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Ramiro Cortés papers, 1933-1988

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Cortés, Ramiro, 1933-1984
Title
Ramiro Cortés papers
Dates
1933-1988 (inclusive)
Quantity
50 linear feet
Collection Number
MS 0513
Summary
The Ramiro Cortés papers (1933-1988) document the personal and professional life of the first significant Mexican-American composer, Ramiro Cortés (1933-1984), of serious twentieth-century music in the United States.
Repository
University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860

Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu
Access Restrictions

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Ramiro Cortés was born November 25, 1933, in Dallas, Texas, to Ramiro Cortés Sr. and Elvira Acosta Cortés, parents of Mexican origin. This marriage ended in divorce, when his father left the family in 1936. His brother, Arturo, was one year old. Ramiro began his piano studies at age eight and began composing at age eleven. When he was thirteen years old, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, where he continued his piano studies. He attended South High School where he composed many piano pieces, solo and choral works, and a musical show produced by his junior class. In 1950 he began theoretical studies with Joseph Iadone, a former student of Paul Hindemith. Cortés studied harmony, counterpoint, and twentieth century music with Iadone for two years.

In 1951 Cortés enrolled at the University of Denver where he received a full tuition scholarship. This enabled him to continue his studies with Iadone and begin a formal study of composition. Cortés submitted some of his compositions to the National Federation of Music Clubs' competition and was awarded the Charles Ives scholarship to study at the Indian Hill Music School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1952.

In the fall of 1952 he enrolled at the Yale School of Music and in 1953 was the recipient of the John Day Jackson Prize for his composition Introduction and Fugue for string quartet. Later that year he enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl.

In 1954, Cortés received several awards for his works. Perhaps the most significant was the George Gershwin Memorial Award for Sinfonia Sacra which gave Cortés a great deal of national recognition.

Cortés was the recipient of the Steinway Centennial Award in 1955 for Piano Sonata and of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Prize for Yerma, A Symphonic Portrait. He received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Southern California that same year, and the following summer served as a fellow on the Huntington Hartford Foundation estate in Pacific Palisades.

During his year of graduate studies at the University of Southern California in 1956, Cortés continued his studies with Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study composition with Goffredo Petrass in Rome. Later that year, he received first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers competition.

Cortés received a renewal of the Fulbright scholarship and spent a second year in Rome. The summer of 1958 was spent at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, where he worked on three sacred compositions which had been commissioned by the Concorda Society of Princeton. He was awarded first prize in the Broadcast Music Inc. Student Composers competition. The money from this award was used to finance Cortés' studies in composition at Princeton with Roger Sessions during the fall semester. While at Princeton, he composed a score commissioned by the Pittsburgh Bicentennial Association for a film on the history of Pittsburgh. While at Princeton, he also wrote a song cycle on poems by Herman Melville which earned him the George Bolek Memorial Award of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Cortés again returned to the Huntington Hartford Foundation for the summer of 1959.

In New York during February of 1960, Cortés married Nancee Heimbecher Charles--Charles was her professional name--whom he had met in junior high school. During that year he received the John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship. The most important score he produced was Symphony in Three Movements for small orchestra. He submitted this composition to the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium International Competition, and was awarded the silver medal.

Cortés enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in 1961 and held the Rodgers and Hammerstein Scholarship. He received two additional awards while attending Juilliard: the Alexandre Gretchaninoff Memorial Prize and the Benjamin Prize. He finished course requirements for his master's degree in 1962. That same year he received an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Cortés worked as a computer programmer for Systems Development Corporation from 1963 to 1966 when he was invited to be a visiting lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles. The following year he was offered a faculty position at the University of Southern California, and in 1970 he was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 1971 he and Nancee separated and were divorced a year later. In 1972-1973 he served as composer in residence at the University of Utah and the following year he joined the faculty as chair of theory and composition. He continued to teach at the University of Utah until his death in 1984. Cortés spent 1978-1979 in Los Angeles on sabbatical from the University of Utah. In the latter year, he and Nancee were remarried. He studied the works of Igor Stravinsky extensively, and presented fifty-five lectures on the music of Stravinsky for the Utah radio station KUER in 1982. Ramiro Cortés died of heart failure July 2, 1984, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age fifty-one.

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Content Description

The collection has been divided into eight sections. The first two boxes contain autobiographical and biographical materials, resumes, academic records, and items of a personal nature. There are also address books, membership lists, and daily and weekly planners. These include calendars dating from 1966-1984, which document the years Cortés spent teaching at the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Utah. Correspondence is housed in box three. Most of the personal letters are correspondence between Nancee from Ramiro dating from 1959-1976. General correspondence has been alphabetically arranged. Certificates, awards, diplomas, and miscellaneous information regarding schools, institutions, and competitions can be found in box four.

The second section contains newspaper and magazine articles dealing primarily with Cortés and his career. There are concert and recording reviews, and a few miscellaneous clippings dealing with subjects and people of interest to Cortés and his work.

The programs in the third section reflect the influence and popularity of Cortés' music in the academic community. They date from 1950 to 1993 and include programs, program notes, public performance lists, and selected reviews.

Section four, the smallest portion of the collection, consists of one box. It contains contracts, bills, rental catalogues, and royalty information.

Cortés' musical scores comprise the fifth and most extensive part of the collection. They are housed in boxes eight through fifty-five. The scores have been arranged by the type of work so as to coincide with the Annotated Catalogue of Compositions compiled by his assistant, Vicki Curry, adjunct assistant professor of music at the University of Utah. Works listed in the Composition Index are listed as found in Curry's index. To eliminate redundancy and confusion, only the title and date of each composition has been listed in this register. For a more detailed description on each composition, see the catalogue. A copy of the catalogue and detailed descriptions on each composition can be found in box fifty-six. Box fifty-seven contains two books with Cortés' handwritten lists of compositions.

Section six contains academic materials added to the collection in 1988. Teaching materials used by Cortés have been arranged numerically by course number in boxes fifty-eight through sixty-four. In addition to the course materials, this section also houses student papers, research grant materials and miscellaneous writings. Also included is a compilation of papers by various scholars entitled, "Articles on Ancient Music." Box sixty-seven contains miscellaneous writings including Cortés' poetry and personal notes.

Many of the materials in the seventh section were originally filed with the academic materials. However upon close examination, it was apparent that many of the files had been used after Cortés' death and prior to their deposition in the library. As a result, many items had been previously moved or misfiled. To ensure that everything was filed properly, works identifiable by course number were left with the course materials. Those not identified were removed and filed alphabetically by composer in this section. Individual works by some of the major composers have been listed for easier finding.

Boxes eighty-four through eighty-eight have been restricted at the request of Nancee Cortés. These boxes contain class materials, research materials, newspaper and magazine articles, compositions, correspondence, and Cortés' personal notes dealing with the work of Igor Stravinsky. These items are closed until the year 2011.

The eighth and final section is comprised mainly of miscellaneous published and unpublished materials used by Cortés in his teaching, research, and composing. Most of the publications have notations in the margins. Other items were of sentimental value to Cortés and it was decided to keep them with this portion of the collection. Box ninety-two contains miscellaneous poetry, literature, artwork, biographical information on composers Vladimir Ussachevsky and Richard Wagner, a few newsletters, and various programs. Box ninety-six contains a copy of The Liber Usalis, published in 1950, that was given to Cortés by Joseph Iadone, one of his first music teachers. A copy of the first edition of Finnegan's Wake, signed by author James Joyce, has been stored separately from the collection.

In order to avoid confusion, composition titles in the inventory have been listed in the following manner: Cortés' compositions are listed as found in Vicki Curry's Annotated Catalogue of Compositions, and compositions by composers other than Cortés have been italicized, regardless of classification or type of work.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Preferred Citation

Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Organized in eight series: I. Personal Materials; II. Newspaper and Magazine Articles; III. Programs; IV. Contracts, Royalties, and Recording Information; V. Compositions; VI. Academic Materials; VII. Works by Other Composers; VIII. Miscellaneous Materials.

Arranged alphabetically except compositions are arranged by instrument/performance ensemble.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Nancee Cortés from 1985-1989.

Processing Note

Processed by Karin Hardy in 1995.

Separated Materials

Photographs (P0264) and audio/visual material (A0264) were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections.

Related Materials

See also the Nancee Cortés papers (ACCN 1172).

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid created by Karin Hardy
1995 (last modified: 2018)

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