MLA Newsletter

Adapted from an August 4, 2016, conversation between Ellwood ‘Woody’ Pitman Colahan (University of Denver) and Suzanne Moulton-Gertig (University of Denver, retired). 

EPC: Thank you for taking the time today for this interview and for sharing your recollections of your lengthy career in music librarianship, and your involvement with the Mountain-Plains Chapter of the Music Library Association. I thought, to start, I would ask you to tell us where and when you were born, and details about your education.

SMG: I was born in the middle of the last century in 1950 in Exeter, New Hampshire. Through circumstances including the Vietnam War, an early marriage, and the necessity of moving around with my first husband for his graduate education and teaching positions, I claim three schools contributing to my undergraduate education: the University of New Hampshire, East Carolina University, and James Madison University. Later on, I received two master’s degrees from Kent State University in Library Science and Musicology. My PhD in musicology from [University of Colorado] Boulder was finished much later while working and teaching full time here at [Denver University].

EPC: So, I was going to ask you to describe the trajectory of your career as a librarian, starting out with, what was your inspiration for choosing librarianship as a career?

SMG: I wanted to eat.

EPC: I’ve heard there are better ways to eat.

SMG: Yes, there were, but this was very dependable and legal. When my first marriage ended, upon my acceptance to the musicology program at Kent State, the organ professor at JMU bet me ten dollars to enroll additionally in library school and graduate. I accepted his bet. I’m not a lucky person; I lost. I actually graduated from the library program with a 4.0. Shocking! Lucky me; I got to write two master’s theses – in musicology and library science – on a MANUAL TYPEWRITER.

EPC: Did you pay him the ten dollars?

SMG: Yes! Of course, I did! Actually, I gave him a piano, too.

EPC: Can you describe for us the professional training that you underwent in your library training?

SMG: I was truly fortunate at Kent State — for, along with the regular library courses one always has to take — Kent brought in specialists from the field to teach area concentration courses. The first course I took was music reference. Unfortunately, it was on Saturday morning, 9 to 12. The fortunate part was the instructor: the head of the Oberlin Music Library, John Druesedow, who authored a great early book, the Library Research Guide to Music. In the summers, Kent hired Ben Ludden from Juilliard to teach a course in music librarianship. The course was less philosophical and more practical: how to survive with administration, how to run a music library, and how to answer dumb questions gracefully without hurting patrons’ or colleagues’ feelings, and basically how to keep house. It is critical to note that at this time we [were] without computers; we [were] still typing everything. We truly [were] still typing, and keeping card files, and all sorts of manual endeavors. This course addressed the everyday – in the trenches – how to make it happen – experience. Ben Ludden had quite a sense of humor; he was an older man and bore the silly, stupid, immature things that we did with grace, even accompanying us at the end of the course to a bar, having drinks, and playing Space Invaders with us.

EPC: So, after you finished those two master’s degrees, what are some of the milestones of your professional career?

SMG: In 1982, after I finished both degrees, I got a job in Fitchburg, Massachusetts for one year where I became the music librarian and grant writer for a performing arts series at Fitchburg Public Library. While I enjoyed working on the series, I was an abysmal general reference librarian. I had no patience with the patron who brought in four frozen deer feet and wanted a book on taxidermy, or the woman who demanded that I tell her how many miles Jesus walked. The head of the music department at [the University of Connecticut] walked into that library one day and talked me into his doctoral musicology program, although I suspect that he was more interested in my harp playing for their performing ensembles. After two years at UCONN, two of my three PhD committee members left, and I saw the advertised position at Denver University in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Marie (d. 2021) and Karl Kroeger, who had been asked by DU to screen the applications, picked my application out of the pile. The rest is history.

EPC: And your PhD?

SMG: I gave a paper at a regional [American Musicological Society] meeting my first year and was approached afterward by Bill Kearns from the musicology department at UC Boulder about finishing my PhD with them. It was a lengthy process: I worked full time, married again and inherited a twelve-year-old, picked up the university harp studio along with a couple musicology classes and graduate studies, and played in regional orchestras. Things just got in the way. Nevertheless, I did finally finish it. At DU, along with forging a professional career, I had the opportunity to open two new music libraries. Lamont School of Music moved twice: first in 1985 across town to a separate campus which also housed the law school, then back to a 72-million-dollar new building on main campus in 2002. I believe I learned more than I ever wanted about being patient collaborating with architects, music colleagues, the Provost’s Office, and library and music administrations doing those two projects. During that first year, I spent my initial two months just moving the entire music collection across the city to that first new Lamont School of Music library for a September 1985 opening. Actually, it really took me four months to get the collection in order after the move, the CARL library system terminals up and functioning, and staff hired and trained.

EPC: What do you remember about earlier days of MPMLA?

SMG: Frankly, what I was told over the years. Karl Kroeger at UC Boulder told me that his predecessor Arne Arneson and Jim Wright from University of New Mexico were early organizers back in 1978, but Karl would have the last word on that. The chapter was very established by the time I came to DU in July of 1985. It wasn’t until 1987 that I became even minimally involved in MPMLA.

EPC: So, were Karl Kroeger and Marie Kroeger instrumental in that?

SMG: Yes, they attempted to get me involved right away. In fact, Marie, who actually preceded me in the music library position (but elected to remain at the main library in the reference department), impressed upon me that professional involvement was critical for my academic promotion at DU. The librarians had recently been granted faculty status with all the responsibilities that went with that change in status. Regardless of my involvement with the American Musicological Society (AMS) and the American Harp Society (AHS), I needed the MLA/MPMLA component in my profile more prominently for promotion. MPMLA entered my life when I was talked into hosting the 1987 AMS Rocky Mountain Chapter meeting at DU in a last-minute change of venue. The Kroegers said, “While you’re at it, why don’t you host the MPMLA meeting, too?” I’d been a little hesitant to get into MPMLA. I’d gone to a couple of the national MLA meetings with Dorothy Bognar (UCONN), but I hadn’t really connected with the Mountain Plains Chapter. Marie was adamant: “Oh good. You’re going to be on the Local Arrangements Committee for this meeting because you’re doing the AMS meeting by yourself. I know so-and-so’s name is also on it, but I know you’re doing AMS by yourself. All we need you to do for MPMLA is get the equipment, get the room in Lamont, make food arrangements, and get the hotels, just as you have for AMS-RMC. We will take care of the program itself.” That was my actual introduction to MPMLA. The one early MPMLA experience I regret missing, however, was what became known as the Minneapolis Death March in February of 1988.

EPC: I’ve never heard of the Minneapolis Death March.

SMG: MPMLA has always had this tradition of going to dinner during the national MLA meetings. In fact, I think the other chapters adopted this activity from us. We actually had people from other chapters ask to join us back then.

EPC: But this is something that MPMLA does every year, so it was happening even back then?

SMG: Yes. It was about twenty-seven below-zero that evening in Minneapolis. Since I really didn’t know them very well, I didn’t go. I saw them all gathering, and I thought, “Have I made a mistake here? Should I be joining them?” Too late; they all marched out. In MPMLA practice, one member is tasked to find the restaurant every year. Dorman Smith (d. 2004), who was head of the music library at University of Arizona, was in charge. I heard from Janet Bradford, Laurie Eagleson, and Charles Smith at the next chapter meeting in Albuquerque that Dorman claimed, “I’ve found this great place, the Rheinhaus, and it’s only a couple of blocks away.” Well, a half an hour later, they still hadn’t found the place and they were freezing at twenty-seven below. We also refer to it now as Dorman’s Death March. Save the hosting at DU in 1987, my first real MPMLA meeting was Albuquerque 1989 with Jim Wright hosting and the performance of our first MPMLA musical commission.

EPC: I’ve heard about a tradition that used to take place at annual meetings of commissions. In fact, I found a few of those commissions listed in WorldCat, one by you.

SMG: Well, it is reported to have started with drinking. Karl Kroeger composed the first one, Prosit!: For Eight Wineglasses, Fantasy on a Theme of P.D.Q. Bach.

EPC: That was the one that ended with wineglasses.

SMG: Karl is a composer as well as a music librarian. At the concluding dinner the previous year, people were playing with their wine glass rims, so Karl was asked to write a piece with that feature. Everyone took up a collection, that was really the change after the dinner bill and tip was paid: about 79 cents. Karl composed one cent per measure, and we gave the première in the lounge of the Hotel Posada in Albuquerque. At the conclusion, the wine glasses were to be thrown into the fireplace. Unbelievably, we were granted permission to do this. Unfortunately, there was some wine left in a few of the glasses and it spoiled the new paint job on the inside of the fireplace. As a result, we were banned for life from the hotel. On the last day, Jim Wright took us up in the Sandia Peak Tramway that goes up the mountain near Albuquerque. There’s a bar at the top and we toasted the successful meeting by drinking margaritas at 10,378 feet.

EPC: Every year, the MPMLA members give almost two days’ worth of papers at their annual meetings. That sounds like AMS meetings.

SMG: By the time I hosted that meeting at DU in 1987, it was already an established practice. When I think of those earlier years I was in the chapter, members like Mark Faw (University of Oklahoma) come to mind. Mark used to present great long exposés about food, poetry, or some unexpected topic he developed from operatic literature like “Food and Wine in Verdi Operas” or “Japanese Musical Sources in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly”. The program committee finally scheduled him last, because then we could honestly say, “You know, Mark, we all have to catch a plane.” Of course, there were many music library-related topics, but we never limited our papers solely to music librarianship. At some juncture, we thought it would be interesting if the national MLA meeting had a session where multiple chapter papers would be presented. Thus, the MLA Best of Chapter “competition,” if you will, was started.

EPC: Do you remember any names that stand out as people you worked with in the course of your involvement in MPMLA?

SMG: Well, I’ve talked about some of these early people and, by the time I became very active, I worked with Bob Follet who was at [Arizona State University]; Steve Luttmann at Greeley [Colorado], Cheryl Taranto at [University of Nevada-Las Vegas], and Laurie Eagleson [University of Arizona], who was our faithful Chapter Historian. I hasten to mention the music librarians and staff at [Brigham Young University]. You could not find people who are more driven to make things work, who give up their time and resources to the chapter. Janet Bradford, David Day, Irene Halliday, Myrna Layton, and others there at BYU. Just before I retired, Myrna took over the chapter newsletter, Conventional Title, from me. We had music librarians from large public libraries, as well, like Carolyn Dow at [Lincoln City Libraries] whom everyone in MLA knows and Carol Neighbor at Wichita Public. In the early years, of course, were my mentors and friends, Karl and Marie Kroeger, who kicked me along down the academic road. Karl was even on my PhD written and orals committee.

EPC: Thinking back on your years of involvement in MPMLA, have you held positions in the organization?

SMG: I have: Chair, Vice Chair, Member-at-Large, Newsletter Editor, and Program/Meeting Chair. I believe the only positions I never filled were Secretary, Treasurer, and Chapter Historian.

EPC: So, you’ve been Chair.

SMG: Yes, I was. In fact, I was Chair more than my intended term. I followed Bob Follet in that position. Bob was chair, and a wonderful fellow whom we lost, Gary Mayhood (d. 2010), was Vice Chair/Chair Elect. Gary developed kidney disease and needed a transplant. Actually, some of us tried to find if our blood types were compatible, for we loved Gary and knew we had healthy kidneys to spare. Gary’s blood type was rare and none of us were a match. He did get a donor, but then succumbed to a heart attack and couple years later. During the time Gary Mayhood was supposed to be Chair, Bob Follet ended up doing Gary’s two years. After that, being Vice Chair/Chair Elect, I did my two-year term, and was to be followed by Janet Bradford. Suddenly, Janet Bradford became extremely ill, and I stayed on and did one-and-a-half years of her term until she was well again.

EPC: How about your involvement with MLA on the national level?

SMG: In 2002, MPMLA was responsible for Local Arrangements for the national meeting in Las Vegas. Cheryl Tarranto, Bob Follet, and I shared the chairing responsibility. Being so spread out geographically, Bob and I had to fly to Vegas twice for on-site planning. With very few exceptions, the MPMLA members dug in and really helped the three of us with this challenge. Carolyn Dow managed all the registration for the meeting offsite at Lincoln on her own. I will always be thankful to the librarians and their staff members from the BYU music library, particularly, for they showed up FIVE days before the start of the meeting to help assemble packets, move equipment, and do anything that was needed. With regard to the national MLA, I was on various committees for publication awards. I was head of Best of Chapter Award for a couple years. Afterward, I served on the Epstein Committee as both a member and chair. Following that, I went to the MLA Publications Award for three years, being on that committee and becoming chair. In 2007, I was approached to serve on the program committee for the 2008 national meeting in Newport and became program chair for the 2009 national meeting in Chicago. This was before AR-Editions took over the lion’s share of responsibility, so all the logistical nightmares of rooms, equipment, committee and session meetings, personnel conflicts, MLA Jazz Band rehearsal space, and pulling together the program itself became my special obsession for a year, much to the consternation of my library dean. Looking back on my experience, even though I didn’t do a lot on the national level while I was there, I was proud to be a part of the organization. Nonetheless, I value my time on the chapter level the most. It’s similar to my philosophy on life; everything is local. Despite MPMLA’s being the most “geographically gifted” chapter of MLA, it will always be local and family-like to me.

Suzanne retired from the University of Denver in 2014. Along with her work in MLA and MPMLA, she held chapter chair positions in AMS, served on the board of the American Harp Society, edited The American Harp Journal, edited other publications in musicology and Egyptology, and authored numerous articles, encyclopedia entries, and reviews.

Readers may enjoy perusing the January 1983 edition of MPMLA’s ‘conventional title‘ newsletter, which references names and places described in Suzanne’s interview.