Marga Richter

NOTES

137 notes chapter 1: The Early Years: 1926–1951 1. Born in 1923, Rena Sylvia died in 1996; Paul Herman lived 1929–1958. 2. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 3. Ibid. 4. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 5. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. Ibid. 11. Irving Boekelheide to Marga Richter, letter March 15, 1995. 12. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 13. Lenore Engdahl, taped telephone interview by author, May 1, 2008. 14. Other composers who have set“Jabberwocky”include John Duke,Lee Hoiby,Deems Taylor, and Susan Botti. 15. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. Her sister Rena had moved out in 1941 to study voice privately in Chicago. 16. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 17. For the complete anecdote see LePage, Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century, 211. 18. In 1926 the Institute of Musical Art merged with the Juilliard Graduate School, but the name change did not come about until 1946 under new president William Schuman. See Olmstead, Juilliard. In the summer, Richter also attended the Juilliard Summer School (which dissolved in 1952). 19. Marga Richter to author, email September 5, 2011. 20. Ibid. 21. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 22. Also in 1947, the theory and history curriculum for all Juilliard students changed from three years of “traditional approaches to teaching harmony, species counterpoint, 138 dictation, and sight singing” to a four-year curriculum created by Schuman and Norman Lloyd called Literature and Materials of Music. Two anthologies by Hardy and Fish titled Music Literature: Homophony and Music Literature: Polyphony were used, remaining in print until 1995. In 1948 composer Vivian Fine taught Literature and Materials of Music as an adjunct. Olmstead, Juilliard, 150, 160–65, 275–76. 23. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 24. Marga Richter, quoted in LePage, Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century, 212. 25. Persichetti, Twentieth Century Harmony, 13, 277. 26. Marga Richter quoted in Lee, “Marga Richter,” 6. 27. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 28. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 29. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 30. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 31. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 34. Ibid. 35. Phyllis Latimer later married and became Phyllis Latimer Roberts. 36. Phyllis Latimer Roberts, taped telephone interview by author, June 2, 2010. 37. The McMillan Theatre has since been renovated and renamed the Miller Theatre. 38. Peggy Glanville-Hicks, “Composers Forum,” New York Herald Tribune, February 4, 1951, quoted in LePage, Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of theTwentieth Century, 213. The performers were clarinetist Herbert Tichman, singer Phyllis Goodmund, and pianist Marga Richter. 39. Harman, “Forum Hears Music by Richter, Sokoloff.” 40. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid. 43. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 3, 2005. 44. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 19, 2011. 45. Richter has long enjoyed a daily shot of scotch in the afternoon, and an occasional Guinness beer or glass of wine. Perhaps this alcohol consumption, a change from the social norms of her midwestern and Christian Science upbringing, helped support a feeling of camaraderie with other professional musicians. (Her second husband Skelly only drank alcohol occasionally at a party.) For an overview of the sometimes conflicting research on the extra stigma for women who use or are addicted to alcohol, and the underreporting of women’s alcohol use versus the convergence hypothesis due to changing sex roles, see Babcock, “Does Feminism Drive Women to Drink?” For a brief overview of the differing attitudes of first-, second-, and third-wave feminists toward women drinking, see Ehrenreich , “Libation as Liberation?” 46. Marga Richter, taped interview by author, June 13–14, 2006. n o t e s t o p a g e s 1 5 – 3 2 139 chapter 2: Modern Dance and the MGM Recordings: 1951–1960 1. Marga Richter, interview by author, February 22, 2005. 2. Ibid. 3. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 24, 2011. 4. Olsen was the wife of Arthur Winograd, cellist, and a founding member of the Juilliard Quartet. 5. Marga Richter, interview by author, May 24, 2011. The cause of the fire was never determined...