Organ students explore composers' manuscripts in the Yale Library

Students in the ISM organ studio recently visited the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library to learn about all of the resources available to them in the library’s physical spaces, as well as in the vast trove of Yale’s digital resources online. While there, Suzanne Lovejoy, the music librarian for access and research services, introduced the students to holograph manuscripts by Paul Hindemith, the Neumeister manuscript, the manuscript of Variations on America by Charles Ives, and a re-issue of the original edition of Haydn’s Creation.

Clayton Farmer, one of the first-year M.M. organists, remarked: “After years of listening to, learning about, or practicing the landmarks of Western music, there we were in the room with these very landmarks. Haydn’s Creation, a special favorite of mine, was present in the very score that he or his contemporaries would have used to perform it to smashing success all across Europe.”

The students are part of the studio of professors Martin Jean and James O’Donnell. They attend weekly seminars to discuss and learn about various topics, in addition to performing for one another.

Photos by Nathan Elsbernd M.M. ‘26

Learn more about studying organ at the ISM and Yale School of Music