Music Manuscripts and Scores Collection

This collection includes scores (both published and manuscript) of music composed or arranged by former faculty members of the College of St. Catherine/St. Catherine University. It also includes works with other connections to St. Kate's, such as works by musicians who came to campus to perform, conduct, or teach -- some being commissioned by St. Kate's, or dedicated to people at St. Kate's. Choral, vocal, piano, organ, chamber, and orchestral works are represented.

Also included are two letters dated 1946 from the composer Ernst Krenek, who wanted to have a mass said in Our Lady of Victory Chapel in memory of his father, who had died in Vienna the previous December. In the first letter (March 20, 1946), Krenek offers to compose a work for the college choir. A score of that work, In Paradisum: Motet for Women's Voices a Capella, is included in this collection.

Additional music scores are held in the Biales Papers and in the Ruth Sawyer Durand Papers. Music scores in the Rare Book Room include five manuscripts from medieval choir books; in the St. Kate's Authors Collection, a number of works composed or edited by faculty or staff; in the Catherine Collection, music to lyrics by Sr. Maris Stella; and the John Ritchie Collection of 19th-century piano-vocal scores.