Catalog Record:
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.
The Library of Congress received a small quantity of music manuscripts and correspondence as a deposit from William Remsen Strickland in November 1967. Additional collection materials were received throughout 1968 and a formal agreement of deposit was signed in February 1969. These materials were later converted to a gift following Strickland's death in 1991.
The William Remsen Strickland Collection was processed in 2009 by Timothy Miller. The original finding aid was prepared with Microsoft Word 2007 and was coded for EAD by Christopher Hartten in August 2009.
Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
The collection contained a small amount of audio tape reels and cassettes of Strickland's live performances and personal interviews from the 1940s and 1950s. Unique items include his electronic realizations of Ives’
The status of copyright on the materials of the William Remsen Strickland Collection is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The William Remsen Strickland Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Performing Arts Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use. Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: container number, William Remsen Strickland Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
William Remsen Strickland was born in Defiance, Ohio, in 1914. After beginning his musical career as an organist, he shifted his focus to conducting. He served in the U.S. Army from 1941-1946, attending the Army music school and subsequently founding the Army Music School Choir, whose performances featured compositions by musicians serving in the armed forces, including Cecil Effinger, Homer Keller, and Kent Kennan. Upon exiting the Army in 1946, Strickland co-founded the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, which he led until 1951. He also conducted several concerts and recordings of modern music at Dumbarton Oaks, including the first recording of his friend Samuel Barber's
In 1952 and 1953, Strickland traveled to Vienna on a Fulbright scholarship to begin his life-long campaign of championing the works of American composers abroad. For nearly three years, Strickland led the Vienna Symphony in performances of works by Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Mary Howe, Edward MacDowell, Robert Ward, and others. From 1955 to 1959, Strickland was the musical director of the New York Oratorio Society, which he led in performances of Stravinsky, Honegger, Barber, and Cowell, in addition to the group's annual Christmas concerts of Handel's Messiah. Under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, he continued his efforts to promote American music, traveling to Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam in 1958 and 1959. In addition to working with local orchestras to perform concerts, Strickland made numerous recordings of contemporary compositions for the record label Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI).
Strickland returned to Europe in 1963, conducting performances and recordings in Finland, Poland, and Sweden, as well as directing the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 1962-63. In the late 1960s, he established a residence in Portugal and turned his attention to his study of the music of Charles Ives, whom he had long considered the quintessential American composer. A planned book on Ives never came to fruition, and Strickland instead focused on creating electronic realizations of several Ives compositions, which he felt were impossible to perform as the composer intended. After retiring to Connecticut, Strickland continued his experiments with electronic music, recording in 1979
The William Remsen Strickland Collection spans the period 1926-1991; the bulk of the materials date from 1946-1970. The collection includes correspondence, concert programs, publicity materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, music manuscripts, printed scores, articles, speeches and notes, photographs, scrapbooks, datebooks, journals, graphs, and recordings.
The William Remsen Strickland Collection is organized into ten series:
The "Regional files" series documents Strickland’s travels throughout his career, beginning with his service in the U.S. Army. In many cases, Strickland remained in a given region for a period ranging from several months to several years. The series is arranged chronologically, with each major region divided into four distinct sub-series: correspondence (related directly to each region), concert programs, publicity materials (advertisements, newspaper and magazine clippings), and miscellaneous documents. Many of the foreign language clippings are supplemented with translations provided by the U.S. State Department.
The "Correspondence" series is divided into three sub-series: letters and telegrams received by Strickland, those written by Strickland, and miscellaneous documents. The latter includes material related to Strickland’s recordings, interviews with researchers, potential employers throughout his career, letters between other parties that reference Strickland, and letters written to the H.W. Gray Publishing Co. Substantial correspondence is present from composers Samuel Barber, Henry Cowell, Cecil Effinger, Mary Howe, Homer Keller, Ned Rorem, Arnold Schoenberg, and Robert Ward. Other notable correspondents include Henry and Ginny Pleasants, as well as Strickland’s close friends Anne Hull, Margaret F. Castle, Louise Davis, and Sidney and Eleanor Clark.
Includes one letter from Schoenberg's attorney, Maurice Thorner.
The "Music" series is divided into five sub-series: manuscripts by Strickland (including theory exercises, sketches, and compositions), music annotated by Strickland chiefly for the purpose of conducting, music inscribed to Strickland by composers (including Barber and Cowell), music edited by Strickland for the H.W. Gray Publishing Co., and miscellaneous manuscripts owned by Strickland. Notable among these are a holograph sketch page by Alban Berg, a leaf from an unidentified seventeenth-century manuscript, and a copy of an orchestral transcription of Schoenberg's
1 score transposed to C maj.
Arranged by WRS.
Laid in: Sketch for possible verse.
Arranged by WRS.
Arranged by WRS.
Laid in: Separate piano-vocal score inscribed by Barber and autographed by Eileen Farrell.
Inscribed by Barber and autographed by Eileen Farrell.
Chorus line not present.
On t.p.: Scored by R.C.
Arranged for wind band by Sgt. Thomas Merriman.
Transcribed for orchestra by Felix Greissle.
The "Writings" series includes articles by Strickland that appeared in
The "Journals" series consists of eleven bound volumes written between 1952 and 1976.
There are nearly thirty "Datebooks" that provide accounts of Strickland's appointments and itineraries from 1962-1991. These supplement the journals.
1991 datebook printed as 1982 and altered by WRS.
The "Photographs" series is comprised of several hundred black and white images of Strickland taken throughout his travels in the U.S. and abroad. These, together with the "Posters" series, visually compliment the extensive materials from the regional files. Photographic highlights include several 1963 photos of Strickland and Henry Cowell taken by Cowell’s wife, Sidney, in Iceland.
The "Posters" series contains items from Strickland's travels both home and abroad. Like the photographs they visually compliment the extensive materials from the regional files.
A great majority of the bound volumes that form the basis of the "Scrapbooks" series were compiled by Strickland's close friend and supporter, Margaret F. Castle. The Castle scrapbooks include concert programs, newspaper clippings, photographs, and correspondence, most of which have been annotated by Castle herself. A considerable amount of these materials are duplicated in other series, but some original correspondence is found only in these scrapbooks. Other scrapbooks include a publicity book prepared for Strickland in Vienna, a volume of assorted materials from Manila, 1958-1959, and a scrapbook kept by Strickland during his teenage years.
Reception at the Cheekwood.
In German or with German translations.
Compiled by WRS.
The final series, "Miscellaneous" comprises two items, a framed 1958 portrait of Strickland by Clark Bailey and an inscribed copy of Joseph Szigeti’s autobiography.
Inscribed to WRS.