Some tools of the trade

Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky pioneered the use of the tape recorder as a compositional tool, and many composers to follow spent hours working over tape splicing blocks, razors and china markers in hand.



One box in the archives contains a collection of individual loops made by Ussachevsky.



Some are marked with china marker, sometimes to indicate pitch.

Vinyl included

Contained in the archives are a handful of 7" vinyl records. Here is one which features compositions by Pierre Schaeffer, Iannis Xenakis, and Luc Ferrari (showing front and back of sleeve):






The collection contains a few others, which were apparently issued as accompanying material to numbers of the "Gravesaner Blatter", a periodical focused on experimental and electronic music. Here are examples of a few discs published by Hermann Scherchen's "Experimentalstudio Gravesano" in Switzerland, covering techincal processes of electronic music, works by Pierre Schaeffer, and examples of filter experiments:








Unfortunately, some of the discs are showing signs of warping, or in one case, chipping.

Now, things get interesting...

My latest work in the archives has yielded some really interesting items. Along with the predictable administrative records such as financial statements and requisitions, there has been a parade of interesting items, led by sections of music manuscript by the prominent American composer Milton Babbitt. There are what appear to be sketches or drafts of portions of at least two works, "Phonemena" and "Occasional Variations".



















Here's a detail of one of the scores. Many pages include numerical annotations, that may perhaps refer to serial or other compositional processes.
















Here is what could be a compositional matrix of some kind, perhaps associated with "Occasional Variations" (this sketch was contained in an envelope with music manuscript sketches, marked with this title).

Temperature and environment

Well, it's been hot in NYC...we've had an early June heat wave. Things have cooled down a little, but as I work it's clear that this is not an ideal archival environment. It's hot! I'd estimate that it's about 80 degrees plus in here.

Survey/Inventory underway

I've begun the survey/inventory of the archives. I've started with the 4 filing cabinets, which seem to contain the bulk of the paper documents. I'm going through each and detailing the contents, making notes of items of particular interest, the general organization, and also particular topics and people that are cropping up.

As I mentioned earlier, there have been some earlier attempts to organize some of this material, so I'm trying to get a feeling for what may have been changed or moved, in order to address issues of original order, when it comes time to map out the arrangement of the archives.

More pics of unprocessed materials

I'm guessing that the collection consists approximately of 80% reel-to-reel tapes. Not the sturdiest storage - check out the angle of the shelving to the wall line of the corner to the left!


Although most of the reels are in boxes, a significant number are either loose or in less-than desirable containers.


The collection contains four 4-drawer two 4-drawer and two 5-drawer file cabinets, housing a variety of materials, including administrative records, correspondence, equipment manuals, and music scores. There has been some attempt in the past to organize the files (note the yellow hand-written sheets), but the work was never completed. This will pose a challenge as I try to evaluate the organization and original order of the collection.

First Impressions

So, open the door, hit the light switch and.......voila!

Here's where I'll be working for the next 100 hours or so.

I've decided on this plan of action:

• Do broad survey/inventory of materials
• Draft plan on description and arrangement
• Decide which portion of collection to process, given my limited time
• Process that portion
• Draft finding aid
• Mount finding aid on web

Whew! This should keep me going for a while...

Del.icio.us tag for CMC archives-related links

I'll be using the tag "cmcarchives" on del.icio.us for any related links to this project. Feel free to tag any related resources in del.icio.us using this tag (I'll subscribe to it, so will be aware of new links), or forward them to me using the "for:nickpatterson" tag.

Getting started

This blog is about the processing of the archives of the Computer Music Center at Columbia University, formerly the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

I hope to detail some of the materials, challenges and discoveries during the course of my processing work.

Any comments and suggestions are welcome!