Page 68 - CJMarch_April25

es a
chiv
t the U
easur
niv
A
ACDA Archives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Not-So-Hidden Treasures
CD
r
A A
hampaig
n: N
C
ersit
y of Illinois Urbana-
T
r
-Hidden
ot-S
o
es
by Hilary Apfelstadt
Consists of sheet music, correspondence, news regardless of race, religion, or gender. Ms. Brown was a
clippings, concert programs, research files, and pioneer, both as a female conductor, and also as some-
method books. Materials are arranged into five one championing diversity and inclusion long before
series: Series 1) Eva Youngberg Papers, Series it became a collective goal of our profession. On her
2) John Haberlen Robert Shaw Collection, Se- scores, she wrote the number of syllables in phrases, a
ries 3) John Haberlen Research Files on Wil- strategy that clarified the phrase structure; she showed
liam L. Dawson, Series 4) Ronald Page Col- phrases with simple brackets and arcs; she included
lection, and Series 5) Glen Maze Collection of contextual information about the composers and the
Choral Method Books. titles; she added some dynamic shadings and harmon-
ic detail. She included word-by-word translations for
Following this is a list of materials in each series. foreign languages. Everything she wrote on the scores
served the purpose of highlighting musical detail and
3
showed her meticulous thinking process.
Collectively, the ACDA archives comprise a wealth Charles Hirt, who served as ACDA national presi-
of information about leading choral conductors who dent from 1970 to 1972 and taught at the University of
developed the profession throughout the country— Southern California, was known for his excellent mu-
conductors, teachers, advocates, leaders—and a rich sicianship, his scholarship, and his leadership. He kept
resource for choral researchers. When I had the oppor- detailed records about ACDA business as well as about
tunity to examine materials in depth, I was fascinated his various conducting appearances, including corre-
to examine score markings of Elaine Brown, for exam- spondence and programs. Looking at the latter reveals
ple. In 1948 she founded The Singing City in Philadel- a philosophy of programming that was prominent in
phia; her goal was to form an integrated community our profession for many decades, one that highlighted
choir for avocational singers. Everyone was welcome the importance of the western choral canon but also
championed contemporary composers of the time.
And looking at the range of events, both domestic and
international, at which Charles Hirt was asked to pres-
ent and/or conduct gives a sense of the enormous im-
pact he had on the profession. In addition to teaching
materials, there are examples of his writing and copies
of scores.
Harold Decker’s materials include copies of disserta-
tions by his advisees, as well as one from the University
of Miami (Coral Gables) by James Ewing about Elaine
Brown: “Elaine Brown and the Singing City: The Cho-
ral Art as a Communicative Social Force” (1976). Sev-
eral of the documents reflect Decker’s own interest in
twentieth-century composers. As founder of the coun-
try’s first DMA choral conducting program, Decker
had many ideas about what constituted appropriate
study and performance materials, and these alone are
worthy of examination. His class notes are extensive
and detailed, and there are numerous materials per-
taining to his service in ACDA. Concert programs, tour
materials, and scores comprise multiple boxes. In look-
ing through a number of his scores, I noted that some
of these were marked sparingly but with helpful notes.

66 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7