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Subjects Collections Collection Types Creators

Jean Stor / W. Astor Morgan scores

Overview

Abstract

Scope and Contents

Biographical Note

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

Instrumental music

Vocal music

Unfinished and fragmentary works

Published Music

Works by other composers

Scripts and Miscellaneous Papers

Photographs

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Title: Jean Stor / W. Astor Morgan scores, 1918-1961

ID: 2000/STOR_2004

Primary Creator: Stor, Jean

Extent: 21.0 . More info below.

Arrangement:

The scores are arranged in seven series:

Series 1: Instrumental music

Series 2: Vocal music

Series 3: Unfinished and fragmentary works

Series 4: Published works

Series 5: Works by other composers

Series 6: Scripts and miscellaneous papers

Series 7: Photographs

Date Acquired: 09/00/2001

Subjects: African Americans--Music, Composers, Black

Jean Stor was the pseudonym for William Astor Morgan, a composer, choral conductor, and playwright impresario who worked mainly in New York City beginning in the early 1920s. The collection consists of manuscripts and scores, dated circa 1918–1961, including music scores for a number of symphonies, tone poems, concertos and other classical works, along with choral works, spiritual arrangements, art songs, popular songs, and theatrical numbers. The classical works are not the original manuscripts but of tissues and ozalid copies. Also included are several play scripts, short stories, and photographs.

Manuscripts and scores, dated circa 1918–1961, including music scores for a number of symphonies, tone poems, concertos and other classical works, along with choral works, spiritual arrangements, art songs, popular songs, and theatrical numbers. The classical works are not the original manuscripts but of tissues and ozalid copies. Also included are several play scripts, short stories, and photographs. Although opus numbers were assigned to the works, very few include compostion dates.

Jean Stor was the pseudonym for William Astor Morgan, a composer, choral conductor, and playwright impresario who worked mainly in New York City beginning in the early 1920s. Stor’s musical career began in the church, and throughout his life he often served as a church organist and choir director. He studied music in college in addition to directing performing groups, and his military service was spent as a band member and chorus director. From 1920 to 1925 he ran his own music publishing business, Arrow Music Publishing. Subsequently he became director of the classical department for Clarence Williams’s publishing house. From 1929-1931 Stor headed the music department at Selden Institute in Brunswick, Georgia. While there he was able to collect and arrange Negro spirituals. He returned to New York and founded the Jean Story Symphony Choir, which performed on various radio stations. During the 1930s he also ran the Nile Little Theater, which performed original plays, and worked as an arranger for Handy Brothers Publishing. In July of 1942 Stor’s First Suite for Strings was performed at Lewisohn Stadium in New York by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Dean Dixon. That composition and his Second Suite for Strings were also performed on the radio. In 1947 he composed incidental music for a production of Rain by the American Negro Theater, but according to the New York Times, the music was not performed because of budgetary problems. Little is known about Stor’s later life. Around 1960 he was befriended by music publisher Joseph Lewis, who took possession of Stor’s scores after his death and donated them to the Center for Black Music Research in 2001.

pseudonym of W. Astor Morgan

Repository: Center for Black Music Research

Alternate Extent Statement: 9 linear feet (21 boxes)

Access Restrictions: None

Use Restrictions: None

Physical Access Note: Includes photographs

Technical Access Note: Copyright permissions addressed to Joseph S. Lewis III

Acquisition Source: Joseph Lewis and Bettijean Andrade