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Article Excerpt
Readers of the second series of Notes are doubtless appreciative of the Herculean efforts of its editor of the early years, Richard S. Hill. But many may not be aware of the prodigious labors of Hill's longtime coeditors, William Lichtenwanger and Frank C. Campbell. Both toiled faithfully in the various subsections and interconnecting pathways of each issue of Notes. Each participated for more than seventeen consecutive years; that is, more than seventy consecutive issues. Lichtenwanger was the "guest editor" who wrote "Notes for Notes" when Hill could not, who became acting editor during Hill's final illness, who was editor for eight issues after Hill's death, simultaneously continuing his previous duties as associate editor. It was a killing task from which he sought relief. He resigned both aspects of the Notes work prior to the publication of vol. 20, no. 4 (Fall 1963). That issue carries his name as editor, but the unsigned "Notes for Notes" mentions "the regretted resignation of Bill Lichtenwanger." In fact, "Frank Campbell [associate editor] ... out of the goodness of his heart ... finished volume twenty of Notes." (1) Thereafter Lichtenwanger contributed infrequently to the journal, focusing his efforts on editing, the Henry Cowell catalog, the Star Spangled Banner research, and other projects.
William John Lichtenwanger was born in Asheville, North Carolina, 28 February 1915, the only child of John Matthew and Lelia Gertrude (Williams) Lichtenwanger. (2) His parents were originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, to which they returned when Bill (3) was two-and-a-half years old; his father worked as a bookkeeper. When the Depression hit Knoxville in 1930-31 his father lost his job, just as it was time for Bill's college years.
Paul Wentworth Matthews, Bill's high school music teacher, was very influential in Bill's musical education. Matthews took special interest in Bill and invited him to his house to hear records. Bill began the study of the clarinet at age thirteen. He played in both the high school orchestra and band--which was much better than that of the University of Tennessee, located in Knoxville. So the high school band played at the university's football games, both home and away. By the time he was a senior in high school Bill knew he wanted a career in music. He listened to the broadcast concerts from Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras, and later, the Metropolitan Opera. He requested brochures from the University of Michigan and Interlochen, and selected the university for his academic career.
To no avail! His parents were determined against a musical life. The plight of musicians during the Depression exacerbated their opposition. His father advocated a business career, perhaps as a certified public accountant. His mother favored preacher or medical missionary as suitable careers for her son. In the face of parental opposition to the University of Michigan, Bill was obliged to spend his freshman year at the hometown University of Tennessee, 1933-34.
Summer 1934 Bill played tennis all morning, then drank "gallons of liquids, even though I knew better, even then." (4) The combination caused a severe illness during which he became delirious at times. "While delirious he was so very vocal about how much he hated Tennessee and how much he wanted to go to the University of Michigan that his mother relented" and found a way to send him. (5) In 1928, her maternal aunt had left her a legacy of $30,000, of which only the interest on $20,000 could be spent. That was enough to get Bill to Ann Arbor the fall of 1934. (6)
In Ann Arbor Bill, who wanted to enroll in the musicology program, consulted Dr. Earl Moore, a professor in the School of Music, who advised he enroll in the undergraduate program in music education, "so you can get a job," and consider musicology later on the graduate level. The music education program required rudimentary skills on many instruments, which was quite easy for Bill. In Ann Arbor he played more oboe and English horn than clarinet, percussion in the band, and finally, double bass in Thor Johnson's Little Symphony. (7) Bill writes that he played "with adequate musicianship but mediocre technique." (8)
March 1936, his junior year, he became music reviewer for the Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper. The position paid five dollars an evening. He lost that job in March 1939 because of a political article which came down on the wrong side of the paper's politics. Subsequently the Ann Arbor Daily News, an afternoon town paper, hired him at ten dollars a column. He regretted the Michigan Daily incident because he considered himself "apolitical, I was busy being a music student." (9) The reviewing experiences soured Bill on reviewing and the life of a reviewer:
too many lousy recitals that you'd heard before; writing, to a large degree, about old things ... and I had sense enough to know that I just didn't have it in me to be brilliant as a writer and if you weren't going to be brilliant in something like that, what's the point? (10)
Bill graduated with his B.Mus. in 1937 and began the coursework for the M.Mus. During 1937-38 he worked with Henry Bruinsma to assemble and set up a music library for the School of Music. Heretofore, music materials had been in the general library collection and each music professor kept a library in his office. That first year, Bruinsma was music librarian, Bill his assistant earning $600. The sixth floor of the nearly-completed Burton Tower was the site selected for the library; the corresponding room on the seventh floor functioned as the library storage area. Bruinsma and Bill collected existing music materials from the offices of School of Music faculty to that central location, a room ca. 36' X 18'. There was a Dutch door to the Music Library office where readers were serviced. (No tables or chairs were available for reading or study.) The band library was included in this location and orchestra parts for the Choral Union's May Festival were prepared here. Prior to each May Festival the librarians worked long-distance with staff of the orchestra engaged for the festival (the Chicago and Philadelphia Orchestras during Bill's tenure). Orchestrations were rented from Mapleson or Tams-Witmark. The librarians, working with National Youth Administration (NYA) workers--University of Michigan students--copied parts as necessary to accommodate cuts and segues in the rented parts. The librarians were responsible for supervising and scheduling the approximately forty part-time NYA workers.
Bruinsma graduated (1938) and Bill was named music librarian--with his photo in the university catalog and a 50-percent salary increase. That fall, 1938, he interviewed Dorothy Tilly of the Detroit Public Library about the problems he was encountering in his library. Books were the major problem; she helped with that. The flood of summer-school graduate students caused logistical problems. Bill began the cooperation between the School of Music Library and the University Library so the latter would accept reserve materials for the music students. The music appreciation classes required records--which he cataloged, preparing typed cards and analytics. Tilly suggested he join the Music Library Association, his initial exposure to the organization.
By now he had settled on music librarianship as a career and wondered about abandoning the music master's and its thesis in favor of library school. (11) He sought the advice of William Warner Bishop, University of Michigan librarian, who advised completing the degree program and its thesis as the best preparation for Bill's planned career as a music reference librarian.
The thesis topic, a history of the clarinet, took him to the Library of Congress for two weeks in September of 1939 and two more weeks at Christmas. At that time Harold Spivacke, chief of the library's Music Division, had gained a new staff position for fiscal 1940. And, Dr., Moore, as head of the national Works Progress Administration (WPA) music project, was working in Washington for the academic year 1939-40. The combination of Bill's persona in the Music Division and Moore's recommendation secured for him that position, effective fall 1940.
The M.Mus. achieved in 1940, Bill resigned from the Music Library at Michigan the end of the summer and drove to Washington via Ashville, North Carolina, where his Michigan friend, Thor Johnson, was conducting his fourth annual Asheville Mozart Festival. Singing Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte was Carolyn Creson, a student of Clifford Bair, voice professor at Salem College, Winston-Salem. Bill and Carolyn met in Asheville on a blind date arranged by Thor's sister; ten months later, 29 May 1941, they were married.
Bill moved to the Washington area--he lived in Arlington--to begin at the Library of Congress on 1 September 1940, which was a Sunday. Monday was Labor Day so his first day in the Library was actually 3 September, spent largely in the personnel office filling out forms. Wednesday he reported to the Music Division for an orientation by Edward N. Waters who, whatever his exact title at the time, functioned as assistant chief of the division. Waters assigned him to Margaret Hasselbush who was in charge of preparing cards for the cataloging done in the division. Working from sheets, Bill typed headings on the tops of catalog cards. After a few months during which Waters gave Bill odd jobs to help him learn more about the division, Bill became an assistant to Richard S. Hill, who had been hired the previous September (1939) as the division's first reference librarian. (12)
Bill was inducted into the army, 21 April 1941, in Richmond and sent to Fort Lee which was located between Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. His first two years were spent playing clarinet and sousaphone in bands, (13) double bass in dance bands, "ruining" his Saturday nights. By July 1943 he was in the language program of the Army Specialized Training...
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