Thow (John) papers, 1967-2007

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Summary

Title:
John Thow papers
Dates:
1967-2007
Creators:
Thow, John (1949-2007-04-04)
Extent:
83.33 Linear Feet 81 boxes and 1 oversize tube and 19.3 Gigabytes 126 digital audio and video files organized in 3 digital folders
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], John Thow papers, Collection no. 1024, Music Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

The John Thow papers comprise the musical compositions, recordings, and writings of John Thow (1949-2007), composer of chamber, symphonic, and stage works and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The largest part of the collection consists of Thow's compositions, scores, and sketches. Many of the handwritten "fair copies" of the compositions in the collection are in Thow's own hand on vellum or paper. The collection holds compositions, scores, and sketches for over 90 of Thow's works. The collection also holds published reviews, event programs, and notes relating to Thow's music. A smaller part of the collection consists of Thow's correspondence; drafts and publications of Thow's writings; and material documenting Thow's grants, commissions, and residencies. Lastly, the collection holds non-commercial audio and video recordings from studio and public performances of Thow's works. Some of the recordings were digitized prior to the USC Libraries' acquisition of the collection. These digitized recordings have been copied to the USC Libraries' digital asset management systems.

Biographical / historical:

The following biographical information authored by Richard Taruskin and Cindy A. Cox was copied from the John Thow website (https://www.johnthow.com/home.html) on November 11, 2024.

Bay Area composer John Thow (1949-2007) produced an extensive and diverse repertoire of solo, chamber, vocal, choral, operatic and orchestral music. As Allan Kozinn wrote in The New York Times, "his music combined a modernist's approach to rhythm and harmony with an almost Romantic lyricism, and often-in works like Trilce (1992) and Breath of Sun (1993) -- the music's interest lies in the tension between those contradictory impulses."

A native of Southern California, Thow earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1971 at the University of Southern California, where he studied composition with Adolph Weiss and lngolf Dahl, and conducting with Frank Salazar. He continued his studies at Harvard University with composers Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner, and received a Ph.D. in composition in 1977. While at Harvard he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Italy, where he studied with Luciano Berlo in Rome and Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He returned to Italy under Harvard travel grants and the Rome Prize Fellowship in composition to continue his work with Berio.

In 1981 John Thow joined the music faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, and served the department as chair and as director of the Berkeley Contemporary Music Players. During his 26 years on the UC Berkeley faculty Thow was active in organizing concerts of student works and mentoring a generation of young composers.

A master of orchestration with a passion for literature and indigenous musical traditions, Thow produced a series of works featuring unusual instrumental combinations and vivid texts. His Chumash Songs, for clarinet, violin, percussion and piano (2000), commissioned by the Ventura Chamber Music Festival, incorporated melodic and rhythmic elements of the Southern California Chumash Indian tribe. His Musica d'amore is a trio for oboe d'amore, viola d'amore and harp, and his Summer Solstice (2005) is based on contemporary Greek poetry. Three Echoes (2001) was written for the five-hole Lakota Sioux flute, Three Pieces for Carillon was performed at the International Carillon Festival at UC Berkeley's Campanile in 1998. Thow, who trained as a flute player from a young age, wrote extensively for both modern and baroque flute ensembles. In 1997 the National Flute Association awarded To Invoke the Clouds, its Newly Published Music Award, and Six Duets for baroque flutes was premiered in London in 2006.

Thow's lyrical and richly colored music has been consistently championed by prominent performers and ensembles. His relationship with the San Francisco Symphony began with a 1986 performance of his composition Resonance. The symphony subsequently commissioned a three-movement work titled Into the Twilight in 1988, and Bellini Sky, an English horn concerto inspired by paintings of the fifteenth century artist Giovanni Bellini, in 2005.

His compositions have been commissioned and performed widely in the United States and in Europe by L'Orchestra della RAI (Rome), Speculum Musicae, the Boston Musica Viva, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the San Francisco Symphony and many others. His work has been featured at the Tanglewood and Edinburgh Festivals. Among his many awards were two from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Music Center. He served as artist-in-residence at the Yaddo, Djerassi, Temecula Arts and Wurlitzer Foundations, among others.

-Richard Taruskin & Cindy A. Cox

Acquisition information:
Gift of Diana Thow, September 30, 2024.
Processing information:

The description under the series titled "Compositions, scores, and sketches by John Thow" was adapted from a 2023 version of an inventory of Thow's compositions, scores, and sketches created by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis, Jen Wang, Karen Rosenak, Diana Thow, and Kevin Allardice. The 2023 inventory does not include physical storage information (i.e., box numbers) for the material, but it does include additional details about the quantities and types of compositions included in the collection for each of Thow's works. The USC Libraries accessioning archivist imported some of the information from the 2023 inventory into ArchivesSpace and then added each work's physical storage information to create the descriptive records under that series. The original 2023 inventory is publicly accessible via the USC Digital Library.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Bo Doub
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-04-02 15:05:42 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection stored off-site. Advance notice required for access.

Prior to USC's acquisition of the John Thow papers, the Thow family digitized some of the audio and video recordings donated with the collection. The digital versions of the recordings have been copied to the USC Digital Library for access and the USC Digital Repository for preservation. The access copies of the digitized recordings are publicly accessible via the USC Digital Library.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Music Library at music@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Music Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], John Thow papers, Collection no. 1024, Music Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Doheny Memorial Library, Room G-24
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1822, US
Contact:
(213) 740-0183
ajustice@usc.edu
Website