Percy A. Scholes

Percy A. Scholes, English musical writer, broadcaster, educator and encyclopedist (Headingley, Leeds, 24 July 1877-Vevey, 31 July 1958).

Acquired by the National Library of Canada in 1957, the professional library of Percy A. Scholes, best known for his Oxford Companion to Music, included approximately 50 linear metres of research files originally intershelved with his books. These files contain cross-references to information on the given subject in other publications or collections; notes by Scholes or his assistants, including pertinent paragraphs copied out of journals such as the Musical Times; clippings from newspapers, magazines and concert programmes; pamphlets, playbills, programmes, publicity flyers and other informative material about individuals, groups, associations, institutions and subjects. Of particular note, however, is the correspondence also found in the files from eminent musicians of the first half of the 20th century. Some examples are Arnold Bax, Arthur Bliss, Rutland Boughton, Arnold Dolmetsch, Edward Elgar, Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), John Ireland, Edmund Rubbra, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Scholes's approximately 2500 picture files also offer valuable documentation. Besides the references to published pictorial information and clippings of reproductions, the files contain original photographs, including formal portraits and snapshots, or photographic copies used in his own publications.

An inventory of the collection, including an index to the correspondence and a bibliography of the pamphlets, is in preparation. Cf. Maria Calderisi, "An Unsung Treasure at the National Library of Canada : The Percy A. Scholes Collection" in Fontes Artis Musicae 41/1 (January-March 1994) : 53-65.