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 Series 4 is arranged into two subseries: Subseries 1) Publications, Dissertations, and Unpublished Manuscripts on Instrument Builders and Subseries 2) Treatises on Musical Instrument Performance Practice, Both are arranged alphabetically by title.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 2: Personal Papers, 1939-2005

Box 2

Folder 1: Articles about Musical Instruments by Lloyd Farrar and Others, 1966-2002: Articles and clippings.
Folder 2: Fitchhorn, E.J. - Correspondence Related to, Articles, Information About, 1939-1991: Correspondence, news clippings, advertisements.
Folder 3: Herbert W. Brunner Sight Reading Record, 1968: A demonstration record of the Oral Reading and Self Directing procedures used with the Practical Procedures for Sight Reading course. Used by 6th grade instrumental class at Shaw Butte School, Phoenix, AZ. Narrator: Winston RIchard, music coordinator; teacher: Herbert W. Brunner. Progammed to aid in learning sight reading. Copyright 1968, Henri Elkan Music Publisher, Philadelphia, PA.
Folder 4: John Held Band Library, Utah State Historical Society - Holdings, 1983: Inventory of and finding aid for band arrangements held by the library. Includes concert music, dance music, marches and popular tunes.
Folder 5: Lanahan, Walter D. - Correspondence Related to; Articles, Information About, 1990-1991: Correspondence related to Walter D. Lanahan, Articles by and about him, ads for his Melody Flute.
Folder 6: Lecture Notes about Farrar Instruments, undated: Notes about instruments in collection.
Folder 7: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - Alto & Tenor/Baritone Valve Trombones, 1888-2005: Detailed descriptions of instruments in Farrar's collection, including provenance information. Also includes ads and detailed diagrams of some instruments. Dates indicate dates of instrument manufacture or date of acquisition.
Folder 8: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - B-Flat Tenor & Baritone/Bass Horns, ca. 1882-1920, 2005: Detailed description of instruments in Farrar's collection, including provenance information. Dates indicate estimated manufacture date and date of acquisition by the University of Illinois.
Folder 9: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - Coronets and Trumpets - Soprano, ca. 1878-2005: Detailed descriptions of the instruments including provenance, some patent information, diagrams, and advertisements. Dates indicate manufacture dates and acquisition dates by University of Illinois.
Folder 10: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - E-Flat & BB Flat Contrabass Horns & Tubas, ca. 1900 -1901, 2005: Detailed description of the instruments, including provenance and condition of the instruments. Dates indicate the manufacture dates and date of acquisition by the University of Illinois.
Folder 11: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - F & E-Flat Tenor or Alto and French Horns, 1888, 1926-1930, 2005: Detailed description of Horn in F/B-Flat, including patent information and diagrams and condition. Also includes advertisements. Dates indicate dates of patents, manufacture, and acquisition by the University of Illinois.
Folder 12: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - Slide Trombones, ca. 1900-2005: Detailed description of the instruments, including provenance, condition, manufacture and acquisition dates. Patent information and diagrams. Advertisements.
Folder 13: Lloyd Farrar Music Instrument Collection - Valve Trombone, Alto in E-Flat, ca. 1885-1890: Detailed description of instrument, including diagram, provenance and condition. Date indicates manufacture date.
Folder 14: Patents and Ads for Brass Instruents: Conn, Holton, Zimmerman., 1910-1941: Patent information. Ads for instruments.
Folder 15: Personal Correspondence and Notes, 1986-1997: Personal correspondence and notes, diagrams, detailed descriptions of musical instruments, articles.
Folder 16: Photographs, undated
Folder 17: Star Dust Fox Trot, by Hoagy Carmichael, arr. Jimmy Dale, 1931: New York: Mills Music, Inc.
Folder 18: Swanson, Ziegner - Correspondence Related to; Articles, Information About, 1991: Also includes patent informaiton.

Box 5

Folder 21: The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress - Vol. 35 No. 2, 1979: Contains ear-marked and edited article, "The American Brass Band Movement," by Jon Newsom (P. 114-140). CAUTION: Also contains fragile recording, "Music of the Civil War Era conducted by Frederick Fennell: Captain Finch's Quickstep and Slow March Midnight."