Message-Id: <200105141936.MAA29350@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 15:24:59 -0400 From: Elizabeth Madden <mailto:emad@LOC.GOV> Subject: LC National Digital Library Program announces Irving Fine Music To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
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This message is being widely posted
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Irving Fine Collection Now available on American Memory.
The work of Irving Fine, composer, conductor, writer and academic is
now represented online as part of the American Memory online
collections. This first release of materials coincides with the Music
Division's concert tribute to Fine scheduled this evening at the
Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress. The Irving Fine
collection can be found at the following url:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ifhtml/>
Called a "remarkable American composer" by noted music lexicographer
Nicolas Slonimsky, Irving Fine (1914-1962) was included in the
so-called "American Stravinsky School"' by fellow composer and
longtime friend Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Fine, whose compositional
output was influenced by the music of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), died prematurely in 1962, thereby cutting
short one of the most promising careers in twentieth-century American
classical music.
Fine's early, neoclassic works include his Music for Piano (1947) and
Partita for Wind Quintet (1948). His later romantic style is
represented by the orchestral works Notturno (1951) and Serious Song
(1955), both often programmed by orchestras to this day. The most
frequently performed of his choral works are Alice in Wonderland
(1942), The Hour Glass (1949), and The Choral New Yorker (1944).
With the completion of his String Quartet in 1952, it appears that
Fine was able to combine his earlier tonal approach to music writing
with the then new technique of "serialism," or twelve-tone technique.
Fine taught music theory and history at Harvard University from 1939
to 1950 and music theory and composition at Brandeis University from
1950 to 1962. He also taught composition at the Berkshire Music
Festival at Tanglewood from 1946 to 1957.
This first online release of The Irving Fine Collection includes a
selection of 57 photographs of Irving Fine (many of them with other
notable musicians at Tanglewood and elsewhere). A special presentation
consists of manuscript sketches and the score for the String Quartet,
along with a recorded performance of this work by the Juilliard String
Quartet. In addition, the site includes a timeline of the composer's
life as well as the finding aid for the complete collection.
Irving Fine's career is documented in the Library of Congress Music
Division by approximately 4,350 items from the Irving Fine Collection.
These materials were collected by the composer's widow, Verna Fine,
who maintained a long relationship with the Music Division of the
Library of Congress to which she donated the materials in stages just
before and after the composer's death. She tirelessly devoted herself
to promoting her husband's music until her own death in 2000.
The collection contains manuscript and printed music, sketchbooks,
writings, and personal and business correspondence from such
twentieth-century musical luminaries as Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990),
Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss (b. 1922), Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983),
Ned Rorem (b. 1923), and William Schuman (1910-1992). The archival
collection also contains scrapbooks, programs, clippings, and sound
recordings.
Digitizing the Collection
Photographs
The original sources in the Irving Fine Collection were photographic
prints and contact prints. Scanning was done onsite by National
Digital Library Program staff using an Agfa Horizon Ultra flatbed
scanner with FotoLook SA 2.09.2 scanning software. Black-and-white and
sepia prints were scanned as grayscale images with a tonal depth of 8
bits-per-pixel at 300 dpi. One color print was scanned as 24
bits-per-pixel at 300 dpi. Many of the photographs were taken from
scrapbooks and were faded, discolored, damaged, and/or had tape on
them. Several items were cropped to eliminate as much visual evidence
of tape as possible.
Compressed thumbnail and service images were created from
uncompressed TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) masters. Specifications
are:
--Thumbnail and Reference Images: GIF (Graphic Interchange Format),
compression native to GIF format.
--Service Image: JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), average
compression ratio 15:1.
Sketches
Sketches and manuscripts were scanned from a staff-lined notebook,
stock music manuscript, and a manuscript score facsimile. Scanning was
done onsite by Systems Integration Group (SIG) of Lanham, Maryland,
using a UMAX Mirage IISE flatbed scanner and UMAX Magic Scan software.
Items were scanned in color 24 bits-per-pixel at 300dpi. NDLP took
delivery of uncompressed TIFF and compressed JPEG images. Thumbnail
images were created from TIFF masters by NDLP.
Specifications are:
--Thumbnail Image: GIF, compression native to GIF format.
--Service Image: JPEG, average compression ratio 30:1.
Sound Recording
The sound recording of the String Quartet was transferred from the
original 10-inch 7.5 ips (inches per second) analog tape reel to
digital audio tape (DAT) onsite by the Library of Congress Motion
Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Laboratory. WaveForm
(.wav) files were created from the DAT at a sampling rate of 44,100 Hz
per second, 16-bit, and a single (mono) channel. The RealAudio (.ra)
streaming files were derived from the Wave files through digital
processing. MPEG2, Layer 3 (.mp3) files were derived from the Wave
files using Sonic Foundry's SoundForge software. As the Quartet was
taken from a live performance, some audience and stage noise may be
audible.
Please direct any questions to mailto:ndlpcoll@loc.gov
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