SCA Music Collections
The Roland Jackson Collection includes papers relating to the academic research, teachings, and career of Roland Jackson, professor at Claremont Graduate University from 1970 to 1994. During the 1980s, Jackson contributed to expanding the graduate music curriculum and organized three new doctoral programs. In 1988, Jackson founded the scholarly journal Performance Practice Review and served as editor until 1997. He was an active member of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the Musicological Society and the Southern California Chapter of American Music Society. As a music historian, Jackson’s research and publications ranged from computer music studies, early music, 19th century music, several composers’ lives and works, film music, music analysis, and performance practice. His papers include his published and unpublished writings, teaching materials, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings. Professor Jackson passed away in June 2015.
The Roland Jackson Memorial Music Research Fellowship offers support for short-term research at The Claremont Colleges Library Special Collections. The Jackson Fellowship is open to researchers pursuing a project, the main subject focus of which is represented in the Roland Jackson Collection–performance practice, early music, 19th-century music, film music, and computer music studies–and whose research would benefit from on-site access to materials housed in Special Collections.
The McCutchan Collection is particularly rich in Methodist hymnals and psalters, including early editions by John Wesley, and also contains hymns that have been sung in America by all denominations. The collection dates from the early 17th century to the present, and the majority are American publications. The range is broader than hymnology; song books of temperance societies, Grange and fraternal organizations, political parties, Civil War songs, and children’s song books are among the titles.
In 1954, S. E. Boyd Smith compiled an annotated Catalog of American Tune Books Printed before 1851 in this collection, in which the more than two hundred volumes printed in America between 1757 and 1851 are described. A supplement lists twenty English, French, and German tune books printed from 1612 to 1850 and Sunday School song books of the same period.
Dr. McCutchan’s papers include the editor’s dummy of the 1935 Methodist hymnal. Some reference books and the microfilm edition of Dictionary of American Hymnnology: First-Line Index are in the collection, as well as The Hymn (1949-present), the publication of the Hymn Society of America, rounds out the collection.
The McCutchan Collection was a gift in 1957 of McCutchan (1877–1958) and his wife Helen C. McCutchan. For many years Dean of the School of Music at DePauw University, McCutchan was editor of the 1935 edition of the Methodist hymnal.
This collection comprises the personal music library of renowned opera singer Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink. The collection is rich in manuscript songs, published songs and song collections, operas and oratorios, and vocal ensemble music. Non-music materials include programs and concert materials, posters, certificates and awards, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and memorabilia.
Born in Austria in 1861, Mme. Schumann-Heink performed in the great opera houses of Germany, England, and America. She became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1905, toured widely in this country, and was active during World War I performing for U.S. servicemen. In later years she made numerous radio broadcasts and appeared in the 1935 movie “Here’s to Romance.” She died in Hollywood in 1936.
Mme. Schumann-Heink’s music manuscript collection is digitized and viewable online in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library.
The John Laurence Seymour Collection consists of over six hundred volumes of opera scores and librettos from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Dr. Seymour’s personal papers and copies of his own compositions are included in the collection. Dr. Seymour also left an endowment for the collection, enabling the library to purchase unique music manuscripts.
Joseph W. Clokey (1890-1960) was a distinguished composer of vocal and instrumental music; he was an organist and educator, having taught at the College of Women at Miami University, Pomona College, and Claremont Graduate University (then Claremont Graduate School). He composed symphonies, suites, chamber music, organ music, operas, operettas, songs, and sacred choral music, and published scholarly works on church music. The collection contains published and manuscript music in scores and parts, libretti, teaching materials, correspondence, ephemera, writings, and biographical materials.
Alberico DeCaprio is a musician known for playing the trombone and euphonium, conducting numerous bands, and composing musical scores. In California he led the Pomona City Band for 16 years and the LA Gas and Electric Band for seven years. He also worked as a musical instructor. DeCaprio immigrated from Italy to America in 1886.
Violinist Kenneth G. Fiske joined the Pomona College faculty in 1936. A musical prodigy, Fiske studied at many prestigious music programs and under prominent European and American instructors. At Pomona, Fiske taught the violin and was the conductor of the college’s symphony orchestra. Materials include correspondence, sheet music, audio recordings, writings, and teaching materials.
The Charles K. North and Herbert R. Rifkind Collection comprises a wide variety of music related material including teaching scores and original compositions. There are also periodicals, photographs, various advertisements, and music listings. A large part of the collection are the flute music scores from the 1900s–1940s (bulk 1930s) that were collected by both North and Rifkind.
Special Collections holds archival material about the history of music teaching and musical performances at The Claremont Colleges since the early 20th century.