The Marcel Moyse Archive at The New York Public Library

This archive is housed at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York City and is being catalogued as “The Marcel Moyse Collection“.

NB: the materials are stored off site from the main library. You MUST contact the library ahead of time to order materials to view on site. Contact the Music Division here.

The collection includes:

  • Rare photographs
  • Letters to Moyse from well-known musicians such as Gaubert, Ibert, Rampal
  • Manuscripts of unpublished study books
  • Audio and videotapes of lessons and master classes

The Marcel Moyse Society and The New York Public Library welcome any new materials to this archive.

Papers

The majority of the collection consists of Moyse’s papers relating to his work as a teacher of the French-style of flute playing. The scores series contains exercises and studies by numerous composers that Moyse used in his teachings and in the writing of his 37 books of studies for the flute.

Correspondence

The collection also illuminates his impact on the musical field through his correspondence with his past students. The clippings series contains numerous articles published about Moyse in several different languages. This series is especially helpful for biographical information about Moyse, as well as charting his career as a performer.

Photographs

Another series of note is the photograph series, which contains a visual representation of Moyse’s entire life from his early childhood to his death. Notably absent from the collection are the numerous watercolors and artwork that Moyse created; however, this collection does have a small representation of those works.

 

“His legato was so perfect that you really weren’t conscious of the fact that he was playing the flute at all.  It was just a sound, and that sound seemed to hang in the air and scintillate.”

G. Gilbert