By Bethany R. Cooper and Nolan Vallier
[Printer Friendly] | [ Email us about these papers]Title: Kenneth Gaburo Papers, 1936, 1945-93
ID: 12/5/33
Primary Creator: Gaburo, Kenneth (1926-1993)
Extent: 37.7 cubic feet
Arrangement: The Kenneth Gaburo Papers are arranged into two distinct series: Series 1) Kenneth Gaburo Music and Papers, and Series 2) Larry Polansky Lingua Press Records. Series 1 was arranged and described by Bethany Cooper in 2003. Materials in Series 1 were arranged into 40 subseries and were organized first at the box level and secondarilly by material type. Series 2 was arranged and described by Nolan Vallier in 2013 and was arranged into two separate subseries: Business Records and Correspondence. Materials in Series 2 were arranged chronologically.
Date Acquired: 05/27/1999. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Choirs, Computer Music, Electronic Music, Faculty Papers, Multimedia Performance, Music Publishers, University of California San Diego, University of Illinois, University of Iowa
Formats/Genres: Experimental Music, Papers
Languages: English
Papers of Kenneth Gaburo (1926-93), Professor of Music (1955-68) contain correspondence, published and manuscript musical compositions, sound recordings, motion picture and video recordings, and photographs relating to his compositions and performances, Lingua Press music publishing business, and his New Music Choral Ensemble performance group, University of California San Diego Electronic Music Studio (1968-75), University of Iowa Electronic Music Studio (1970-91). This series also includes source materials, drafts, and final versions of compositions inlcuding the "Lingua I Series," "Lingua II: Maledetto," "Lingua III: In the Can," and major compositions including electronic pieces, "Lemon Drops," and "For Harry," the series of 10 "Antiphonies," incomplete "Antiphony XI," and "Testimony" videotapes from Gaburo's "Scratch" project. It also contains audio and video recordings, the conductors score, and rehearsal tapes of Harry Partch's "The Bewitched," which Gaburo conducted.
Kenneth Gaburo (1929-1993) was born in Somerville New Jersey. In 1943, he began his studies in composition at the Eastman School of Music with Bernard Rodgers. In 1949, he received master's degrees in composition and piano performance from Eastman. Between 1954 and 1955 he studied at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi. Soon after he began his doctoral studies with Burrill Phillips and Hubert Kessler at the University of Illinois where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts in 1962. While completing his doctorate, he joined the faculty of the composition department at the University between 1955 and 1968. In 1967 he was named an associate fellow of the University of Illinois Institute for Advanced Study and received several grants to research the confluence between musical composition and linguistics at both the University's of Illinois and California. In the summer of 1965, Gaburo established the New Music Choral Ensemble I, a summer workshop that performed contemporary music that explored pitch, duration, timbre, indeterminacy, extended vocal techniques, and the integration of the voice and electronic instruments. In 1968, Gaburo left the University of Illinois to accept a teaching position at the University of California at San Diego, here he established the New Music Choral Ensemble II. By 1970 he had established the New Music Choral Ensemble III in order to more fully explore musical linguistics and dance. In 1972, he established the New Music Choral Ensemble IV to explore mime and acting. In 1975, Gaburo resigned from the University of California at San Diego and began touring professionally. Shortly after this, Gaburo accepted a position at the University of Iowa where he worked until his death in 1993.
While maintaining an active career as a composer, Gaburo also acted as a music publisher founding the Lingua Press in 1975, which he managed until his death in 1993. After Gaburo died the company continued to publish music under the Lingua Press title until it was changed to Frog Peak Music by Gaburo's Business Partner Larry Polansky.
Gaburo was also an active conductor and promoter of new music conducting his four New Music Choral Ensembles as well as the European premiere performance of Harry Partch's The Bewitched in 1979.
Choirs
Computer Music
Electronic Music
Faculty Papers
Multimedia Performance
Music Publishers
University of California San Diego
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Accruals: The Kenneth Gaburo Papers were initially acquired by University Archives on May 27, 1999. Additional materials were acquired from Larry Polansky by the Sousa Archives on August 9, 2013.
Acquisition Source: gift
Related Materials: See also the Experimental Studio Records, the Harry Partch Estate Archive, the Music and Performing Arts Library Harry Partch Collection, the Salvatore Martirano Papers, the Paul Martin Zonn Papers, the Scott Wyatt Papers, the William Brooks Papers, the Music Library Administrative Records, and the School of Music Audio Recordings Festival of Contemporary Arts Series. For further information about other Lejaren Hiller sound recordings and personal papers please visit the University at Buffalo's Lejaren Hiller Papers. For more information please see https://research.lib.buffalo.edu/hiller.
Folder Contains 40 posters and small folder (folder 4) containing picture of Gaburo and other famous music composers and scholars. Includes the following:
Segment from Electronic Composition "The Flow of [i], 1965; "In the Can" Gerlinger Annex, undated; Works from the Compositional Linguistic Seminar, undated; Hydrogen Jukebox, undated; Schoenberg 10 Concert, Virgina Gaburo, undated; Babel: Pieces by John Cage, William Brooks, and Kenneth Gaburo, undated; Farewell, F Street, undated; New Music Choral Ensemble, Union Theater October 21, undated; Herbert Brun Graphics Artwork, undated; Gaburo Portrait Charicature, E. Sloin (?), 1978; Fifteen: a Multimedia Workshop and Performance with..., 1976; 201 Series Program: Turetsky, 1969; 201 Series Program: Music and Light, undated; 201 Series Program: The Dying Alchemist, 1969; 201 Series Program: Mondo Violino, undated; 201 Series Program: An Open Rehearsal of Music for Voices, Instruments, and Electronic Sounds, NMCE II, 1969; Works from the Compositional Linguistics Seminar, 1972; LP Cover: "NMCE in Works of Ives, Nono, Shallenberg...", undated; LP Cover: Music for Voices, Instruments, and Electronic Sounds, NMCE II, undated (See box 26, items 2-6); Sonat, The Quality of Soft is not Strainning, UCSD Music Department, June 6, 1974; NMCE III Performs Lingua I and Lingua II, March 3, undated; NMCE directed by Kenneth Gaburo, March 17, undated; Palomar Contemporary Arts Festival, NMCE IV, Compositional Linguistics Ensemble, undated; Palomar Contemporary Arts Festival, Virginia Gaburo, undated; Bradley University Spring Festival of Arts, 1967; 201 Series Program: NMCE III, April 12, undated; 201 Series Program: NMCE II, April 12, undated; 201 Series Program: Stuart Dempster, Trombonist, undated; Readings in Compositional Linguistics, undated; Lingua II, Maldetto, undated; OM, undated; Line Drawing portrait of Kenneth Gaburo, undated; Pastel Drawing portrait of Kenneth Gaburo, by Reinlander, 1973; Center for New Music, "Two" and "Antiphony IV", 1969-1970; San Diego State University, Contemporary Music Ensemble Multimedia Concert, undated; Progressions Arts UMBC, undated; Frostburg State College, a Program of Compositional Linguistics, undated; Allos, a painting by Milford Kemp, 1982; "... a Dot is No Mere Thing..." Kansas City Civic Orchestra, undated (World Premier).