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.

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.

73 Boxes 50 linear feet

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.

Faculty correspondence and College of Creative Studies administrative files are closed, see Curator for access.