Finding Aid for Lloyd P. Farrar Music Instrument Collection and Personal Papers, 1850-2005 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Nolan Vallier and Scott Schwartz

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Collection Overview

Title: Lloyd P. Farrar Music Instrument Collection and Personal Papers, 1850-2005

ID: 12/9/92

Extent: 84.0 cubic feet

Arrangement: The Collection is arranged into four unique series: Series 1) Musical Instruments, Series 2) Personal Papers, Series 3) Published Books of Museum Exhibitions and General Histories, and Series 4) Treatises on Instrument Builders and Performance Practice. Series 1 is arranged chronologically by date of acrual. Series 2 is arranged alphabetically by title. Series 3 is arranged into two subseries: Subseries 1) Museum Catalog Books and Exhibits of Musical Instruments and Subseries 2) Published Biographies and General Histories, Both are arranged alphabetically by title. Series 4 is arranged into two subseries: Subseries 1) Publications, Dissertations, and Unpublished Manuscripts on Instrument Builders and Subseries 2) Treatises on Musical Instrument Performance Practice, Both are arranged alphabetically by title.

Date Acquired: 09/26/1995. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Brass Instruments, Musical Instrument Collections, Musical Instrument Makers - Europe, Musical Instrument Makers - United States, organology

Formats/Genres: Papers

Languages: English, German, Dutch;Flemish, Czech, Japanese

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection consists of Woodwind, string, and brass instruments by predominantly American, but some European, musical instrument manufacturers; Personal papers including notes on instrument builders, articles written about musical instruments, and photographs of musical instruments; and Books on musical instrument builders, museum collections and exhibits of musical instruments, treatises on performance practice and building musical instruments, and general histories about music in the 19th century.

Biographical Note

Lloyd P. Farrar (ca. 1932) has been interested in musical instruments since he was a child. After starting college as a geologist in North Carolina he hitchhiked across the country to the University of Illinois where he studied trombone and musicology. After joining the Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity he met his wife Doris Vogt, then a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, both were involved in musical activities at the University and they were married in 1956. At the University of Illinois he performed as the principal trombonist in the University Symphony Orchestra as well as on sackbut with the Collegium Musicum. Farrar graduated with his bachelors degree in music in 1955 and his masters degree in 1956. After his time at the University of Illinois, Farrar spent a year in the Netherlands on a Fullbright Grant studying early Dutch music. He and his wife then traveled to the University of Texas at Austin where he began his PhD in Musicology, but he never completed his dissertation. While he was in Washington DC studying at the Library of Congress, Farrar took a job teaching music history and band at Mary Washington College in Viriginia. In addition, he helped to form the nearby Prince George's Civic Orchestra in Washington DC, conducting the orchestra from 1965 to 1969. Around 1971, Farrar began to lose his sight and abandoned much of his intensive bibliographic work at the time, but continued his organological work. During the mid 1970s he collected hundreds of musical instruments as a means of correcting and expanding Lindesay Langwill's instrumental history book to include American manufacturers. Between the late 1970s and mid 1980s, Farrar was one of the country's leading organologists writing articles for The Woodwind Quarterly, The International Trumpet Guild, The American Musical Instrument Society, The Serpent Newsletter, and the American Musicological Society as well as serving on the board of governors for the American Musical Instrument Society where he chaired the committee for revisions to the Langwill Index. In 1988, Farrar examined and arranged the John Held and Chatfield Band Library at the Utah State Archives. In the late 1980s he began the Patuxent Martial Musick Collection in Colesville, Maryland, which was later transferred to the Sousa Archives in 1995. In 1996, the Farrars moved to Norris, Tennessee, where Mr. Farrar continues to collect and write about musical instruments.

Subject/Index Terms

Brass Instruments
Musical Instrument Collections
Musical Instrument Makers - Europe
Musical Instrument Makers - United States
organology

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Accruals:

Additional materials were acquired from Lloyd Farrar on September 29, 2004; January 25, 2005; March 4, 2012; and June 26, 2016.

Yamaha Bb Flugelhorn received from Geoffrey Britten on May 2, 2019.

Acquisition Source: Lloyd Farrar

Acquisition Method: Gift of Lloyd and Doris Farrar.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Music Instruments, ca. 1850-1967],
[Series 2: Personal Papers, 1939-2005],
[Series 3: Published Books of Museum Exhibitions and General Histories, ca. 1901-2004],
[Series 4: Treatises on Instrument Builders and Performance Practice, 1871-2002],
[All]

Series 4: Treatises on Instrument Builders and Performance Practice, 1871-2002

Sub-Series 1: Publications, Dissertations, and Unpublished Manuscripts on Instrument Builders

Box 4

Folder 10: "A Compendium of United States Military Bugles and Trumpets," by J.T. Carter, ca. 1981-1992: Unpublished Manuscript on Makers of Military Bugles between (1800-1900). Also Includes "The Music Imprints Bibliography of Field Bugle and Field Trumpet Calls, Signals, and Quicksteps for the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps: 1812-1991," by R. Ranch and "A Day in Markneukirchen," International Trumpet Association Article by Kees van Hage. In addition, folder contains correspondence between Lloyd Farrar and Jack T. Carter.
Folder 11: "The Cornet Compendium: The History and the Development of the Nineteenth Century Cornet," by Richard I. Schwartz, 2001: Unpublished Manuscript on Cornet Performers, Recordings of Cornettists, Pieces that feature Cornet, and Builders of Cornets from the 19th Century.
Folder 12: "The Cornet Compendium: The History and the Development of the Nineteenth Century Cornet," Supplement, by Richard I. Schwartz, 2002: Unpublished Treatise Containing Extensive History of Cornet Builders of the 19th century.
Folder 13: "Dictionary of Twentieth Century Italian Violin Makers," by Marlin Brinser, 1978: Published by American Graphic.
Folder 14: "Early American Brass Makers," by Robert E. Eliason, 1979: Published by The Brass Press. Contains information on brass instrument builders J. Lathrop Allen, E.G. Wright, and Isaac Fiske.
Folder 15: "The Elkhart County Historical Society: Musical Instrument Manufacturing in Elkhart, Indiana," Compiled by Dean McMakin, 1987: Unpublished manuscript on builders in Elkhart Indiana, including: C.G. Conn, Buescher, Martin, E.K. Blessing, Elkhart Musical Instrument Company, Seidel Band Instrument and E. A. Couturier Company, C.W. Osgood, American Manufacturing Company and the Harry W. Pedler Company, Babbit Brothers, Elkhart Band Instrument Company, Pan American, Selmer, W.T. Armstrong, Art Musical Instrument Company, the Linton Company, Indiana Brass Instrument Company, Artley, Larilee, Fischer, Reid, Hardy, Hoosier Band Instrument, Platz, J.W. Yunker and Bros, Lesher Woodwind Company, K.G. Gemeinhardt Company, R. Lee Bailey, Bundy Band Instrument Corp., Richards Music Corp., Windsor Oboes, Deford, Westwind Products, Pan Industries, Green, Moore, Jack M. Linton, Emerson Musical Instrument, Diamond Cutter Flute Works, Alcazar, Cauffman, and Clark Baton. Also includes Program for special exhibit at the Elkhart County Historical Museum, 1986.
Folder 16: "An Index of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers," 2nd Ed. Lyndesay G. Langwill, 1962: Published by Lorimer and Chalmers. Includes Annotations and Additions to the Index by Lloyd Farrar. Also includes Correspondence between Lloyd Farrar and William E. Gibbon dated July 15, 1977.
Folder 17: "Italian Violin Makers," by Karel Jalovec, 1957: Published by Anglo-Italian Publication Limited.
Folder 18: "Die Geigenmacher der Familie Hopf in Kingenthal," by Bernard Zoebisch, 1999: Published by Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein. Language: German.
Folder 19: "Mitteilungen des Vereins fur Geschichte der Stadt Nurnberg," by Freidrich Bloch, 1954: Published by Zerreis and Co. Language: German. Contains information on Trumpet and Trombone builders in Nurnberg from the Renaissance to the 19th century.
Folder 20: "Musical Instrument Making in New York City During the 18th and 19th Centuries (Vol. 1 and 2)," by Nancy Jane Groce, 1982: Unpublished Dissertation.

Box 5

Folder 1: "Musical Instruments of the Southern Appalachian Mountains," 2nd ed. by John Rice Irwin, 1983: Published by Schiffer Publishing. Includes ethnographic and historiographic information on builders of Banjos and Dulcimers in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, including home-made instruments.
Folder 2: "Musical Instrument Trade Catalogs listed in E. Richard McKinstry's 'Trade Catalogues at Winterthur: A guide to the Literature of Merchandising 1750-1980,'" unknown Author, ca. 1984-1990: Unpublished Manuscript. Also includes unpublished manuscript, "Handlist of Musical Instrument Trade Catalogs in the Library of Congress Music Division and Dayton C. Miller Collection," Prepared by Peter H. Adams, February 14, 1990. Also includes handwritten notes by Lloyd Farrar, undated.
Folder 3: "Patents for Inventions: Abridgements of Specifications Relating to Music and Musical Instruments, AD 1694-1866," by Tony Bingham, 1871: Published by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press). Includes abridged patents (without diagrams) filed in London for musical instruments. Also includes handwritten note by Lloyd Farrar, undated.
Folder 4: "United States Military Drums, 1845-1865: A Pictoral Survey," by G. Craig Caba, 1977: Published by Civil War Antiquities LTD. Includes handwritten notes and Published Review of the book in the American Musical Instrument Society Journal by Lloyd Farrar.
Folder 5: "Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny: Vynalezce a Hudebni Nastrojar Europskeho a Svetoveho Vyznamu," by Vaclav Korbel and Gunther Joppig, 1987: Unknown Publisher. Languages: Czech, German, English. Contains information on Czech brass instrument maker Vaclav Cerveny.
Folder 6: "Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny: Musikant, Podnikatel, Vynalezce," by Josef Moravec, 1996: Published by Betis s.ro. Praha - Bechovice. Langauge: Czech. Also contain postcard to Lloyd Farrar dated August 12, 2012.
Folder 7: "The Woodwind and Brass Guidebook," by Scott Hirsch, 1995: Published by Stranger Creek Productions. Contains Serial numbers and production dates for American, British, French, and Japanese Woodwind and Brass instruments, including: Armstrong, Artley, Benge, Blessing, Besson, Boosey and Co, Boosey and Hawkes, Boosey Hawkes/Buffet Crampon, Boston Musical Instrument Manufacturory, Buescher/Bundy, Calicchio, C. Fischer, Cleveland Musical Instrument Co., Conn, Covey, Emerson, F.E. Olds and Co, Frank Holton, Fox, G. Leblanc, Gemeinhardt Co., Getzen, H & A Selmer, H.N. White, Hardie, Hawkes, Heckel, Haynes, Henry Distin, Henry Hill, Jupiter Band Instruments, L.A. Sax, Laubin, Lawrie, Linton, Loree, Lot (Louis), Marigaux, Martin Band Instruments, Miraphone, Miyazawa Flutes, Monzani & Co., Olds and Reynolds, Puchner, Rigoutat et Fils, S. Frederics Piccolos, Schilke, Selmer, United Musical Instruments, United Musical Co., Vincent Bach, York, and an index of Trade Names.
Folder 8: "Von Zinken, Floeten, und Schalmeien: Katalog einer Sammlung Historischer Holzblasinstrumente," by Josef Zimmerman, 1967: Published by A Bezani, Birkesdorf-Dueren. Language: German.

Sub-Series 2: Treatises on Musical Instrument Performance Practice

Box 5

Folder 9: "Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind," by Brian Frederiksen, 1996: Published by Windsong Press Limited. Contains Biographical information on Arnold Jacobs, tubist, and Jacob's writings on Performance practice, lung support, embouchure, and technique for tuba.
Folder 10: "Der Completely Abridged Method fur das Bass und der Oder Streich-instrumente," by Yascha Schmutzig (Arthur E. Goldstein), 1960: Published by Cor Publishing. A Joke Treatise on performing the Bass.
Folder 11: "The Flute and Flute Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects," by Theobald Boehm, 1964: Published by Dover Publications.
Folder 12: "Geschicte des Violinspiels," by Andreas Moser and Hans-Joachim Nosselt, 1966: Published by Hans Schneider - Tutzing. Langauge: German.
Folder 13: "Die Instrumentation: Posaune," by Hans Kunitz, 1977: Published by Breitkopf und Hartel Musikverlag Leipzig. Language: German.
Folder 14: "Die Instrumentation: Trumpete," by Hanz Kunitz, 1956: Published by Breitkopf und Hartel Musikverlag Leipzig. Language: German.
Folder 15: "Die Italienische Lira da Braccio: Eine kunst historische studie zur geschichte der violine," by A Hajdecki, 1965: Published by Antiqua - Amsterdam. Language: German.
Folder 16: "Making Early Percussion Instruments," by Jeremy Montagu, 1976: Published by Oxford University Press.
Folder 17: "Oboe Reed Styles: Theory and Practice," by David A Ledet, 1981: Published by Indiana University Press. Also Includes Handout for "Historical Bassoon Reed Making - The missing pieces," lecture by David J. Ranchor for the 2003 AMIS conference.
Folder 18: "Steel Drums: How to Play Them and Make Them," by Peter Seeger, 1964: Published by Oak Press.
Folder 19: "Typen europaischer Blockfloten in Vorzeit, Geschichte, und Volksuberlieferung," by Hermann Moeck, 1967: Published by Moeck Verlag. Language: German. Contains information on German and Eastern European folk flutes and recorders.
Folder 20: "A Word or Two on the Flute," by W. N. James, 1826 and 1982: Originally Published by Charles Smith and Co - Edinburgh. Third Edition published by Tony Bingham.