Material Study and Preservation of Musical Scores and Ephemera in the John A. Bavicchi Archive

Only in recent decades have music libraries become more aware of the importance of preservation of musical scores and materials in their collections. It follows that the preservation goals in a library differ from those in a museum due to the specific purpose of the collecting institution. As a student of paper conservation in an art museum setting and a musician with classical training, I wanted to investigate the scope of art conservation as it applies to cultural heritage objects outside the realm of works of visual art in a museum—namely the musical scores and ephemera contained in the Bavicchi archive in the ASU Music Library Special Collections. The archive is a large, unexplored collection of materials pertaining to approximately ninety opuses composed by the teacher, conductor, and composer, John A. Bavicchi (1922-2012). These materials include final scores, drafts of scores, preliminary sketches, programs from performances, correspondence, news publications, publishing agreements, and financial records. Although these types of ephemera materials are transitory by nature and pose considerable problems for the institution responsible for their preservation, the goal of this project is to demonstrate the importance of preserving non-art objects related to non-visual artforms in a music library context, to show the value of musical ephemera in general, and to advocate for the care of the Bavicchi archive in particular. Using one Bavicchi composition, Opus 51, as a case study from which to develop a protocol for the preservation of the rest of the archive, I made an inventory of all seventy-four objects pertaining to Opus 51, executed and documented conservation treatment, and implemented proper housing for all objects. Making sure to consider how and where these archival materials are most likely to be used—for scholarly research in a music library—I established guidelines for evaluating condition and assigning treatment priority, provided descriptions of relevant remedial treatment procedures, and recommended rehousing and potential preservation practices. Additionally, I offered justification for my conservation work through the contextualization of the archival materials relating to Opus 51. I provided an initial musical analysis of the archival materials and compared the informational content of the Opus 51 ephemera to general information gathered from outside sources, with the intention of illustrating the need to preserve these materials in order to better understand Bavicchi’s compositional process and the public reception of his work.