Guide to the Herbert Nanney Papers

Aimee L. Morgan
Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Stanford, California
2008
Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

Note

This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0.


Overview

Call Number: SC0920
Creator: Nanney, Herbert, 1918-1996
Title: Herbert Nanney papers
Dates: 1924-2005
Physical Description: 4 Linear feet
Summary: Programs, news clippings, correspondence, photographs, audio recordings, music scores, and other materials which document Herbert Nanney's tenure as Stanford University professor of music and university organist.
Language(s): The materials are in English.
Repository: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Administrative Information

Information about Access

Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use.

Ownership & Copyright

Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

Cite As

[Identification of item], Herbert Nanney papers, SC 920, Stanford University Archives, Stanford, Calif.

Biography / Administrative History

Herbert Boswell Nanney, university organist and professor of music at Stanford University, was born in Whittier, California in 1918. He began piano lessons at the age of five, and studied organ under UCLA's Alexander Schreiner while a high school student. Nanney received his A.B. in Music from Whittier College in 1940, an Artist's Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1947, and his M.A. from Stanford in 1951.
Nanney first came to Stanford shortly after receiving his A.B., serving as assistant to university organist William D. Allen. He left Stanford to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in 1941. In August 1942 he was inducted into the Army. While stationed in Paris from 1944-1945, Nanney studied organ with Marcel Dupre at the Paris Conservatory of Music and was organist at the American Cathedral.
After his return from Europe, Nanney served as organist and choir director for churches in southern California and Philadelphia before returning to Stanford in 1947 as university organist and a member of the music faculty. In the years that followed he traveled regularly to lecture and perform, and was instrumental in the planning and construction of the Fisk-Nanney organ in Memorial Church, which was dedicated in 1984.
Nanney's 1985 retirement was celebrated with a series of concerts on campus, at which 30 of his former students played the works of Bach. He remained in the Bay Area until his death in 1996.

Scope and Content of Collection

Programs and news clippings related to performances by Nanney comprise the bulk of these papers. For preservation reasons, clippings on newsprint have been placed at the end of each folder and are segregated from other documents with acid-free paper. Also included are several folders of clippings, programs, and other documents related to the construction of the Fisk-Nanney organ at Stanford University's Memorial Church. There are also several tributes to Nanney, including congratulatory letters compiled and presented to him at the time of his retirement; a memorial service address by James Welch; and a program and an original composition from an honorary concert presented by the San Jose Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Many of the programs, news clippings, and congratulatory letters were originally located in scrapbooks. Due to preservation concerns these items were detached from their scrapbook pages and placed in acid-free folders. Folder titles indicate items that were originally found in scrapbooks.
Other correspondence is sparse and consists largely of letters to Nanney from his parents. Two items of particular interest are a 1945 letter of reference from prominent French organist Marcel Dupre and a 1953 letter from Vice President Richard Nixon in response to Nanney's inquiry about the position of Organist and Choirmaster at West Point's Cadet Chapel.
There are two recordings of works by Nanney: a CD-R copy of a 1956 baroque music performance in Memorial Church and an LP of Nanney s performance at the 1963 Far West Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists. The papers also include several original compositions by Nanney, including his Sonata in E Minor for pipe organ and The Creation: A Sacred Cantata for Chorus, Soprano and Baritone Soloists, Full Orchestra, and Organ.
Most of the photographs in box 1 are posed portraits of Nanney, but there are a few images of the Memorial Church organ as well as several individual and group photographs of others.
The papers were donated to the Stanford University Archives by James Welch, a former Nanney student. Welch's notes on the papers are included in box 5, folder 12. There is also a transcript of Welch's 1991 interview with Nanney, a recording of the interview on audiocassette, and a copy of Welch's piece on Nanney for Stanford magazine's January/February 2003 "The Teacher Who Changed My Life" feature.

Access Terms

Stanford University. Department of Music.
Stanford University. Memorial Church
Organists--California.


Box 1, Folder 1

American Guild of Organists San Jose chapter recital in honor of Nanney, 1992

Box 1, Folder 2

Biographical information, 1954, 1992, undated

Box 1, Folder 3

Correspondence, 1943-1947, 1953

Box 1, Folder 4

Correspondence, 1963-1964, 1976-1979, undated

Box 1, Folder 5

Fisk Organ, 1979-1984

Box 1, Folder 6

Fisk Organ, 1979-1984

Box 1, Folder 7

Fisk Organ, 1979-1984

Box 1, Folder 8

Music, Fantasie, undated

Box 1, Folder 9

Music, Fantasie in C Minor, undated

Box 1, Folder 10

Music, Holy Holy Holy, undated

Box 1, Folder 11

Music, Jehovah Is My Keeper, undated

Box 1, Folder 12

Music, Musical Setting for Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I, undated

Box 1, Folder 13

Music, Variations Written in Paris, undated

Box 1, Folder 14

Music, We Limit Not the Truth of God, undated

Box 1, Folder 15

Notes, undated

Box 1, Folder 16

Photographs, portraits of Nanney [16 items; several are duplicates], circa 1930s-1980s

Box 1, Folder 17

Photographs, portraits of Nanney in Army uniform [5 items; 2 are duplicates], circa 1942-1945

Box 1, Folder 18

Photographs, Nanney posed at organ [18 items; several duplicates], circa 1940s-1980s

Box 1, Folder 18

Proof sheets, photographs of Nanney posed at organ [3 items], undated

Box 1, Folder 18

Photographs, (Memorial Church?) organ [3 items], undated

Box 1, Folder 18

Proof sheet, photographs of organ, undated

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograh, Nanney with parents and sister?, circa 1920s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney as child with band, circa late 1920s-early 1930s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney at piano with chorus, circa 1940s-1950s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney at organ console with five singers, circa 1950s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney at piano with man playing guitar, circa 1950s-1960s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney at organ console with two men, circa 1960s-1970s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photographs, Nanney with two men in Memorial Church, establishment of Herbert Nanney Scholarship in Organ [4 items], 1987

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Nanney and wife with one other couple outside Memorial Church, circa 1980s

Box 1, Folder 19

Photographs, Nanney with former students who performed in Bach tribute [2 identical items], 1985

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Alexander Schreiner posed at organ, signed to Nanney, 1937

Box 1, Folder 19

Group photograph of men and women in army uniforms, circa 1940s

Box 1, Folder 19

Group photograph of San Francisco Bank Junior Choral Group, 1947

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, Sandor Salgo (professor of music at Stanford), undated

Box 1, Folder 19

Photograph, unidentified man at organ with radio microphone, undated

Box 2, Folder 1

Programs and clippings, 1935-1936

Box 2, Folder 2

Programs and clippings, 1937

Box 2, Folder 3

Programs and clippings, 1938

Box 2, Folder 4

Programs and clippings, 1939

Box 2, Folder 5

Programs and clippings, 1940

Box 2, Folder 6

Programs and clippings, 1941

Box 2, Folder 7

Programs and clippings, 1942-1943

Box 2, Folder 8

Programs and clippings, 1944-1945

Box 2, Folder 9

Programs and clippings, 1946

Box 2, Folder 10

Programs and clippings, 1947-1948

Box 2, Folder 11

Programs and clippings, 1949

Box 2, Folder 12

Programs and clippings, 1950

Box 2, Folder 13

Programs and clippings, 1952

Box 2, Folder 14

Programs and clippings, 1953

Box 2, Folder 15

Programs and clippings, 1954-1955

Box 2, Folder 16

Programs and clippings, 1956-1957

Box 2, Folder 17

Programs and clippings, 1958-1959

Box 2, Folder 18

Programs and clippings, 1960-1962

Box 2, Folder 19

Programs and clippings, 1963

Box 2, Folder 20

Programs and clippings, 1964

Box 2, Folder 21

Programs and clippings, 1965

Box 2, Folder 22

Programs and clippings, 1966

Box 3, Folder 1

Programs and clippings, 1967

Box 3, Folder 2

Programs and clippings, 1968

Box 3, Folder 3

Programs and clippings, 1969

Box 3, Folder 4

Programs and clippings, 1970

Box 3, Folder 5

Programs and clippings, 1971

Box 3, Folder 6

Programs and clippings, 1972

Box 3, Folder 7

Programs and clippings, 1973

Box 3, Folder 8

Programs and clippings, 1974

Box 3, Folder 9

Programs and clippings, 1975

Box 3, Folder 10

Programs and clippings, 1976

Box 3, Folder 11

Programs and clippings, 1977

Box 3, Folder 12

Programs and clippings, 1978

Box 3, Folder 13

Programs and clippings, 1979

Box 3, Folder 14

Programs and clippings, 1980

Box 3, Folder 15

Programs and clippings, 1981

Box 4, Folder 1

Programs and clippings, 1982

Box 4, Folder 2

Programs and clippings, 1983-1988

Box 4, Folder 3

Programs and clippings, undated

Box 4, Folder 4

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1924-1930

Box 4, Folder 5

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1931-1932

Box 4, Folder 6

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1933-1934

Box 4, Folder 7

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1935

Box 4, Folder 8

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1936

Box 4, Folder 9

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1936

Box 4, Folder 10

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1937

Box 4, Folder 11

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1937

Box 4, Folder 12

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1938

Box 4, Folder 13

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1938

Box 5, Folder 1

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1939-1940

Box 5, Folder 2

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1947-1948

Box 5, Folder 3

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1947-1948

Box 5, Folder 4

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1949

Box 5, Folder 5

Programs and clippings [from scrapbook], 1950-1953

Box 5, Folder 6

Programs, postcards, and ephemera from France, 1944-1945

Box 5, Folder 7

Programs, postcards, and ephemera from France, 1944-1945

Box 5, Folder 8

Retirement, 1984-1985

Box 5, Folder 9

Retirement, letters from and photographs of students [from scrapbook], 1985

Box 5, Folder 10

Retirement, letters from colleagues and photographs from party [from scrapbook], 1985

Box 5, Folder 11

Welch, James, interview of Nanney. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes] 1991

Welch, James, interview of Nanney. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes], 1991

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (CD-R)
Box 5, Folder 12

Welch, James, writings on Nanney, 1996, 2003, 2005

Box 5

Recording of baroque music concert, Memorial Hall [includes insert with complete program listed], 1956 Nov 18

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (CD-R)
 

Oversize retirement card with watercolor sketch of Nanney at organ, 1985

 

The Creation: A Sacred Cantata for Chorus, Soprano and Baritone Soloists, Full Orchestra, and Organ, oversize score, undated

 

Nanney's performance at the Far West Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists, 1963

Physical Description: 1 phonograph record(s)
Folder 1

Sonata in E Minor, 1939-1940

Folder 1

Adagio from Sonata in E Minor, Morningstar Music Publishers, 1993

Folder 2

Sonata in E Minor, carbons, 1939-1940

Folder 3

Oversize photograph of Nanney, circa late 1920s-early 1930s

Folder 3

Poster, Recital on the Handel Organ of Holy Trinity Gosport by Herbert Nanney, 1981

Folder 3

Retirement card with calligraphy on parchment, 1985