Announcement: Couper recordings now online

I had previously posted a similar announcement to the digest regarding the scores of Mildred Couper. I wanted to post a new announcement that several of Couper's recordings will now be available for streaming download at the Online Archive of California (OAC) at the link below.

The Library's Special Collections Department recently acquired the papers of composer and pianist Mildred Couper and is now making the collection available to researchers. Mildred Couper, an American pianist and composer was one of the first composers to experiment with quarter tone music. Couper was born in Buenos Aires in 1887 and lived in Europe as a child until her family emigrated to the United States in 1915 at the outbreak of WWI. She taught piano at the Mannes School in New York for several years and then moved to California in 1927. After establishing her studio in Santa Barbara she started writing quarter-tone music. Her first work in this medium was a ballet, "Xanadu," which was performed in the production of Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions" in the Lobero Theatre in 1930. Scores to three of Mildred Coupers quarter tone works, the "Dirge," for violin and piano, "Rumba," for two pianos, "Xanadu," for two pianos are now online and are available for research and study. Audio files of the "Dirge," "Rumba" and "Prelude to Anacapa" are also available online. Couper's papers are housed in the Department of Special Collections.

For further information visit http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/pa/pamss45.html. A guide to the collection can be found in the Online Archive of California (OAC) at http://dynaweb.oac.cdlib.org/dynaweb/ead/ucsb/couper/.

Jeffrey Gordon, Performing Arts Assistant
Davidson Library Special Collections
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
(805) 893-5444 Fax (805) 893-5749

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Jeffrey Gordon <jgordon@l...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_42741.html#42741

> I had previously posted a similar announcement to the digest
regarding the scores of Mildred Couper. I wanted to post a new
announcement that several of Couper's recordings will now be
available for streaming download at the
> Online Archive of California (OAC) at the link below.

***Hmmm. Thanks for this posting. Actually, I had never heard of
this composer... The link had an extra "period"; it's really:

http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/pa/pamss45.html

Johnny (Reinhard), have you ever programmed this composer on the
AFMM?? Most probably. Sounds like some pretty interesting stuff to
me, and it's nice to program a *woman* microtonal pioneer...

J. Pehrson

It wasn't long ago when I could not find information about Mildred Couper,
receiving all my information from Ivor Darreg. Joseph, if you can print out
the scores I will get them to Joshua Pierce and we'll see what can be set up
for future AFMM concerts.

best, Johnny Reinhard

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Afmmjr@a... wrote:

/tuning/topicId_42741.html#42867

> It wasn't long ago when I could not find information about Mildred
Couper, receiving all my information from Ivor Darreg. Joseph, if
you can print out the scores I will get them to Joshua Pierce and
we'll see what can be set up for future AFMM concerts.
>

***Hi Johnny,

There are no complete scores on the site, only examples, and they are
pretty poorly scanned pages, at that.

However there is some contact information here:

David Seubert, Curator
Performing Arts Collection
Davidson Library
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
(805) 893-5444
seubert"at"library.ucsb.edu "at" = at sign

Maybe they'd give you the scores or lend them if they knew there were
to be a performance...

best,

Joseph