Library: Archives & Special Collections: Peter Yates Musical Composition and Material Collection [mid 20th century]

Descriptive Summary

Title: The Peter Yates Musical Composition and Material Collection

Date Span: [bulk, mid 20^th century]

Acquisition Number: N/A

Creator: Peter Yates

Donor: Dr. Peter Yates; Buffalo State College Music Department

Date of Acquisition: ca. 1980

Extent: 1 box; .25 linear ft.

Language: English

Location: Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State

Processed: ca. 1990; Marjorie Lord, reprocessed 2011

Information on Use

Access: The Peter Yates Musical Composition and Material Collection is open for research.

Reproduction of Materials:
See Archivist for information on reproducing materials from this collection, including photocopies, digital camera images, or digital scans, as well as copyright restrictions that may pertain to these materials.

Even though all reasonable and customary best-practices have been pursued, this collection may contain materials with confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the SUNY Buffalo State assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation:
[Description and dates], Box/folder number, The Peter Yates Musical Composition and Material Collection, Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State.

Biographical Note:
Peter Yates (1909-1976), along with his wife Frances Mullen, is perhaps best remembered for his founding of the concert series Evenings on the Roof in Los Angeles. It grew literally on the roof of the 2nd floor of the Yates’ home, designed by Rudolf Schindler, one of the first of many artists and musician to emigrate from Europe to southern California during the early years of World War II. This concert series was to give most of them a much needed opportunity to have their music performed in an extremely supportive setting. (The reader is urged to consult the early chapters of D. Crawford’s Evenings On and Off the Roof for extensive coverage of this most important aspect of music history in the United States.)

Mr. Yates’ appointment as Chair of the Music Department at Buffalo State College in 1968 met with many “raised eyebrows,” due to his lack of experience in higher education teaching and administration. He was, after all, an interviewer with the California Employment Service for most of his pre-Buffalo years. Additionally, he had earned only minimal academic qualifications, a BA degree from Princeton. However, having served as associate editor of Arts and Architecture, 1940-1967, as a contributing editor to Arts in Society, as well as author of two well-received books -- An Amateur at the Keyboard (1964) and Twentieth Century Music (1967) plus his long and unparalleled association with many of the most important contemporary European and American composers, the usual and traditional resume expectations were overlooked in lieu of this newer and richer experience.

During their years in Western New York, Peter and Frances participated actively in the musical life of Buffalo. With the Albright Knox Art Gallery directly across the street, hosting the infamous Evenings for New Music, 1964-1980, which might be said to have found its predecessor in Yates’ Evenings on the Roof, Peter felt right at home in Buffalo. At the larger SUNY university center, SUNY at Buffalo, Peter hosted a weekly series of music programs on WBFO-FM, the local public radio station. He successfully brought Lou Harrison, the then-controversial American composer, to the Albright Knox for a stunning evening of talk and music. He continued to lecture as professor in the music department after retiring from the chairmanship. He passed away from a heart attack in Buffalo, in 1976.

Additional Suggested Readings

Evenings on and off the Roof by Dorothy L. Crawford
Call Number: Stacks ML200.8.L72 C7 1995
ISBN: 0520088913
Publication Date: 1995-09-05
In April of 1939 an unusual event occurred on a Los Angeles rooftop: nineteen people gathered to hear an all-Bartók program of chamber music. Thus was launched the now-famous Evenings on the Roof. The concert series later became the Monday Evening Concerts, whose popularity continues to this day. This is the story of that adventurous series, and Dorothy Crawford's graceful telling reveals the changing world of twentieth-century art music. It is also a story of idealism and determination, and of a unique synthesis of talent that could happen only in Los Angeles. Evenings on the Roof were the inspiration of writer Peter Yates and his wife, pianist Frances Mullen. To the Yates's rooftop studio came local and émigré musicians and composers. Though performers received little financial compensation, composers offered their latest works, and the growing audiences welcomed the challenging new music. Music critic Lawrence Morton joined this endeavor and helped forge an innovative musical community. The series introduced works of Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Lukas Foss, Pierre Boulez, and John Cage and provided an early venue for Robert Craft, Marilyn Horne, Marni Nixon, and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others. The fascinating contradictions that are part of Los Angeles emerge in this book as well: the city known as both "Lotusland" and "Tinseltown" could also embrace the most challenging music of the Western heritage. Through the vision of Yates and Morton and the devotion of extraordinary artists, music in Los Angeles achieved a rich maturity.
A Windfall of Musicians by Dorothy Lamb Crawford
Call Number: Stacks ML200.7.C2 C73 2009
ISBN: 9780300127348
Publication Date: 2009-06-23
This book is the first to examine the brilliant gathering of composers, conductors, and other musicians who fled Nazi Germany and arrived in the Los Angeles area. Musicologist Dorothy Lamb Crawford looks closely at the lives, creative work, and influence of sixteen performers, fourteen composers, and one opera stage director, who joined this immense migration beginning in the 1930s. Some in this group were famous when they fled Europe, others would gain recognition in the young musical culture of Los Angeles, and still others struggled to establish themselves in an environment often resistant to musical innovation. Emphasizing individual voices, Crawford presents short portraits of Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and the other musicians while also considering their influence as a group—in the film industry, in music institutions in and around Los Angeles, and as teachers who trained the next generation. The book reveals a uniquely vibrant era when Southern California became a hub of unprecedented musical talent.
This Life of Sounds by Renee Levine Packer
Call Number: Stacks ML200.8.B8 L48 2010
ISBN: 0199730776
Publication Date: 2010-07-23
This Life of Sounds portrays an important and previously unexplored corner of the history of new music in America: the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in the State University of New York at Buffalo. Composers Lukas Foss (the Center's founder), Lejaren Hiller, and Morton Feldman were the music directors over the life of "the Buffalo group," during the years 1964-1980. Based on Foss's plan, the Rockefeller Foundation provided annual fellowships for young composers and virtuoso instrumentalists to live in Buffalo for up to two years, thus creating a cadre of like-minded musicians who would spend their time studying, creating, and performing difficult - often controversial - new work. The now legendary group of musicians (some would say "musical outlaws") who participated in the Buffalo group included Pulitzer Prize winner George Crumb, Terry Riley, Cornelius Cardew, Maryanne Amacher, Frederic Rzewski, David Tudor, Julius Eastman, and many more. Composers John Cage, Jim Tenney, Iannis Xenakis and others all figure in the story as well. The book provides valuable accounts of the Center's influential concert series, Evenings for New Music, performed in Buffalo, New York and throughout Europe; its famous recording of Terry Riley's In C; the political activism of the time; and the intersection of academic, private, and institutional funding for the arts. Life magazine declared in an article about the 1965 Festival of the Arts Today titled, "Can This Be Buffalo?", "Buffalo exploded last month in a two-week avant garde festival that was bigger and hipper than anything ever held in Paris or New York..." The concerts, the festivals, and the adventurous musical climate attracted filmmakers and young visual artists resulting in what one person called "one of those kinds of places the way people talk about Vienna in 1900-1910."
The history and significance of the concert series Evenings on the roof, 1938-1954 by Barbara Joan Seitz
Publication Date: 1971
Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 1971. Includes bibliography (leaves 107-114).

Downloadable Finding-Aid and Inventory

The Peter Yates Musical Composition and Material Collection Finding-Aid & Inventory