Blogpost written by former CFPRT Scholar, Cierra Ott

Ciera Ott is a PhD student in Musicology with a primary interest in “American popular musics of the twentieth century, with a special focus on various combinations of vocal studies, gender studies, politics, and aging, particularly within the genres of pop and country music from the second half of the 20th century to today.” Prior to coming to UCLA, she focused on operetta in Weimar Germany before the Third Reich, conducting archival research at the Wienbibliothek and the Ernst Krenek Institute in Vienna, Austria for her master’s thesis. Ciera is proficient with musical notation and possesses reading knowledge of German and Spanish. Continuing work begun by archivist Melissa Haley on the papers of actor, folk singer, and political activist Theodore Bikel (1924-2015), she will be processing a robust series of music materials which includes sheet music, lyrics, songbooks, and copies of scores and songs (some annotated) of folk, classical, show tunes, and other genres that reside in the collection.

This spring, I processed musical materials in the Theodore Bikel Papers. Before my CFPRT experience, I had only ever used archival materials for my own research and it was invaluable for me to see what goes on behind the scenes at an archive.  Processing the collection of a lifelong performer gave me a first hand look at the diversity and complexities of Bikel’s musical world. Over the course of his performing career, Bikel developed a standard repertoire of Jewish folk songs and showtunes, including those famously written for him as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.  While arrangements of these songs form the bulk of Bikel’s music collection, it also contains music dramas, recording materials, and materials related to the American folk revival of the 1950s and 60s.  I was most interested in Bikel’s involvement in the Newport Folk Festival, which he co-founded in 1959 with Pete Seeger, Oscar Brand, George Wein, and Harold Leventhal, and regularly performed at throughout the 1960s.  Pictured below is a breakdown of the finances from an article in the 1966 edition of Sing Out!, a folk music magazine that published folk songs, articles on issues affecting the folk movement, and information on upcoming folk gatherings.