Glen A. Tuomaala

From 1918 the Cleveland Orchestra lead a nomadic existence performing in local civic halls in and around Cleveland. It was not until 1928 when John Long Severance and his wife Elisabeth (whose father had served as a treasurer of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil) provided the financial resources to build a permanent home for the orchestra. Completed in 1931, Severance Hall quickly earned a reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the world. The new 1998-2000 renovation has also improved and expanded this already beautiful facility at a cost of over $36 million dollars. Even more outstanding than the hall itself has been the many wonderful conductors who have stepped on stage; one of the most memorable being Maestro George Szell.

From 1946 to 1970 Maestro Szell expanded the size of the orchestra, lengthened the performance season from 30 to 52 weeks, began a subscription concert series at New York’s Carnegie Hall, founded the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, lead the construction of a Summer concert home in Blossom, and recorded extensively with CBS Records. His musical and administrative leadership was always respected, and sometimes even feared by the musicians he conducted. Stories abound of his total command of orchestral instrumentation, repertoire, and comprehensive knowledge of remote areas of musical performance. Evidence of this breadth of knowledge can be seen in the George Szell Library located inside of Severance Hall.

The George Szell Library is an extensive catalog of two important musical resources for conductors:

1. Personal scores and parts from his tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra
2. Music reference textbooks from his personal collection

Having grown up with recordings of the Cleveland Orchestra and heard the many rehearsal stories of Maestro Szell it was a joy to sit in the library at Severance Hall and read thru Mozart Symphony No. 39 and Beethoven Symphony No. 1 with his own score markings at my fingertips. His interpretation and musical views were charted among these precious musical pages in the form of bowings, string fingerings, tempo markings, and much more. Even more revealing are the older markings and notes that were crossed out or erased as his opinions developed over countless performances. Maestro Szell’s musical conscience lies among these pages, but his legacy as a life-long learner rests nearby among the dozens of musical reference textbooks from his personal collection.

The expected textbooks on conducting and orchestration are part of his library as well as a complete set of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. What is more significant is the wide variety of other resources from architecture to arts appreciation and elementary string methods. Not only was he dedicated to expanding his knowledge and experience in the field of orchestral music, but just as curious in the other related arts disciplines; a musical connection that we should be grateful to learn from as well. As a music director of one of the finest orchestras in the world his interests and beliefs hold the opportunity of setting a path for future conductors to follow and learn from. Special thanks to Mr. Ron Whitaker, Mr. Don Miller, and Mr. Robert Zimmer at Severance Hall for their assistance. For more information about the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell please view: www.clevelandorchestra.com

Aubert and Landowski - L’Orchestre

Bamberger, Carl, ed. - The Conductors Art

Carse, Adam - The History of Orchestration

Carse, Adam - The Orchestra in the 18th Century

Carse, Adam - The Orchestra from Beethoven to Berlioz

Rudolf, Max - The Grammer of Conducting

Adler - The Art of Accompanying and Coaching

Dannreuther - Musical Ornamentation

Dart, Thurston - The Interpretation of Music

Harding - Origins of Musical time and Expression

Keller - Phrasing and Articulation

Polmetsch – Interpretation

Bate, Phillip - The Oboe

Byden, David – History of Violin Playing

Carabo-Cone - Carabo-Cone Concepts for Strings

Farkas, Phillip - The Art of French Horn Playing

Flesch, Carl - Violin Fingerings

Goodman, Saul - Modern Method for Timpani

Girard, Adrien - La Flute

Gingold, ed. - Orchestral Excerpts for Violin (I-III)

Heman, Christine - Intonation of String Instruments

Rothwell - Oboe Technique

Rothwell - Difficult Passages for Oboe and English Horn (I-IV)

Szegeti, Joseph - Violinist’s Notebook

Schuller - Horn Technique

Solbabitz - The Violin Views and Reviews

Vincent Bach Corporation - Embouchure and Mouthpiece Manual

Davidson, Louis - Trumpet Technique

Geminiani, Francesco - The Art of Playing the Violin

Capet, Lucien - Violin Technique

Kirby - The Kettledrums

Green, Elizabeth - Orchestral Bowings

Flesch, Carl - The Book of Violin Playing

Flesch, Carl - The Old School of Violin Playing

Phillip, Isidor - Complete School of Technique for the Pianoforte

Winternitz, Emanuel - Musical Instruments of the Western World

Bauman - Elementary Musicianship

Bellermann – Contrapunkt

Diller - First Theory Book

Eschman - Changing Forms in Modern Music

Gedalge / Davis - Treatise on the Fugue

Hanson - Harmonic Material of Modern Music

Hindemith - The Craft of Musical Composition

Hindemith - Traditional Harmony

Katz, Adele T. - Challenge to Musical Traditional: a New Concept of tonal Harmony

Keller, Herman - Thoroughbass Method

Kurth, Ernst - Romantische Harmonik

Lytle - The Theory and Practice of Strict Counterpoint

Reti - The Thematic Process in Music

Salzel - Structural Hearing

Salzer and Somachter - Counterpoint in Composition

Schenker - Beethoven’s IX Sinfonie

Schoenberg - Structural Construction of Harmony

Stravinsky and Craft - Themes and Episodes

Beranek, Leo L. - Music, Acoustics, and Architecture

Culshaw, John - The Ring Resounding

Culshaw, John - The Performing Arts: Problems and Prospects

Dickson, Harry Ellis - Gentlemen, More Dolce Please!

Downes, Olin - On Music

Einstein, Alfred - Essays on Music

Knudsena and Harris - Acoustical designing in Architecture

Kolodin, Irving - The Metropolitain Opera

Meyer, Leonard B. - Music, the Arts, and Ideas

Meyer, Leonard B. - Patterns and Predictions in the 20th Century

Mitchell and Salzer - The Music Forum

Reger, Max - Modulations Lehre

Rich - Careers and Opportunities in Music

Rolland, Romain - Essay’s on Music

Roth, Ernst - The Business of Music

Sarnoff, David - Looking Ahead

Winternitz, Emanuel - Leonardo’s Invention of the Viol Organista

Winternitz, Emanuel - Melodic, Chordal, and other Drums Invented by Leonardo

Winternitz, Emanuel - Leonardo’s Invention of Key-Mechanisms for Wind Instruments

Plus multiple books on scene design