James Felton Papers

Abstract

Important Information for Users of the Collection

Historical Note

James Felton, Philadelphia music critic, gathered the material in this collection in anticipation of a biography of Leopold Stokowski which he never completed.

Biographical information on Felton: From: Whos Who in America. 42nd edition, 1982-1983. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Whos Who, 1982.

James Bruner Felton. Born October 9, 1927. Music critic, Philadelphia Bulletin. Correspondent with High Fidelity/Musical America. Composer of The Stranger 1951; Piano Sonata, 1965; Homage to The Six (for two pianos 1973, )(orchestrated 1975); Three Moods, (piano suite, 1972); Piano Variations, 1977.

Note 1: The Philadelphia Free Library reported that it has the piano score for Three Moods. In an e-mail message dated 12/21/2002, the librarian there said, It looks professionally printed, 30-40 years old, and apparently self-published (no date, place, etc).

Note 2: The Fleisher Collection at the Philadelphia Free Library reported that it has Feltons Homage to Les Six. In an e-mail message dated 12/19/2002, the curator reported, Adding to the confusion, I see the Who's Who lists the orchestration as 1975; our catalog card doesn't refer to the earlier 2-piano version, but says composed 1974, pointing out the score as Ms. C1973 [sic]. There are a few letters in our permanent file between Felton and Sam Dennison, but nothing about Stokowski. Thats all we have here.

Transcript of his obituary from the October 16, 1999 Philadelphia Inquirer:

JAMES B. FELTON

RETIRED MUSIC CRITIC, 72

James B. Felton, 72, former music critic for the old Evening Bulletin, died Tuesday [October 12] of lung cancer at his home in Center City. Mr. Felton, who composed music, wrote for the Bulletin for 15 years, until it closed in 1982. He retired when the Bulletin stopped publishing. A graduate of Central High School and Gettysburg College, Mr. Felton served in the Army during the Korean War. He has no immediate survivors. A graveside service will be held at 4 p.m. Monday [October 18] in the churchyard of St. James United Methodist Church, Tabor Road and Water Street.

Related collections: in 1999, Howard Serwer created a cross-unit Leopold Stokowski Finding Aid for materials on the conductor in different parts of the Performing Arts Library. That Finding Aid is available in the Lowens Room of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library.

Leopold Stokowski (b.1882) was educated at the Royal College of Music in London. He was organist and choirmaster at St. James, Piccadilly, 1902 05, and at St. Bartholomew's, New York City, 1905 08. Stokowski was Conductor of the Cincinnati Orchestra 1909 12, and of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1912 36, and organized and conducted the All American Youth Orchestra 1940 41. He was Co conductor of the NBC Symphony orchestra 1941 43, founded and conducted the New York Symphony Orchestra 1944 45, conducted the Hollywood Bowl 1945 46, was Music Director for the Houston Symphony Orchestra 1955 60, and both founded and was Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra 1962 72. Mr. Stokowski has appeared in and conducted for various motion pictures and made records for RCA, Columbia, Capitol, Everest, Vanguard, United Artists, London, Unicorn and Desmar Records.

Important subjects: Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra, All American Symphony, Houston Symphony, Hollywood Bowl.

Among Feltons correspondents are: Saul Caston, Sylvan Levin, Philip Kahagan, Manvel Zegler, John Orlando Northcutt, Henry Koster, Rafael Fliegel, Henry Schmidt, Lucien Caillet, Benjamin Kahon, Dane Rudhyar, Harvey Glantz, Mimine Salzedo.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The collection is arranged in alphabetical sequence. Boxes 1 5 are letter size. Boxes 6 10 are legal size. Box 11 is oversize. Box 12 is 8 x 11.

Photographs are in Box 9.

Tapes are in Box 12.

The materials are largely photocopies of newspaper articles, certificates and correspondence relating to Leopold Stokowski. The notebooks contain abstracts of taped interviews with musicians and various individuals who worked with Stokowski.

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The original inventory found with this collection states: The papers of James Felton were deposited with the University of Maryland Archives in 1978 by H. J. Harrar. They came to the Music Library at some time after that and were administered by the Music Librarian until Fall, 2002, when they were turned over to the Curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts. No documentation on the acquisition of this collection is on file at the Performing Arts Library as of 12-11-02.

Processing Information

Arrangement of Collection

This collection is arranged in alphabetical sequence.

• Series 1: Inventory of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection