Descriptive Summary
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Colin McPhee Collection,
Date (bulk): 1930-1964
Collection number: 1975.06
Creator: McPhee, Colin 1900-1964
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Ethnomusicology Archive
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: This collection consists of sound recordings, field notes, photographs, papers and correspondence.
Publication Rights
Anyone can use this collection within the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Colin McPhee Collection, 1975.06, Ethnomusicology Archive, University of California, Los Angeles.
Biography
In the 1930s, Colin McPhee lived in Bali where he studied the sacred gamelan tradition and other musical genres. When he worked
in New York during the 1940s, he was among the talented, young generation of composers that included Aaron Copeland and Henry
Cowell. In California, where he died in 1964, he contributed greatly to the study of world music. McPhee was a faculty member
of the Music Department at UCLA from 1960-1964. Besides his musical talents, he was an excellent photographer (as seen in
the Archive's collection). His publications include A Club of Small Men (1948), A House in Bali (1947), and Music of Bali
(1956). A review of a biography written by Carol Oja, Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds, is available here. More information
about the Archive's Colin McPhee Collection is available here.
Scope and Content
Material collected by Colin McPhee in Bali, 1930s-1964. Collection includes photographs, field notes, papers and correspondence,
and recordings of Balinese music.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Paper materials
- Series 2. Moving Images
- Series 2. Music Transcriptions and Manuscripts
- Series 3. Sound Recordings
- Series 3. Still images
- Series 4. Still Images
- Series 5. "Music in Bali" materials. Boxes 7-13, folders 100-160