Colin McPhee musical manuscripts
Finding aid prepared by UCLA Library Special Collections staff; reprocessed by Melissa Haley 2015; machine readable finding
aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1575
(310) 825-4988
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
©2002 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Colin McPhee musical manuscripts
Collection number: PASC-M 25
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
3.5 linear ft.
(7 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1930-1968
Abstract: This collection consists primarily of manuscripts, reproductions, and published scores of orchestral, chamber, choral, and
film music by composer Colin McPhee. Also included are several transcriptions of Indonesian gamelan music.
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Creator:
McPhee, Colin
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Colin McPhee Musical Manuscripts (Collection PASC-M 25). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Shirley Hawkins, 1973.
Biography/History
Composer Colin McPhee was born March 15, 1900 in Montreal, Canada, and graduated from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore,
Maryland in 1921. He studied composition and piano in Paris in the 1920s, then moved to New York in 1926. Spurred by recordings
he heard of Balinese gamelan music, McPhee traveled to the Indonesian island in 1931 with his then-wife, the anthropologist
Jane Belo. The couple would spend much of the decade there, along with stays in New York and Mexico City. While in Bali, McPhee
conducted an intense study of traditional gamelan music. In 1936 he composed the Balinese-influenced toccata Tabuh-Tabuhan.
McPhee returned to New York in 1939, where he would spend most of the next two decades continuing to compose concert and Balinese-inspired
works. From 1960 to 1963, McPhee was a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. He died on January 7, 1964, in Los Angeles.
In addition to composing, McPhee wrote books, articles, and music criticism, much of it about Bali. His books A House in Bali
(1946) and Music in Bali (1966) have gained him recognition as an authority on Balinese culture.
Historical information about individual works is from Oja, Carol J. Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1990), Appendix A: Catalogue of the Music of Colin McPhee.
Scope and Content
This collection consists primarily of manuscripts, reproductions, and published scores of orchestral, chamber, choral, and
film music by composer Colin McPhee, including some set of parts. Also included are several transcriptions of Indonesian gamelan
music. In addition this collection contains a number of publications, including copies of McPhee’s book A House in Bali.
For further material documenting McPhee’s time in Bali, see the Colin McPhee Collection (1975.06) in the Ethnomusicology Archive,
UCLA, which includes photographs, field notes, papers and correspondence, and recordings of Balinese music.
Organization and Arrangement
This collection is arranged into the following series:
- Series 1. Compositions
- Series 2. Gamelan transcriptions
- Series 3. Music for documentary films
- Series 4. Musical works by others
- Series 5. Publications
- Series 6. Ephemera.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
McPhee, Colin, 1900-1964--Archives.
University of California, Los Angeles--Faculty--Archival resources.
Composers--Archives.
Gamelan music--Scores.
Motion picture music--Scores.
Music--Manuscripts.
Related Material
Series 1. Compositions.
Organization and Arrangement
Material is arranged alphabetically by title.
Concerto for Piano with Wind Octette Accompaniment.
Biography/History
Written in 1928; premiered February 22, 1929, Rochester Little Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.
Box 1, item 1
Published in New Music.
1931.
Box 1, items 2-5
Published, four copies, one with corrections.
1957.
Box 1, item 6
Parts with corrections.
undated .
Box 1, item 7
Notes of corrections.
undated .
Concerto for Wind Orchestra.
Biography/History
Written in 1960, commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver M. Kaufmann for Robert Boudreau's American Wind Symphony; premiered July
1960, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Box 3, item 1
Reproduced from holograph.
1960.
Box 3, item 2
Reproduced from holograph (rental copy).
1960.
Box 6, items 10-12
Published score (3 copies).
1960.
Box 1, item 8
Four Iroquois Dances.
undated .
Physical Description:
Reproduction of parts
Biography/History
Written 1944-1945, commissioned by the Instituto Indigenista Inter-Americano, Mexico City.
Invention and Kinesis.
Biography/History
Invention written 1926, Kinesis written 1930.
Box 1, item 9
Published in New Music.
1930.
Box 1, item 10
Reproductions of published scores with corrections.
1930.
Nocturne for Chamber Orchestra.
Biography/History
Commissioned by the Contemporary Music Society; premiered December 3, 1958, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Box 2, item 1
Reproduction from holograph.
1958.
Box 2, item 2
Reproduction with corrections.
1958.
Box 2, item 3
Reproduction of parts.
undated.
Box 2, item 4
Reproduction of parts.
undated .
Sea Shanty Suite.
Biography/History
Written 1929, premiered March 13, 1929, Carnegie Hall, New York.
Box 2, item 5
Published full score with corrections.
1930.
Box 2, items 6-24
Published and reproductions of parts (19 parts).
1930.
Symphony No. 2.
Biography/History
Commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra; premiered January 15, 1958, Louisville, Kentucky.
Box 3, item 3
Reproduction from holograph.
1957 .
Physical Description:
Includes letter from Robert Whitney, Musical Director Louisville Orchestra, 1959
Box 3, item 4
Reproduction from holograph.
1957.
Box 3, item 5
Reproduction from holograph.
1957.
Box 3, item 6
Reproduction from holograph.
1957.
Transitions.
Biography/History
Commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Library of Congress; premiered March 20, 1955, Vancouver Symphony.
McPhee changed the title of this piece several times.
Box 4, item 1
[Atlantis for Orchestra], reproduced from holograph.
1954.
Box 4, item 2
[Symphonic Transitions for Orchestra], reproduced from holograph with corrections.
1954.
Box 4, item 3
[Transitions for Orchestra], reproduced from holograph with corrections.
1954.
Box 4, item 4
[Transitions for Orchestra], reproduced from holograph.
1954.
Box 4, item 5
Piano Score.
undated.
Physical Description:
Holograph with corrections
Box 4, item 6
Fragments, transparencies and reproductions.
undated.
Physical Description:
Pages 69 and 72
Box 4, item 7
Corrections in parts, program note.
undated.
Box 3, item 7
Untitled.
[1960s].
Physical Description:
Transparencies
Biography/History
Mostly likely part of unfinished Symphony No. 3, commissioned by Broadcast Music, Inc.
Series 2. Gamelan transcriptions.
1937-[1946].
Box 2, items 25-30
Balinese Ceremonial Music.
1940.
Scope and Content
Published with corrections, includes two sets of 1. Pemoengkah 2. Gambangan 3. Taboeh Teloe
Box 2, item 31
Lagoe Tangis deh Angkloeng Bandjaroema.
1937.
Physical Description:
Holograph
Box 2, item 32
Lagu Delem.
undated .
Physical Description:
Transparencies
Box 2, item 33
Lagu Delem [Preliminary Music - Shadow Play].
undated .
Physical Description:
Transparencies
Box 2, item 34
Rebong.
undated .
Physical Description:
Transparencies
Box 2, item 35
[Suite of Gamelan Transcriptions].
[1946] .
Scope and Content
Holograph and reproduction scores and parts for Suite: 1. Babar Layar 2. Gending Luang 3. Seduk Maru 4. Gambangan 5. Pemungkah;
also includes Gamelan Gending Luang, Selunding Bali, and Pemungkah Angklung (3 folders).
Series 3. Music for documentary films.
1957.
Air Skills.
[1957].
Biography/History
A film about aviation made for the United Nations.
Box 4, items 10-11
Holograph piano score and parts.
[1957].
Blue Vanguard.
1957.
Biography/History
A film produced by the National Film Board of Canada for the United Nations about the U.N. Emergency Force for the Suez Canal
crisis.
Box 5, item 1
Full score transparencies.
1957.
Box 5, item 2
Full score reproduction.
[1957].
Box 7, items 1-2
Two 10 1/2 inch magnetic tape reels.
undated.
In Our Hands.
[1957?].
Biography/History
Most likely a United Nations film.
Box 5, item 3
Holograph transparencies.
[1957?].
Box 5, item 4
Reproduction from holograph with corrections.
[1957?].
Box 5, item 5
Transparencies and reproductions of parts.
[1957?].
Series 4. Musical works by others.
1952-1962.
Biography/History
Scores for Magnificat and Out of the Depths are not in McPhee's hand or signed by him (see Oja, Colin McPhee, Appendix A).
Box 5, item 6
Magnificat.
1962.
Physical Description:
Reproduction
Box 5, item 7
Out of the Depths (De Profundis).
1962.
Physical Description:
Reproduction
Box 6, item 1
Quartet for Piano and Strings, Aaron Copland.
1952 .
Physical Description:
Published score, signed by Copland to McPhee
Box 6, item 3
Maghi, Musici e Attori a Bali.
[1951].
Physical Description:
Signed Italian edition of A House in Bali
Box 6, items 4-9
Music and music instruction.
1946-1968, undated .
Scope and Content
Musical instruction booklets and a copy of Of Men and Music by Deems Taylor (1938).
Box 7
Series 6. Ephemera.
undated.
