Description
The Charles Cook Cushing papers consist of Cushing's personal, research, and working
Papers, spanning his youth (ca. 1914) to his death in 1982, with the bulk of the
materials from his career at U.C. Berkeley (1931-68). There are also obituaries and some
posthumous articles gathered by his wife, Charlotte.
Background
Charles C. Cushing (b. Oakland, Calif., Dec. 8, 1905; d. Berkeley, Calif., April 14,
1982) professor and composer. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley (BA,
MA) and won the Paris Prize Fellowship (1929), which took him to the Ecole Normale de
Musique for composition lessons with Nadia Boulanger; he also studied violin, viola,
clarinet, and piano. He taught at Berkeley (1931-68, professor 1948), where he conducted
the University of California Concert Band (1934-52). His music is lyrical and makes use
of impressionist harmonies; notable among his works is Carmen Saeculare,which was performed under his direction at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. He
translated the texts of Milhaud's Les Malheurs d'Orphée and Satie's
Socrate, and he contributed articles to Modern Music. In
1952 he was admitted to the Légion d'honneur.
Biographical sketch taken from
The New Grove Dictionary of American
Music.