MLA
NCC
NEWSLETTER

Music Library Association Northern California Chapter
Vol. 16, no. 1 (Fall 2001)

MLA/NCC Fall Meeting

Friday, November 2, 2001
The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
San Jose State University

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies will host the Fall 2001 meeting of the Music Library Association / Northern California Chapter. Highlights include presentations by Bill Meredith on the Jakesch fortepiano at the Beethoven Center, and Jane Light on the innovative new Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. We will also devote time to discussing Chapter business, activities in our music libraries, and of course, lunch!

10:00 am: Coffee/pastries at the Beethoven Center (Modular A Room 100)
10:30-11:30: Presentation by Bill Meredith on the Jakesch fortepiano of 1827, recently acquired by the Beethoven Center
11:30-noon: Tour of the Center and showing of other special acquisitions
Noon-1:30: Lunch at a local restaurant
1:30-2:30: Presentation by San Jose Public Library director Jane Light on the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, a joint project of the San Jose State University and the San Jose Public Library (at the Clark Library, SJSU). See their stylish website at: http://www.newkinglibrary.org/home.html
2:30-4:00 pm: Business meeting and round robin.

Minutes of the MLA/NCC Business Meeting of May 18, 2001

Judy Clarence, CSU Hayward
Chapter Secretary

The Northern California Chapter of the Music Library Association held its Spring 2001 meeting at the UC Berkeley Music Library. Present were Nancy Lorimer (Chair), Tony Calvo, Judy Clarence, Sally Berlowitz, Richard Ross, Deborah Smith, John Roberts, Patricia Stroh, Barbara Butler, Michael Colby, Jason Gibbs, Beth Fleming, Alicia Snee, Matthew Weber, Joan Garvin and Ray Heigemeir.

IAML 2002: John Roberts led a discussion concerning planning for the IAML 2002 conference, to be held at the Clark Kerr campus of UC Berkeley from Sunday, August 4, through Friday, August 9. The session will begin on Sunday with opening ceremonies at the entrance of Doe Library and will continue in the Morrison Room. Venues were discussed for the farewell dinner Friday night, traditionally a gala and spectacular affair. The remainder of the activities will be held at the Clark Kerr campus. The group discussed ideas for the Wednesday tours. Sally Berlowitz, Judy Clarence and Matthew Weber (Curatorial Asst. at UC Berkeley Music Library) will compile a list of restaurants in the area.

The minutes of the Fall meeting and the Treasurer's Report were approved with minor corrections.

Elections were held: The Vice-Chair / Chair Elect is Tony Calvo, and our new Secretary/Treasurer is Alicia Snee.
MLA Best of Chapters: Pat reminded us of the Best of Chapters sessions at the annual MLA conferences. She will investigate further-we may want to nominate someone for a future presentation.
Fall Meeting: Traditionally, the Northern California and Southern California chapters hold a joint meeting every other year. The next one should be held in the North this fall. Ray has been in communication with the Southern chapter chair Kristina Shanton at CSU Long Beach, noting that it has always been difficult achieving a quorum from the visiting group at these meetings. Discussion concerning the possible merger of the two chapters, as well as alternative plans such as a West Coast meeting every two years (including the Pacific Northwest chapter) followed. Ray will explore these options and keep us posted, but chances are good that we will hold a regular Fall meeting rather than attempt a joint meeting.
Program Proposal: Ray brought up the idea of a program-perhaps at CLA-for non-music librarians with no musical background on dealing with music-related questions. Alicia said she would be interested in working on this. Discussion will continue at the Fall meeting.

Round Robin:
* Sally Berlowitz: San Francisco State is exploring the possibility of a new library building in the next three to five years, if it happens at all.
* Ray Heigemeir and Nancy Lorimer: Stanford has hired a new acquisitions librarian for music, Mie Araki Barbara Sawka will retire in the fall. The Library has purchased a collection of letters and notes of Igor Stravinsky.
* Richard Ross: He spent two weeks in rainy France where he enjoyed a performance of Don Carlo in the Bastille Opera House, and another performance in La Salle Pleyel.
* Alicia Snee (Sacramento State University): Alicia is serving on the Reference Performance Subcommittee of MLA which is looking for speakers for a session on using non-music sources for music reference and information.
* John Roberts: UC Berkeley's Music Library is busy preparing for IAML and for the new building to be completed in late 2002. Tom Leonard is the new University Librarian; he's a historian, formerly Associate Dean of the School of Journalism.
* Michael Colby: Several people are leaving UC Davis, and they are encountering problems filling the vacant positions. Davis is moving to a new automated system soon, and a new Performing Arts auditorium is under construction.
* Judy Clarence: Cal State Hayward is setting up a score approval plan.
* Joan Garvin has finished her master's project at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems, and finished her work with Mary Kay Duggan's California Sheet music project which she redesigned, scanning in music and midi files. The site may be viewed at http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/CSMP_test/neh.html.
* Jason Gibbs: The San Francisco Public Library's database for the Dorothy Starr collection now indexes more than 10,000 pieces of sheet music. The Library has no plans yet to make the database available online.
* Pat Stroh: San Jose State University/ San Jose Public's new joint library construction is on schedule; they plan to move in the summer of 2003. In preparation, they're undertaking a massive weeding project which includes the LP collection, much of which will be replaced with CDs thanks to a special fund. The plan calls for the two collections (SJSU and SJ Public) to be kept separate except for a few special collections such as, perhaps, music, which will be located on the 5th floor of the new building along with the Beethoven Center. A new web-based radio station devoted to Beethoven starts up June 1; a small grant has enabled digitalizing some of the collection.

2002 MLA in Las Vegas

The Youngest of the Klumpkey Quintet: An Introduction to the Life of Julia Klumpkey

I am sure that many of you have had the experience of beginning a project only to later find yourself somewhere you never would have expected. Such was the case with this article and my continued interest in the life and music of San Francisco native Julia Klumpkey. I first encountered the name of Julia Klumpkey about a year and a half ago when I was in search of a collection to process for my Archives Management class at Simmons College Library School in Boston. My position as cataloger at the New England Conservatory of Music's Spaulding Library provided me with access to a wealth of choices for this project. Jean Morrow, Director of Libraries at the Conservatory, informed me of one particular collection that she thought might be of interest to me.

This collection consisted primarily of music manuscripts and published works, as well as many items of a personal nature including certificates, letters, newspaper clippings, brochures, and photographs that had belonged to a New England Conservatory alumna named Julia Klumpkey. Apparently, this collection was discovered amongst some used music at the San Francisco Conservatory by an NEC alumnus, David Reffkin. These materials had previously been donated to the San Francisco Conservatory by Julia's grand-niece, Catherine Mueller (granddaughter of Julia's sister Mathilda). When Reffkin realized that Klumpkey, like himself, had attended NEC, he organized and donated the materials to the Conservatory archives in January 1991. Klumpkey had attended the NEC in 1894-1895, prior to the Conservatory's relocation to its current Huntington Ave. site which took place in 1902-1903. The existence of music conservatories in America was still a very recent phenomenon at that time -- NEC had been open for less than thirty years, so it was particularly fascinating to examine materials relating to a graduate from that period. In the process of preparing an archival finding aid for this collection, I became increasingly interested in learning more about Julia Klumpkey and her remarkable family. While I was cataloging some of her published music, I discovered that the San Francisco Public Library also owned a number of these works. I wondered if the SFPL might also have further biographical information about Julia Klumpkey. I contacted a colleague at the San Francisco Public Library, who then put me in touch with Jason Gibbs, Reference Librarian at the Art and Music Center. To my delight, he responded by sending me copies of several articles, newspaper clippings, photos, and other items relating to Julia Klumpkey. While I plan to publish a more extensive article about Julia Klumpkey in the future, the following is a brief biographical sketch that I have pieced together from a variety of sources. I hope to generate further interest in Julia Klumpkey's life and future performances of her works.

Julia Klumpkey (or Klumpke), nicknamed "Lulu", was born in San Francisco in 1870, the fifth and youngest daughter of Dorothea Klumpkey (Tolle) and real estate dealer John G. Klumpkey. Evidently Julia lived her first several years in a San Francisco home at the southwest corner of Valencia and Twenty-third streets. In the 1880s the family moved to a home at the corner of Larkin and Chestnut Streets. Several years later, the Klumpkey children were taken to Europe by their mother to complete their education. Julia received her A.B. degree at Brevet Superieur in Paris.

Julia, continuing her studies, followed her sister Anna to Boston where she enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1894. At NEC, Julia studied violin with Emil Mahr and composition with Percy Goetschius, receiving her diploma in 1895. From this point on, the chronology of Julia's life becomes somewhat unclear. Most likely, Julia remained in Boston for a time teaching violin. It is known that in 1908 Julia Klumpkey traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii and gave a recital there. At some point over the next several years, Klumpkey returned to Europe to further her musical training, studying with A. Dieudonne at Fontainebleau Conservatory, and with Maurice Hewitt (violin) and Nadia Boulanger (composition) at the Conservatoire Americain in Paris in 1922, and again in 1929-1930. The impressive list of Klumpkey's European music instructors also includes : G. Remy, Eugene Ysäye (Brussels), Leopold Auer (Dresden), and William Henley (London).

It is most likely that during this period following her studies, Klumpkey returned to the United States to accept a position as head of the violin department at Converse College in South Carolina, a women's college known for its excellent music program. In addition, Klumpkey served as director of the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra. She remained in Spartanburg for approximately ten years. In 1928, Klumpkey apparently embarked on a world tour on a floating university, the highlight of which was the opportunity to see Gandhi while in India. After that adventure it is likely that Julia spent more time in Europe, most likely Paris, in the early 1930s.In the mid-1930s, Julia and her sisters returned to the United States because of the increasing threat of war. It seems that Julia resided for a short time with her sister Anna in Oakland, California, before returning to her native San Francisco sometime thereafter. The fact that Julia composed the dramatic tone poem, "The Twin Guardians of the Golden Gate" for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition may suggest that she had already moved back to San Francisco by that time. Regardless of the precise date of her return to San Francisco, Julia would remain there for the remainder of her life. During this period, she belonged to several organizations, among them the Women Musicians Club (San Francisco), the Women's City Club (San Francisco), the California Composers Society, and the Music Teacher's Association of California. Julia Klumpkey died in August 1961 at the age of 91. She is buried at the Neptune Society's Columbarium, along with her father and two of her sisters.

Any biographical sketch of Julia Klumpkey's life would not be complete without mention of the accomplishments of her older sisters, who undoubtedly must have influenced and inspired her. All of the sisters achieved some prominence in Paris, and three were decorated by the French government. The oldest sister, Anna (1856-1942), a close friend and protégé of renowned artist Rosa Bonheur, was honored for her painting, as well as her donation of the Rosa Bonheur Museum to France. Augusta was recognized for her work as a neurologist and for her establishment, along with her husband Dr. Jules DeJerine, of the DeJerine Foundation for the study of nervous diseases. Dorothea (Klumpkey) Roberts (1861-1942) was recognized for her contributions to astronomy while Mathilda, like Julia after her, was an accomplished musician and served as the accompanist for the renowned violinist Ysäye. The Klumpkey sisters had one brother, William, an engineer, who died of spinal meningitis in World War I.

Of Julia Klumpkey's published works,the majority were written for solo strings, string ensembles, solo voice, and choir. Among the list of published works are : "Wait on the Lord," "The Lord is my Shepherd", and "He Shall Give His Angels Charge Over Thee" for chorus; "Candle Lighting Song", "In Flanders Field", "Songs for Children" for solo voice ; and Valse Fantaisiste", "Lullaby", and "Moods", for violin and piano. While a few of Klumpkey's works were published internationally by Senart and Novello, the majority were published by local San Francisco publishers Wesley Webster, and George Austin. With the strong interest in women composers today, it is my hope that some of Julia Klumpkey's works will become part of that repertoire.

Member News

CHAPTER OFFICERS

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Antonio Calvo
University of the Pacific
3601 Pacific Avenue
Stockton, CA 95211
acalvo@uop.edu

Past Chair
Patricia Elliott Stroh
Center for Beethoven Studies
One Washington Square
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0171
pelliott@email.sjsu.edu

Secretary/Treasurer
Alicia Snee
CSUS Library
2000 State University Drive
Sacramento, CA 95819-6039
alicias@csus.edu

Newsletter Editor
Jason Gibbs
Art and Music Center
San Francisco Public Library
Civic Center
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4525