Edmund Rubbra archive acquired by Bodleian Libraries

Includes letters, programmes, lectures and scores owned by the English composer

Oxford University's Bodleian Libraries have recently acquired the archive of English composer and pianist Edmund Rubbra - including personal letters, programmes, signed presentation copies of scores, talks and lectures, most of which have never been published.

The archive includes a correspondence between Rubbra and his publisher Lengnick from 1946 to 1964, and letters from Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells, Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Henry Wood, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Ernest Moeran, Lennox Berkeley, Arnold Bax, Zoltán Kodály and Jean Sibelius. There is also a collection of scores of Gerald Finzi’s music, signed by the composer and dedicated to Rubbra, and a collection of Rubbra's scores marked with analytical notes.

From 1947 to 1968 Rubbra was a lecturer at the Music Faculty of the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Worcester College. The archive includes notes and scripts from many of the composer's lectures, which also featured on the radio during the 1960s and 70s.

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