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Vivian Perlis

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Vivian Perlis
Born(1928-04-26)April 26, 1928
Brooklyn, New York
DiedJuly 4, 2019(2019-07-04) (aged 91)
Weston, Connecticut
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Occupation(s)Oral historian
Former director of Oral History of American Music
PartnerDr. Sanford J. Perlis

Vivian Perlis (April 26, 1928 – July 4, 2019) was an American musicologist and the founder and former director of Yale University’s Oral History of American Music.[1]

Personal life

Vivian Perlis was born in Brooklyn, New York.[2] After growing up in Long Island, N.Y.,[3] she attended the University of Michigan, studying classical harp and piano. In addition to her bachelor's degree, she earned a master's degree in music history at the University of Michigan (BM 1949, MM 1952).[2][4] She was also a enrolled as a doctoral student at Columbia University between 1962-1964).[4] During this time she also taught music history at a number of college throughout New England.[4]

Vivian eventually moved to Westport, Connecticut with her husband, Dr. Sanford J. Perlis, and three children.[3] While performing as a harpist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, she took a job as a reference librarian at Yale University in 1959.[5][6] She died on July 4, 2019 at the age of 91.[7]

Oral history career

As a music librarian for Yale, Perlis worked with The Charles Ives Papers.[8] In 1968, she had an opportunity to interview the elderly Julian Myrick, Ives’ insurance business partner. Recognizing the profound usefulness of recorded memories such as these, Perlis began collecting interviews with other acquaintances of Charles Ives.[9] These amounted to sixty-two tapes and transcripts.[5] In 1974, Perlis used this collection to write the book Charles Ives Remembered, which was the first documentation of a musical figure through the use of oral history.[10] In 1975, the book won the American Musicological Society’s Otto Kinkeldey Award, their most prestigious book award. Perlis was the first female recipient, and this was the first time the award was given for an American musical subject.[11] The book was also honored with the Connecticut Book Publishers Award.[12]

While conducting her Ives research, Perlis recognized the value of oral history to document musical figures, and she founded the Oral History of American Music (formerly Oral History, American Music) in 1969.[13]

Perlis and composer Aaron Copland first became friends while working on the Ives project. Copland later wrote the preface for her book, Charles Ives Remembered. As the Ives project finished, Perlis focused on Copland as her new subject. From 1975-’76, she conducted many hours of interviews with Copland and those closest to him. Finally in 1984 and 1989, their efforts culminated in the autobiographies, Copland: 1900 through 1942 and Copland: Since 1943, co-authored by Perlis.[3][14]

Oral History of American Music (OHAM) holds over 2,200 interviews and transcripts and is a special collection within Yale University’s Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. The core unit, Major Figures in American Music, includes interviews with composers, classical performers, and jazz musicians. OHAM also holds projects on Ives, Paul Hindemith, Steinway & Sons, and Duke Ellington, video interviews with Yale graduate composers, and acquisitions.[6][15]

In 2005, Perlis released a new book, Composers’ Voices From Ives to Ellington, which was co-written with Libby Van Cleve. The book celebrates 20th century composers and includes two CDs of interview material.[2]

Perlis announced her retirement from Oral History of American Music in 2010.[1] She died at her home in Weston, Connecticut on July 4, 2019 at the age of 91, following an illness.[7]

Media production

Preceding the success of Charles Ives Remembered, Perlis produced and wrote the liner notes for Charles Ives, the 100th Anniversary, a five-record set, which includes excerpts of Perlis’ oral history interviews.[16] The box set was nominated for the Grammy Awards' Best Classical Album in 1975.[17] Then, in 1977, Perlis was historical consultant to the PBS Ives documentary, A Good Dissonance Like a Man.[12] This documentary also used excerpts from her oral history interviews.

In the next thirteen years, Perlis went on to write and produce three documentaries about other oral history subjects and interviewees for the PBS American Masters Series: Memories of Eubie (Eubie Blake; 1980),[18] Aaron Copland: A Self Portrait (1985),[19] and John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It (1990).[20]

Awards

  • The National Institute of Arts and Letters Charles Ives award 1971[21]
  • The New England Association of Oral History’s Harvey Kantor Award 1984[1]
  • A Guggenheim Fellowship[22]
  • The Society for American Music’s Irving Lowens Award 1991[23]
  • Letter of Distinction from American Music Center 2004[24]
  • Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music[25]
  • The Yale School of Music’s Sanford Medal 2010[1]

Musical America Artist of the Year 2011[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Vivian Perlis announces retirement from oral History of American Music project". Yale School of Music Website. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Wise, Brian (13 November 2005). "The Flip Side of American Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Merkling, Frank (21 January 1990). "Vivian Perlis, a composer of lives". The News-Times.
  4. ^ a b c Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (ed.). The Grove dictionary of American music (Second ed.). New York. ISBN 9780195314281. OCLC 774021205.
  5. ^ a b Tommasini, Anthony (7 October 1997). "The Masters' Voices; An Oral History of American Musicians In the 20th Century Slowly Wins Respect". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  6. ^ a b Elder, Sharon (May 1991). "Let's Talk Music". Yale Alumni Magazine: 16–21.
  7. ^ a b Obituary of Vivian L. Perlis Willowbrook Cemetery. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  8. ^ "The Charles Ives Papers". Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  9. ^ Wiener, Jonathan (January 1985). "Ives and Ellington at Yale". The Rockefeller Foundation Occasional Report: 4–6.
  10. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (9 April 2010). "It's History: Audio, Video and Live Performance". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Otto Kinkeldey Award Winners". American Musicological Society. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Film On Life of Charles Ives In Westport Library Tonight". The Hour. Norwalk, CT. 13 April 1978.
  13. ^ Perlis, Vivian; Van Cleve, Libby (2005). Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington (PDF). New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  14. ^ Rockwell, John (25 December 1989). "Books of The Times; Aaron Copland's Reticence About Himself and His Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  15. ^ "More About OHAM". Yale University Library. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  16. ^ Willis, Thomas (7 July 1974). "A treasury of Ives, a cause for celebration". The Chicago Tribune.
  17. ^ "Grammy Awards 1975". Awards & Shows. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  18. ^ "Oral History, American Music". Journal of American History. 81. 1994.
  19. ^ O'Connor, John (16 October 1985). "TV Reviews; A 'Self-Portrait' Marks Copland's 85th Birthday". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  20. ^ O'Connor, John (17 September 1990). "John Cage On His Way With Sound". The New York Times.
  21. ^ "Award Winners". American Academy of Arts and Letters. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Fellows: Vivian Perlis". The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  23. ^ "Irving Lowens Book Award". Society for American Music. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  24. ^ "40th Annual American Music Center Awards". American Music Center/New Music USA. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  25. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award". Society for American Music. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  26. ^ "Musical America Announces Its Artists of the Year". The New York Times. 9 November 2010.
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