Salvatore Martirano Music, Personal Papers, and Sal-Mar Construction

Overview

Scope and Contents

Biographical Note

Subject Terms

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

Music

Correspondence

Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac

Publicity, Lectures, and Performances

Photographs

Family and Personal Papers

Sound Recordings

L's GA Props



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Finding Aid for Salvatore Martirano Music, Personal Papers, and Sal-Mar Construction, 1927-1999 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Elizabeth Surles and Hannah Jellen

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Collection Overview

Title: Salvatore Martirano Music, Personal Papers, and Sal-Mar Construction, 1927-1999Add to your cart.View associated digital content.

ID: 12/5/42

Primary Creator: Martirano, Salvatore (1927-1995)

Extent: 55.0 cubic feet

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into eight series and seven sub-series. Series 1: Music, ca. 1947-1995, is organized alphabetically by title. Whenever possible an identification of the format of the music for each title (i.e., full score, condensed score, piano score, and parts) has been noted with the corresponding abbreviations, FS, CS, PS, P. Series 2: Correspondence, ca. 1932-1999, is organized into two sub-series. Sub-series 1: Contracts, Publishing, and Royalties, 1959-1995, is arranged chronogically. Sub-series 2: Personal and Professional, 1932-1999, is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically. Correspondence from 1990-1999 is organized chronologically. Business correspondence is arranged alphabetically according to institution name, while correspondence from colleagues, family, and friends is ordered alphabetically according to the letter writer's last name. Series 3: Instruments and Technology, ca. 1967-2000, is arranged in two subseries. Sub-series 1: Sal-Mar Construction, 1967-1984, is arranged according to document type. Sub-series 2: YahaSALmaMac, 1986-1993, is arranged according to document type. Series 4: Publicity and Performance, ca. 1950-1995, is arranged into three sub-series. Sub-Series 1: Publicity, Marketing, Media Coverage, and Interviews, is arranged according to document type and then chronologically. Sub-series 2: Performances, Lectures, and Panels, is arranged according to document type and then chronologically. Sub-series 3: Published and Unpublished Research, is arranged alphabetically by author. Series 5: Photographs, ca. 1927-2004, is organized by type of image, subject matter, and then chronologically. Series 6: Family and Personal Papers, ca. 1927-1952, is organized by document type and then chronologically. Series 7, Sound Recordings, 1956-1993, is organized by recording number. Series 8, L's GA Props, 1960-1999, is organized by item type.

The collection was received in annotated and numbered envelopes and folders. To retain the original order and annotation, the numbering system and information on the folders and envelopes have either been photocopied and retained with the original records or transcribed on the folders in which the collection has been rehoused. Additional documentation of the original order and annotation is located in the collection's control file.

Date Acquired: 06/06/2008. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Electronic Music, Music, School of, Music Composition, Photographs

Formats/Genres: Architectural drawings, Financial Records, Newspaper Clippings, Papers, Photocopies, Sheet music

Languages: English, French, Korean, Italian, Japanese, German, Romanian, Dutch;Flemish

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of correspondence between Martirano and colleagues, friends, and family, including Milton Babbit, John Cage, Elliot Carter, Gilbert Chase, Aaron Copland, Luigi Dallapicolla, Paul Fromm, Loren Maazel, Morton Subotnik, and Igor Stravinsky; recording and publishing contracts; royalty statements; published and unpublished music scores, drafts, manuscripts, and studies; grant proposals, applications, and reports; address book and lists; Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac circuit diagrams, transparencies, and negatives; Sal-Mar Construction wiring lists; circuit boards; books; news clippings; photographs; negatives; slides; posters; concert programs and program notes; mailers; brochures; fliers; articles; theses; concert ticket; scrapbooks; invitations; birth certificate; autograph book; military records; poems by MC Halloway; architectural drawings; technical riders; lecture notes and transparencies; interviews; awards; and degrees. In addition, the Sal-Mar Construction, publicly unveiled in 1970 as the first musical instrument to generate dynamic improvisatory electronic music using analog and digital circuits designed with help from engineers who worked on the University's of Illinois' early Illiac supercomputer, was also included as part of this donation to the University. The papers, music, and Sal-Mar Construction document Martirano's activities as an award-winning composer, performer, and leader in the field of computer generated music.

See also record series number 35/3/68.

Biographical Note

Born in Yonkers, Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995) grew up in New Rochelle, New York where he graduated from high school in 1945.  While there he was the leader of "The Sonny Martin Band," the name of which came from Martirano's childhood nickname "Sonny."  After graduating, Martirano served as a Marine for fourteen months in 1945 and 1946, during which time he performed with the Parris Island Marine Band and a touring USO show.

Martirano received his undergraduate degree in 1951 from Oberlin College, where he studied composition with Herbert Elwell.  A year later he completed his master's degree in composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Bernard Rogers.  During the same year, Martirano received a Fulbright to study composition in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola from 1952 to 1954.  Martirano continued to work in Italy from 1956 to 1959, when he was a resident fellow at the American Academy.  Between 1959 and 1964, Martirano received commissions, awards, and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ford, Koussevitzky, and Fromm Foundations, as well as from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Brandeis University.  In 1963, Martirano joined the Theory and Composition Department at the University of Illinois, where he remained on the faculty until his retirement and death in 1995.  He was also a resident composer at the NSW Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1979), IRCAM in Paris (1982) and the California Institute of the Arts (1993).  Composers including Phil Winsor, Mark Zanter, Thorsteinn Hauksson, Stuart Saunders Smith, Maggi Payne, and Yehuda Yannay studied with Martirano while students at the University of Illinois.

Many of Martirano's early works incorporate twelve-tone compositional techniques as well as jazz, vernacular, and multimedia idioms.  His best-known composition, "L's GA" (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address), was widely performed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and became associated with the anti-war movement.  In the early 1960s, Martirano became interested in electronic music, and this interest guided much of his work from the 1960s on.  Martirano was among the very first composers in the United States to utilize and invent new computer technology for composition.  Martirano created a series of electronic music systems, including the Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac, which enabled him to write and perform music that mixed human and computer-generated sounds and composition.

Subject/Index Terms

Electronic Music
Music, School of
Music Composition
Photographs

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Accruals: June 6, 2008, September 20, 2008, April 11, 2011, and December 7, 2017.

Access Restrictions: Box 17, Folder 16 restricted until November 17, 2034.

Acquisition Method: The music, papers, and Sal-Mar Construction were donated to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by the Martirano family on June 6, 2008. The Sal-Mar Construction was received by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from the Martirano family on September 20, 2008. Audio-visual materials were received by the Martirano family on April 11, 2011. An addition of two sound recordings and oversized notebooks with music parts were acquired on December 7, 2017 by way of the University of Illinois' Music and Performing Arts Library, which received them from the Martirano family through Stephen Taylor in the School of Music.

Processing Information: Papers, Music, and Sal-Mar Construction processed in 2008-2009.


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Music, ca. 1945-1995],
[Series 2: Correspondence, ca. 1932-1999],
[Series 3: Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac, ca. 1967-2000],
[Series 4: Publicity, Lectures, and Performances, ca. 1950-1995],
[Series 5: Photographs, ca. 1927-2004],
[Series 6: Family and Personal Papers, ca. 1927-1952],
[Series 7: Sound Recordings, 1956-1995],
[Series 8: L's GA Props],
[All]

Series 5: Photographs, ca. 1927-2004Add to your cart.
Box 1Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Childhood and Youth Photographs, ca. 1927-1952Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Childhood and Youth Photographs, ca. 1927-1952Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Childhood and Youth Photographs, ca. 1927-1952Add to your cart.
Folder 4: Salvatore Martirano Portraits and Snapshots, ca. 1951-1995Add to your cart.
Folder 5: Martirano Family Photographs, ca. 1900, 1960s-1990sAdd to your cart.
Folder 6: Salvatore Martirano, Family, and Friends Photographs, ca. 1965-1995Add to your cart.
Folder 7: Salvatore Martirano, Family, and Friends Photographs, ca. 1965-1995Add to your cart.
Folder 8: Friends of Salvatore Martirano Photographs, ca. 1950-1980Add to your cart.
Box 2Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Folder 1: L's GA Photographs, ca. 1967-1987Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Sal-Mar Construction Photographs, ca. 1968-1980Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Sal-Mar Construction Photographs, ca. 1970-1990Add to your cart.
Folder 4: Sal-Mar Construction Photographs, 2004Add to your cart.
Folder 5: YahaSALmaMac Photographs, ca. 1985-1995Add to your cart.
Box 3Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Tokyo Trip Photographs, 1969Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Houston Performance Photographs, 1976Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Miscellaneous Trips and Performance Photographs, 1965-1995Add to your cart.
Folder 4: White Street Art Center Photographs, ca. 1980-1995Add to your cart.
Folder 5: Eugene, Oregon Trip Photographs, ca. 1990Add to your cart.
Folder 6: Korea Trip Photographs, 1991Add to your cart.
Box 4Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Oversize Images, UndatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 2: Salvatore Martirano Portrait Negatives, UndatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 3: L's GA Negatives, ca. 1968-1978Add to your cart.
Folder 4: Sal-Mar Construction, Family, Friends, Underworld, and L's GA Performances Negatives, UndatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 5: Performances Negatives, UndatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 6: Martirano Family and Friends Slides, 1972-1986Add to your cart.
Folder 7: L's GA, Sal-Mar Construction, Family, Friends, and Underworld Slides, ca. 1968-1978Add to your cart.
Folder 8: Kyma System and YahaSALmaMac Slides, UndatedAdd to your cart.
MapCabinet 3Add to your cart.
MapDrawer 1Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Posters, Performance Schematics, Panoramic Photographs, and Sal-Mar Construction DiagramsAdd to your cart.
Oversize Portfolio Case 1Add to your cart.
Item 1: Oversized panoramic photographs of Oberlin College faculty and students, ca. 1950Add to your cart.
Two oversized panoramic photographs. These are housed in a flat, portfolio-type box.
Item 2: Oversized panoramic photographs of Oberlin College faculty and students, ca. 1950Add to your cart.

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Music, ca. 1945-1995],
[Series 2: Correspondence, ca. 1932-1999],
[Series 3: Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac, ca. 1967-2000],
[Series 4: Publicity, Lectures, and Performances, ca. 1950-1995],
[Series 5: Photographs, ca. 1927-2004],
[Series 6: Family and Personal Papers, ca. 1927-1952],
[Series 7: Sound Recordings, 1956-1995],
[Series 8: L's GA Props],
[All]

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