Ernst Krenek Letters to Mildred Kayden, 1940-1986 (MSS 713)

Extent: 0.25 Linear feet (1 archives box)

Letters from European composer Ernst Krenek to his former student, Mildred Kayden, and other related ephemera. Collection materials date from 1940 to 1986 and include letters, postcards, newsclippings, programs and a musical score.

Mildred Goldstein studied music at Vassar College under Ernst Krenek, from 1940 to 1942. After graduation, Goldstein worked as both an instructor of music literature at Vassar College as well as a composer and lyricist. In 1950, she married Bernard Kayden, taking his name and composing under the name Mildred Kayden. During her career, Kayden wrote scores for musicals such as Call the Children Back and Storyville.

The collection is comprised of letters and postcards from Krenek to Kayden, original and photocopied recital programs, sheet music by Kayden, and photocopies of newspaper clippings. Krenek's letters to Kayden contain opinions on technical aspects of musical composition, upcoming projects, lecture notes produced by Krenek, and information regarding a radio broadcast collaboration between Krenek and Kayden. Krenek additionally refers to Mildred's undergraduate thesis project on French opera. Newsclippings and programs are mainly photocopies and generally refer to Kayden's arrangements for the Composer Club's recitals during her undergraduate years at Vassar. One original program lists a 1949 perforformance of Ernst Krenek's Concerto No. 3, and includes a description of the piece. Sonata-D Minor a score by Kayden from 1941, is handwritten. The 1942 copy of the Vassar Journal of Udergraduate Studies contains a published version of Sonata-D Minor and is annotated in pencil by Kayden.

Container List

FILES

Box 1 Folder 1
Letters, 1942-1986
Box 1 Folder 2
Newsclippings, 1940-1942
Box 1 Folder 3
Programs, 1941-1949
Box 1 Folder 4
Score - Sonata-D Minor , 1941
Box 1 Folder 5
Vassar Journal of Undergraduate Studies, 1942