Toward a Reconstruction of the Legacy of Joseph Schillinger

Abstract

During the 1930s, JOSEPH SCHILLINGER (1895--1943) may well have been the most popular, if not also the most successful, private teacher of musical composition in New York City. He could boast of teaching George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. Arriving in the United States in 1928, he had already distinguished himself in his native U.S.S.R. as a composer, conductor, and teacher. He quickly joined the New York City musical world, becoming one of the early members of the New York Musicological Society (later the American Musicological Society), moving in circles that included such musical luminaries as Leon Theremin (born Lev Termen), Henry Cowell, Charles Seeger, Nicolas Slonimsky, and Vernon Duke. (1) In 1938 he met and married Frances Rosenfeld Singer, an accomplished woman who had been, among other things, a cover girl, a dancer in the Ziegfield Follies, and secretary to Rockwell Kent and Dale Carnegie. Their brief but happy marriage lasted until Schillinger's early death from cancer in 1943. Following Schillinger's death his widow embarked on a crusade to preserve and to promote Schillinger's work that lasted until her death in 1998. The events in the story that follows occurred late in that crusade. This essay is not an evaluation of Schillinger's significance, nor is it a complete chronicle of all that occurred in Mrs. Schillinger's last years. It is nevertheless a story that should resonate with many librarians who have dealt with the complexities and difficulties of gifts and their donors. ORIGIN OF THE SCHILLINGER COLLECTION AT THE PEABODY INSTITUTE The Frances and Joseph Schillinger Collection at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University began with a set of drawings that accompanied a letter from Harry Lyden, received at the Peabody Conservatory in 1993. The drawings were based on the Schillinger System, a mathematical approach to musical composition devised by Joseph Schillinger. When Lyden subsequently visited Peabody, he was pleased to see his drawings housed in the Arthur Friedheim Library's Rare Book Room. At that time he encouraged the library to contact Schillinger's widow, who, according to him, still had many of Joseph Schillinger's materials in her possession. Some months later, the author wrote to her and received by return mail four printed scores of Schillinger's music and a folder of photocopied articles about him. A cordial correspondence and a series of visits to Mrs. Schillinger's New York City apartment resulted not only in substantial gifts of Schillinger materials but also funds to support maintenance of them. In 1995, the centenary of Schillinger's birth, Mrs. Schillinger inquired as to the possibility of an exhibit. Although a previously established exhibit schedule would not permit mounting a centenary exhibit, the staff members of the Arthur Friedheim Library and the Peabody Institute Archives did succeed in mounting a library-wide exhibit of the new Schillinger Collection for the 101st anniversary in 1996. After receiving a photo album documenting both the exhibit and the gala opening reception, Mrs. Schillinger was so pleased that she contributed a substantial sum which was subsequently used to create the Frances and Joseph Schillinger Endowment at Peabody. The author kept in contact with Mrs. Schillinger by telephone and by correspondence until her death in 1998. Thereafter, Mrs. Schillinger's lawyer reveal ed that there was still more to come, including the papers remaining in her possession at the time of her death and a portion of her estate. At that time it was also learned that Mrs. Schillinger had left portions of her estate to other institutions, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel. It was as a result of that bequest that Warren Brodsky, a music psychologist on Ben-Gurion University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, became involved in Schillinger research. On a research trip to the United States in 1999, Brodsky visited the Peabody Institute, the New York Public Library, and Columbia University, where he examined the respective Schillinger collections. …