerby himself in some of the scores.
The second collection, a gift from Mimmi Fulmer, contains early editions of piano works by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Gottschalk (1829–1969) was born in New Orleans, studied in Paris with Berlioz, and returned to become a concert pianist in the United States. He made a lengthy tour of the country before spending several years in the Caribbean. The rhythms and melodies of the region permeated his compositional style, and when he returned to tour America once again, his new Latin-influenced work made him a star attraction. This second tour, during the American Civil War, included a stop in Madison. His last four years were spent in South America, where he contracted yellow fever and died in 1869. Fulmer's collection represents sixty-five of Gottschalk's works, all for piano. These include the first edition of several pieces and earliest American editions of several others, all dating from the 1850s through the 1880s.
Both donations are located in the Music Library's Locked Case. Any patron wishing to examine either of these collections need only ask one of the Music Library staff for assistance.
Articles In This Issue
Streaming Audio by Geri Laudati | A New Index to Music Journals | Don't Shelve That Journal . . . by Geri Laudati | MadCat Searching for Dummies by Mark Rosa | Workshops on Music Library Resources | Recent Donors | Sowerby, Gottschalk Compositions Arrive in Donations by Steve Kurr | Recent Faculty Publications | Where Have the New Books Gone? by Mark Rosa | Mills Music Library Hours