Alice Esty papers, 1814-1999, undated
Abstract
The papers of soprano Alice Esty include original and photo-reproduced manuscripts of unpublished musical compositions for solo voice and piano by several major composers of the twentieth century, including Francis Poulenc, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Paul Bowles, Claire Mann, Henri Sauguet, and Ben Weber. Many of these compositions represent collaborative efforts between musicians and poets, including Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, e.e. cummings, and Guillaume Apollinaire, and some include Esty’s performance annotations. Related correspondence is also included, as are letters with close friends and other composers such as William Matthews, Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. Also included are the transcripts of Thomas Parkman Cushing’s letters and diaries, the originals of which are presumed lost. Cushing (1787-1854), an affluent and important shipping merchant in Boston during the mid-nineteenth century, was the founder of Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.