Joseph Machlis Papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0128

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Boxes 1-5 contain a manuscript of Music: Adventures in Listening (Teacher's Manual). The manuscript is typed with corrections and marginal notes. Box 6 contains convocation papers from 1996 (when Queens College conferred an honorary doctorate on Machlis); a draft of Machlis's novel A Song for Danny; a small quantity of notebooks, clippings, and letters; printed operas for which Machlis did the English translation; and a series of publications called Music Treasures of the World containing articles by Machlis on major composers and musicians. Box 7 contains a published copy of Machlis's novel Allegro (W.W. Norton and Company, 1997) and Machlis's honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Dates

circa 1950s-1990s

Creator

Machlis, Joseph, 1906-1998 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Appointments to examine materials must be made in advance. Please email QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

Reproductions may be provided to users to support research and scholarship. However, collection use is subject to all copyright laws. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Biographical note

Joseph Machlis was a member of the Queens College music faculty from 1938 to 1974 and taught at the Juilliard School after retiring from Queens. According to The New York Times, his textbook The Enjoyment of Music was "one of the most popular music appreciation books published in English," with several editions selling more than two million copies over several decades. Machlis authored several other music appreciation books and served as an English translator of opera librettos. Additionally, he wrote six novels between 1964 and 1990, some under the pseudonym George Selcamm.

Machlis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1906, but moved to New York City as a young child and grew up in Brooklyn. He completed his bachelor's degree at City College and master's degree at Columbia University. In December 1996 Queens College/CUNY conferred Machlis with the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Machlis passsed away in October, 1998, at the age of 92.

Extent

2.5 Linear Feet (6 document boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Personal papers of Joseph Machlis, a member of the Queens College music faculty from 1938 to 1974 and author of a premier textbook on music appreciation.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The manuscript for Music: Adventures in Listening was donated in January 1969 by Joseph Machlis. One folder of convocation papers was transferred by Joseph Brostek, Queens College Events Office, in 2000. Remaining papers transferred from Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM) via Chair Michael Lipsey in Aug-Sept 2021, when ACSM was cleaning its offices.