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Guide to the Peter Racine Fricker Papers, 1940s-1990
PA Mss 17
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Table of contents
Title: Peter Racine Fricker Papers,
Dates: 1940s-1990
Collection number: PA Mss 17
Creator: Fricker, Peter Racine, 1920-1990
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Abstract: Papers of British-American composer active from WWII through the 1980s, including a nearly complete collection of his published,
manuscript and diazo scores as well as recordings of his compositions, extensive correspondence and materials related to his
teaching activities at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Extent: 73 Boxes 50 linear feet
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English
Faculty correspondence and College of Creative Studies administrative files are closed, see Curator for access.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Peter Racine Fricker Papers, PA Mss 17, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Donated in 1990 by Peter Racine Fricker. Additional materials were transferred from the Estate of Helen Fricker in 2005.
Biography / Administrative Information
One of the most important postwar British composers, Peter Racine Fricker was born in London in 1920 and was educated at London's
St. Paul's School. In 1937 he entered the Royal College of Music where he studied theory with Reginald Morris and organ with
Sir Ernest Bullock. He also studied at Morley College, where he met Michael Tippett. He left to serve in the Royal Air Force
during WWII and after the war he returned to Morley College where he studied with Matyas Seiber until Seiber's death in 1960.
In 1952 he succeeded Tippett as director of the college and in 1955 began teaching composition at the Royal College. In 1964
he accepted a one-year appointment to teach composition at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He accepted a full
time appointment the following year and in 1970 became chairperson of the music department. He held a joint appointment in
the Department of Music and the College of Creative Studies and taught composition, theory (particularly 20th century), and
musicianship at UCSB until his retirement in 1989. He was also Composer-in-Residence for the Santa Barbara Symphony. His compositions
won many awards, including the Koussevitzky Prize for his First Symphony in 1949. He was awarded the annual Faculty Research
Lecturer award by the University in 1980 and was the first professor appointed to the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Chair
in Music.
Fricker's works owed much to Bartok, Berg, Hindemith and Schoenberg and though his works are rarely serial, they are often
freely atonal. His output was large numbering about 200 works, including seven film scores, five symphonies as well as numerous
chamber, choral, and organ works.
He died in Santa Barbara in 1990.
The Peter Racine Fricker Papers is divided into 5 series,
Title: Series I, Miscellaneous and Biographical Information;
Title: Series II, Scores;
Title: Series III, Sound Recordings and Film;
Title: Series IV, UCSB Files;
Title: Series V, Correspondence;
Title: Series VI, Other Composer's Scores;
The collection's strengths include nearly all of his manuscripts and published scores, extensive biographical information,
and his correspondence.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Composers--United States
Sound Recordings
Scores