Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian-born composer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1945 and had a revolutionary impact on 20th-century music. He wrote important scores that redefined music, breaking new ground. His ballets such as The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring are landmarks of classical music composition.
Stravinsky’s trip to Vancouver in the 1950s and the encounters with H. Colin Slim left an enduring mark on the life of this music student, who began to avidly develop a collection of materials related to the Russian composer. Decades later, Slim would generously donate a significant collection to UBC, which would be known as The H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection, considered the largest of its kind in Canada.
Let’s learn a bit more about the donor and check out some of the fascinating items that are part of this collection!
Born in Vancouver, Harry Colin Slim (1929-2019), was a prominent musicologist, conductor and pianist who studied at the University of British Columbia earning a B.A. in 1951 and later obtained Ph.D. in music history from Harvard University in 1959.
One of the major events that inspired him to pursue academic musical studies and sparked his lifelong passion to the Russian composer took place in1952. That year, Dr. Slim performed in two Vancouver premieres by Stravinsky—the Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion and the ballet Les Noces (Cantata in Four Scenes). Few months afterwards, Stravinsky travelled to Vancouver to perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, in which Dr. Slim had the opportunity to meet the composer and spend time with him. They met once again in 1966 in Los Angeles, when Dr. Slim took part in two choral pieces directed by Stravinsky.
Dr. H. Colin Slim, donor of the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection. Image from University of California, Irvine – Claire Trevor School of the Arts website
From those meetings, Dr. Slim began to collect various types of materials related to Stravinsky such as manuscripts, including letters, musical scores, postcards, programs, private photographs, manuscripts, and musical quotations.
In 1999, Dr. Slim donated more than 140 items from his collection to UBC Library, including a signed edition of the composer’s ballet Petrushka with autograph, an inscribed first edition book of Stravinsky’s Poetics of Music, and numerous period photographs, autographed items, and letters. Some other interesting items collected by Dr. Slim include a mint sheet of 100 postage stamps commemorating Stravinsky’s one-hundredth birthday, issued by the United States Postal Service in 1982, and a tracing of Stravinsky’s right hand with an autograph. In 2002, Dr. Slim published an impressive 358-page catalogue entitled Annotated catalogue of the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection donated by him to the University of British Columbia where he provides detailed transcription, description, acquisition information, provenance, commentary, and works consulted for each item from the collection. Furthermore, if you are interested in knowing more about the people to whom the letters and postcards were addressed or to whom the works were autographed, Dr. Slim does not disappoint; he provides historical context and a glimpse into their relationships.
An image of the cover of the Annotated Catalogue of the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection
In 2017, Dr. Slim donated an additional twenty new items (1911-82) to UBC. In the following year he published Supplement to the annotated catalogue of the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection where he provides an in-depth information about those items as well as some corrections and additions to the first Annotated Catalogue (2002).
An image of the cover of the Supplement to the annotated catalogue of the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection
Among his extensive contributions as a conductor and scholar, between 1988-1991, Dr. Slim served as President of the American Musicological Society and was named an Honorary Member in 2001. In 1993, he received an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University in Canada. He was also a Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of California, Irvine.
To explore all the digitized items in this unique collection visit H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection!
References:
American Academy of Arts & Sciences. (2022, December). Professor Harry Colin Slim. (https://www.amacad.org/person/harry-colin-slim)
American Musicological Society. (2019, December 12). H Colin Slim. (https://www.amsmusicology.org/news/481621/H-Colin-Slim-1929-2019.html)
UBC Music Blog. (2019, October 28). In Memoriam: Remembering Dr. Colin Slim. (https://ubc-music.squarespace.com/blog/2019/10/28/remembering-dr-colin-slim)
UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts. (2020, January 21). H. Colin Slim. (https://www.arts.uci.edu/news/Colin-Slim)
White, E. (2022, December 23). Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer. Britannica. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Igor-Stravinsky)
Woolman, J. (2010, December 23). UBC Library Blog. (https://about.library.ubc.ca/2010/12/23/colin-slim/)
