44.0 linear ft. (88 boxes). The Collection consists of materials relating to the Austrian-American composer, Ernst Toch. Included are music manuscripts and scores, books of his personal library, manuscripts, biographical material, correspondence, articles, essays, speeches, lectures, programs, clippings, photographs, sound recordings, financial records, and memorabilia. Also included are manuscripts and published works of other composers, as well as Lilly Toch's letters and lectures. Includes one oral history by Nikolai Lopatnikoff. Finding aid available: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft0z09n428/
Joseph M. Rumshinsky (1881-1956)
Papers, ca. 1910–56. 23.5 linear ft. (47 boxes). Joseph Rumshinsky was known as one of the founders of the American Yiddish musical stage. The collection consists of predominantly of original and reproduced manuscripts of scores and parts of stage shows and operettas, songs, dance music, and religious pieces. Additionally there are clippings and typescript materials, including synopses, scripts, obituaries, and testimonials. Biographical note: Rumshinsky was born in Vina, Luthuania in 1881. He was a child prodigy cantorial meshoyrer (apprentice) and by the age of 17 had conducted his first Yiddish theater production. He moved to America in 1904. After being invited to New York by the theater impresario and star Boris Thomashefsky in 1908, Rumshinsky helped upgrade the structure of Yiddish musical theater from a series of vaudeville-type skits linked by songs into a true operetta form. His first solo production, Dem Rebins Nigun (the rabbis melody), in 1920 established him as Yiddish Americas preeminent theater composer. Finding aid available: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dz0cmh/
