Score and Parts Collections

Repository name: Special Collections in Performing Arts,
Performing Arts Library, University of Maryland

Description: In addition to its large document holdings, the American Bandmasters Association Research Center contains thousands of scores and parts for band. The major score and parts collections that make up the ABA Research Center are described below. As a general rule, these pieces of music are meant for study, and they do not circulate without special permission.

1. The American Bandmasters Association Research Center Score Collection

With more than four thousand scores, pieces of sheet music, folios, and compilations, this collection acts as a catch all for band music. The collection is filed alphabetically by composer. Researchers should send complete bibliographic information to see if the ABA Research Center holds a score they are interested in.

2. Banda Mexicana Music Collection

The Banda Mexicana Collection contains 208 volumes of out-of-print band music for 73 instruments and conductor which belonged to the Banda Mexicana, an ensemble of seventy-five dancers, singers and artists. Materials in the collection date from 1881 to 1906. The collection came to the University of Maryland on 15 October 1976 as a gift of Mrs. Elva Y. Adams The only personal name associated with the collection is that of J. E. Roach. An unpublished finding aid is available in the repository.

3. Mark Hindsley Transcription Collection

The Mark Hindsley Collection contains sixty-nine scores of Hindsley's band transcriptions. Also included in the collection are fifty-nine LP recordings of the University of Illinois Band made between 1948 and 1970 under the direction of Hindsley, and several programs and published articles by and about Hindsley. As a chemistry student at Indiana University, Mark Hubert Hindsley served as first chair cornetist and student assistant director of the Indiana University Band under the direction of Archie Warner. After his graduation in 1925 Hindsley accepted a position directing the university band, and was later appointed a music instructor. While teaching, Hindsley completed his Master of Arts degree in music. In 1934 Hindsley left Indiana to become Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Illinois, but in August of 1942 he was commissioned as a captain in the Army Air Forces as Music Officer of the Air Force Flying Training Command, where he supervised more than 150 Air Force bands. Hindsley was awarded an Army Commendation Medal, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before his release from active duty in April of 1946 (he remained in the reserves until 1955 when he resigned his commission). Hindsley resumed his duties at the University of Illinois in the summer of 1946, and four year later he was appointed Director of Bands. Hindsley was elected President of the College Band Directors National Association in 1946 and Vice-President of the American Bandmasters Association in 1956 (he would become the ABA President in 1957). Hindsley was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music by Indiana University. He was also an honorary life member of both the College Band Directors National Association and the American Bandmasters Association. He held the highest awards of many music organizations including the Goldman Award of the American School Band Directors Association and the Distinguished Service to Music Award of Kappa Kappa Psi. In 1982 he was inducted into the National Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors. Hindsley transcribed more than seventy-five orchestral works for the concert band before his death in 1999. In July of 1999, the University of Illinois and Mark Records released "The Hindsley Legacy Recordings," a three volume CD compilation featuring the recordings of the University of Illinois Bands under the baton of Dr. Mark Hindsley. The Mark Hindsley Collection was a gift of Hindsley. The recordings (83-142-ABA) were donated on 25 April 1983, and the scores (84-7-ABA) on 13 July 1983. The documents were donated in two sets, 83-142-ABA and 95-6-ABA. An unpublished finding aid is available in the repository.

4. Karl King Collection

Karl Lawrence King (1891-1971) started his career as a circus bandleader in 1910 with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. For thirty years, beginning in 1920, King conducted the Fort Dodge Military (Municipal) Band. King was a founder of the American Bandmasters Assocation and served as its president in 1939. The Karl King Collection contains more than 200 of King's published works, mostly marches. An unpublished inventory is available in the repository.

5. The Mayhew Lake "Symphony in Gold" Collection

The Mayhew Lake "Symphony in Gold" Collection contains manuscript parts and scores used by Mayhew Lake's sixteen-piece brass band, the Symphony in Gold. Mayhew Lester Lake, one of the most prolific arrangers and composers of band music, was born in Southville Massachusetts in 1879. After studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Lake played violin in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He later became well-known as a conductor, first at the Payret Theater in Havana, Cuba, and then with a number of stage performers, including Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, and Mae West. After moving to New York, Lake made arrangements for Victor Herbert, George M. Cohen, Percy Grainger, Edwin Franko Goldman, John Philip Sousa, Henry Hadley, and Paul Whiteman. For thirty-five years, beginning in 1913, Lake was also editor-in-chief of the band and orchestra department at the music publisher Carl Fischer. The manuscripts in this collection were used by Lake's concert band, the Symphony in Gold, which he conducted for NBC radio. Lake's autobiography, Great Guys: Laughs and Gripes of Fifty Years of Show-Music Business was published in 1983, nearly three decades after Lake's death in 1955. His music is featured on volume 79 of Robert Hoe's Heritage of the March series. Lake published pieces under several pseudonyms including Lester Brockton, Paul DuLac, Charles Edwards, William Lester, Robert Hall, and Alfrey Byers. The collection came to the University of Maryland as a gift of J. Frank Elsass on 27 March 1974. An unpublished inventory is available in the repository.

6. Salvatore Minichini Music Collection

With nearly 10,000 pieces of music, the Salvatore Minichini Collection is one of the largest collections in the ABA Research Center. Minichini (1884-1977) was born in Corbara (Salerno), Italy. In 1905, Minichini came to the United States and founded the Banda Bianca, which changed its name to Minichini's Italian Royal Marine Band in 1915. Minichini made several recordings of Italian symphonic marches and his own arragnments of operatic literature with his ensemble. In 1929, the band alternated with Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra in Sunday afternoon radio broadcasts. The ABA Research Center's Minichini Collection is the bandmaster's own personal library, and is the largest collection of Italian band music in the United States. An unpublished inventory is available in the repository.

7. Alfred Reed Manuscript Collection

Alfred Reed (1921-) has written more than two hundred works for band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensembles. The ABA Research Center collection contains about twenty-five arragnments and original compositions in manuscript. A number of these pieces include sketches and correspondence. An unpublished inventory is available in the repository.

8. Star Music Company Collection

The Star Music Company Collection contains ninety-four folio size pieces, with parts, published by the Star Music Co., of Eldred, Pennsylvania. An unpublished inventory is available in the repository.

SCPA shelf location: Most score collections are located in the SCPA Collections Room, Aisle D.

Access: A number of other collections in the ABA Research Center include scores, parts, or pieces of sheet music. Patrons should consult the curator about specific pieces. Materials from these collection must be used in the Performing Arts Library's Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Special Collections Room, 10 to 5, Monday through Friday. Please make an appointment with the curator.

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