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Guide to the Antoni Van der Voort Papers, 1930s-1952
PA Mss 22
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Title: Antoni Van der Voort Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1930s-1952
Collection number: PA Mss 22
Creator: Antoni Van der Voort
Extent: 6 boxes, 5 linear feet
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Abstract: Music manuscripts of Dutch/American violinist and composer involved in the Depression-era Federal Composer's Program and composer
of Dream of Life, Sketches from Fairyland and a Sinfonietta, the latter the winner of the 1942 Composition Prize from the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Language:
English.
Unknown.
None.
[Identification of item], Antoni Van der Voort Papers, PA Mss 22,
Special Collections, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Antoni Van der Voort, a composer and violinist, was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He was educated in Haarlem and later
at the Conservatory in Rotterdam, where he made his debut on the violin. Mr. Van der Voort joined the Symphony orchestra of
Haarlem at age 17 and later became the concertmaster of the orchestra of Wiesbaden, Germany. He also toured with other symphony
orchestras throughout Europe.
After coming to the United Sates shortly before World War I, he was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for five years.
He arrived in Santa Barbara in 1915 and played in the Clerbois Little Symphony Orchestra and in the former Santa Barbara Orchestra.
Mr. Van der Voort also played in the WPA (Works Project Administration) orchestra, part of Roosevelt's New Deal designed to
provide unemployed musicians with work. He also taught violin privately and composed.
In 1942 Mr. Van der Voort won national prominence when the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra awarded him a prize for "Sinfonietta."
He conducted the first performance.
He died in Santa Barbara on April 13, 1952 at the age of 82.
The Antoni Van der Voort Papers is divided into 3 series, Series I, Biographical Information; Series II, Compositions; Series
III, Arrangements.
Series I, Biographical Information consists of several newspaper clippings about Antoni Van der Voort.
Series II, Compositions consists of handwritten scores and parts, many of which are sketches and drafts, of Antoni Van der
Voort's original compositions. The compositions are arranged in alphabetical order by title. A Dream of Life a ballet, was
originally titled Song of the Colors. The two titles are grouped together in the collection. Let Me Grow Lovely Growing Old
is untitled on the score. The piece is a song setting and the title used in this catalogue is derived from the first sentence
of the text. Some of the movements of Short Stories seem to be arranged for different ensembles. It is likely that these are
from different arrangements of the same compositions. One of the many copies of Sinfonietta contains the program from the
St. Louis symphony orchestra performance of 1942. It is presumably this copy that Mr. Van der Voort conducted from. Many of
the parts for the pieces A Dream of Life, General MacArthur, Sketches From Fairyland, and Sinfonietta are missing and incomplete.
Series III, Arrangements is arranged in alphabetical order by title. Drink to Me is an arrangement of Drink to Me Only With
Thine Eyes. My Lady Chlo and Gavotte are on opposite sides of string quartet part scores.