Premieres in the Library of Congress Collections

This course is an opportunity for early-stage undergraduates to ​​explore music history through the lens of world premieres. We look at how several well-known premieres in classical music history shaped, and were shaped by, the worlds around them, and what these works meant in their contexts and ever since.

• To locate and identify primary sources in Library of Congress digital collections that relate to world premieres
• To describe these sources and use details to generate questions about music history

• On their own, students browse the Leonard Bernstein Collection and try various searches . Also, they listen to a recording of the work Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein.
• To be shown: Letter from D.R. Hutchison to Leonard Bernstein, May 19, 1965. This letter refers to the planned world premiere of Bernstein’s work Chichester Psalms and the disappointment of the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in apparent plans to have the world premiere take place not there but in New York City.

• Students are introduced to the Library of Congress digital collections portal and continue trying various searches. 
• The Fine Arts Librarian visited in the first few weeks of the course to provide instruction on identifying primary sources and navigating digital collections, including the Library of Congress Digital Collections. The librarian also provided advice on using collections guides to identify physical archival materials at the various libraries, museums, and special collections on the University of Arizona campus. The visit included an activity to locate a specific archival resource using the UAL Special Collections website and Arizona Archives Online.  
• Students listen together to an excerpt of Chichester Psalms and then discuss the letter in groups and take notes in three categories:
  • observations (what the item seems to be and what it tells us)
  • questions (what kinds of questions it raises)
  • strategies (how they might go about doing research to answer some of these questions).
• Each group then shares its findings in each category.
• Independently, students will then search for items relating to world premieres in musical genres that interest them individually and share those items with small groups and the entire class.

• Students will create a blog post on an item of their choosing from any Library of Congress collection as long as the item relates in some way to a musical premiere (or similar item, such as a record release). 
• Throughout the semester, students are expected to write a series of blog posts that deal with primary sources both provided to them and that they have identified. 

Each blog post is evaluated qualitatively by the instructor. Longer term, students will use their experience with this activity to help in blog posts throughout the semester, in which many students will continue to locate and discuss primary sources.