Collection 03 - Toronto music life collection

Identity area

Reference code

OTUFM 03

Title

Toronto music life collection

Date(s)

  • 1877-2013 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

30 cm of textual records and other materials

Context area

Name of creator

(1921-)

Administrative history

In 1918 Toronto College of Music, founded in 1888, amalgamated with the Canadian Academy of Music, and in 1924 the academy was absorbed by the Toronto Conservatory of Music. The Toronto Conservatory of Music then gained the assets of both its rivals, including over one hundred vocal and orchestral scores. The University had taken over the ownership and operation of the conservatory by 1921, and therefore this collection became the foundation of the University of Toronto's music library.

Hugh Hornby Langton's, (University of Toronto's Chief Librarian, 1892-1922), donated a over a dozen scores from his own collection including orchestral works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn in piano duet arrangements from his courting days, which constitutes the University of Toronto's first efforts in collection building for the Music Library. More significantly, he had just returned from a European buying trip for the library, and its results included the addition of a dozen books on music, plus recent scores such as Stravinsky's Chant du rossignol and Sacre du printemps, and of several early tone poems by Richard Strauss.

Currently the library holds over 300,000 books, scores, periodicals and microforms.The Sniderman Recordings Collection, 180,000 sound recordings, from cylinders to blu-ray. The Olnick Rare Book Room, 2,500 volumes exemplifying the history of music and of music editing, performance and printing -- from liturgical manuscripts and early printed treatises, to first editions of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Gershwin, and early Canadian sheet music and tune books. A significant number of 18th- and 19th-century opera full scores, with particular strength in the French repertoire, complement the large libretto holdings of the Central Library.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

This collection consists of various donations, which were compiled at some point (date unknown) into the "Toronto music life collection." A2019-01 and A2019-02 were added to the collection in September 2019.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Collection consists of materials relating to musical life in Toronto, Ontario. The collection includes photographs of various Canadian and European musicians, including various photographs of Canadian Opera Company productions from the late 1980s and early 1990s, autographs from various opera singers and musicians from the late-nineteenth century, three scrapbooks with newspaper clippings and programs, and a collection of songs published in the Toronto Evening Telegram at the end of the nineteenth century.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

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Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

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Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

OTUFM

Rules and/or conventions used

Dates of creation revision deletion

Created July 31, 2019.

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area

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