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Lejaren Hiller Resources: Archival Collections

Resources for research into the life and career of composer Lejaren Hiller
Last Updated: Jan 8, 2024 4:16 PM

Archival Collections

Papers that document Lejaren Hiller's life and career consist of correspondence to and from Hiller, concert programs, his prose writings, articles written about him, and various personal documents. Some of this material is held within collections with a broader scope than just Hiller. The chief resources in the Music Library for Hiller papers are listed below.


Lejaren Hiller Papers

This is the principle collection of Lejaren Hiller's papers. It includes correspondence, articles he collected, personal documentation, program notes, grant proposals, and more.


Lejaren Hiller Collection of Compositional Flow Charts (Mus. Arc. 5.3)

Flow charts created for computer music compositions by Lejaren Hiller and included as figures and illustrations in his published articles about the processes used in writing computer music, including his works, HPSCHD, Algorithms I and Algorithms III. The collection also contains unidentified flow charts and diagrams, as well as negatives of other charts created by Hiller.


Music Department Notebooks (Treasure Room)

Circa 133 binders containing clippings, programs, reviews, and announcements for musical events offered under the auspices of the Music Department since 1960. Arranged in chronological order with no other indexing.


Archive of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts

This collection contains the operational records of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts. It includes a relatively small amount of correspondence to and from Hiller, as well as concert programs and clippings.

Scores for compositions by Lejaren Hiller are held in a few different archival collections in the UB Music Library.


Lejaren Hiller Collection of Scores (Mus. Arc. 5.4)

This is the principle collection of Hiller's scores. It contains manuscripts, copyist's copies, and published scores.

Jan Williams Collection of Annotated Scores (Mus. Arc. 10.1)

The collection contains seven scores of works by Lejaren Hiller, all marked for performance by percussionist Jan Williams.


Yvar Mikhashoff Collection of Annotated Scores (Mus. Arc. 1.7)

This collection contains thirteen scores of works by Lejaren Hiller, all marked by pianist Yvar Mikhashoff. It contains another four unmarked scores.


Michael Pugliese Collection of Scores (Mus. Arc. 15.2)

This collection contains the published score of Lejaren Hiller's Machine Music, marked for performance by percussionist Michael Pugliese.

The UB Music Library holds archival recordings of Lejaren Hiller speaking and performances of his music, including with him as performer. The recordings are divided among several collections.


Lejaren Hiller Collection of Audio Tape Recordings, 1958-1985

The collection contains Lejaren Hiller's personal collections of reel to reel tapes pertaining to his compositional output. It includes recordings of live performances of works as well as recordings of some of the electronic source materials used in other compositions.

Seventy-two of Hiller's compositions, out of an approximate total of eighty works, are included in the collection. Almost all of the recorded performances in the collection took place under Hiller's direction, or in his presence. They represent a historical record of his performance preferences and possibly contain critical information about performance practices of the period. The tapes for Hiller's electronic music compositions are unique to this collection. Multiple tapes exist for many of the compositions that combine electronic and acoustic sound sources. One tape may contain the electronic cues for a work and another tape an entire performance of the work. There are also multiple tapes of electronic sound sources for those of Hiller's compositions that are entirely electronic.


Concert performances of music by Lejaren Hiller at UB

Lejaren Hiller's music was performed on the following concert or tape series: