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Price
COLLECTION: Paul Price percussion collection
LOCATION: Locked cabinets, Music Library (upper level, back corridor),
administered through the Music Library's Special Collections division
PROVENANCE: Personal collection of percussionist Paul Price; donated by his
widow, Phyllis Price, at the instigation of the Percussive Arts Society and
University of Illinois percussion faculty member Tom Siwe.
WHEN ACQUIRED: January 26, 1987
DESCRIPTION: Paul Price (1921-1986) was a respected percussionist, composer,
conductor, publisher of percussion music, and music educator during the four
decades following the end of World War II. Through these activities he was
influential in promoting the growth of the percussion ensemble movement in
America and in stimulating the remarkable interest in composing for percussion
characteristic of the latter half of the 20th century. He was a faculty member
of the University of Illinois School of Music from 1949 to 1956. His personal
collection at the University of Illinois, consisting primarily of percussion
materials, includes 17 books and methods, 548 music titles, 66 records and
albums, 199 open-reel tapes, 16 cassettes, and one unidentified 16mm. motion
picture film. Among numerous manuscripts, non-commercial recordings, and other
forms of unpublished music materials are works of several well-known American
2Oth-century composers, including Lou Harrison, Michael Colgrass, and Henry
Cowell, as well as works by Price himself. Among tapes, the Manhattan Percussion
Ensemble (Paul Price, conductor)
is heavily emphasized. In the Collections File folder ("Paul Price") is
deposited a file of Price's personal correspondence, including over 100 letters
from 20th-century composers of percussion music, as well as clippings, flyers,
programs, and pictorial material.
ARRANGEMENT: Music and books are arranged in one alphabetic sequence by
composer/author, with oversize items shelved separately (as are a few
manuscripts and other fragile items as well as the motion picture film).
Open-reel tapes are shelved by consecutive tape numbers marked on the spine of
each tape box. The relatively smaller collections of cassettes and records are
shelved in separate sequences.
Letters in Price's correspondence file are arranged alphabetically by name of
correspondent.
ACCESS/FINDING AIDS/BIBLIOGRAPHY: Detailed catalogs of the collection were
prepared by Frederick Fairchild in 1986-1987, at the time the collection was
deposited at the University of Illinois:
Summary Catalogue (includes biography of Price and description of collection)
Music and Book Collection: Listing by composer-author
Record Collection, Part I: Listing by record label
Record Collection, Part II: Listing by composer
Tape Recording Collection, Part I: Listing by tape number
Tape Recording Collection, Part II: Listing by composer
Film
Printouts of these catalogs are on reference and are filed in the Collections
File folder, along with copies of correspondence and memos concerning
acquisition of the collection and suggestions for processing.
INDEX TERMS: Colgrass, Michael
Cowell, Henry
Fairchild, Frederick -
Harrison, Lou
Manhattan Percussion Ensemble
Manuscripts
Percussion music
Price, Paul
Recordings: LP
Recordings: tape
SEE ALSO: "Price, Paul William" in Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American
composers: a biographical dictionary (Boston: 1982), p.351 [ML106.U3 A52C6
1982]
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