Overview
Contains full musical score and parts for two ballets by Halim El-Dabh's, Lucifer and A Look at Lightening, both commissioned and choreographed by Martha Graham.
Dates
- Creation: 1961-2008
Creator
- El-Dabh, Halim, 1921-2017 (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Condition Description
Good
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.5 linear feet (3 boxes)Collection includes an autograph manuscript fair copy of the score for Lucifer with numerous autograph corrections; and photographic copies of selected pages of the full score, heavily annotated, with parts for strings, winds, harp, piano, tipani, and percussion. Additionally contains autograph manuscript fair copy of the full score for A Look at Lightening, with performance notes and annotations, as well as parts for harp, bassoon, English horn, and flute.
Biographical / Historical
Halim El-Dabh was an Egyptian-born composer, performer, professor and ethnomusicologist. He came to the United States in 1950 on a Fulbright fellowship, soon becoming part of the New York music scene. The work Lucifer was commissioned and choreographed by Martha Graham; El-Dabh composed three other ballet scores for Graham.
Arrangement
Two groupings are included; one regarding Lucifer and another regarding A Look at Lightening. Each grouping is in original order.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020MT-17, 2020MT-91. Purchased with funds from the Howard D. Rothschild Bequest, 2019 July and 2020 January.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019 August. Accrual processed by Betts Coup, 2020 January.
Creator
- El-Dabh, Halim, 1921-2017 (Person)
- Graham, Martha (Choreographer, Person)
- Title
- El-Dabh, Halim, 1921-2017. Halim El-Dabh ballet scores, 1961-2008 (MS Thr 1973): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 August 19
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03249
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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