Guide to the John Verrall Papers
1929-1993

Biographical Note

John Verrall was born in Britt, Iowa, in 1908 and died in Seattle in 2001. He was a composer and professor of music at the University of Washington from 1948 to 1973. He received a B.M. from the Minneapolis College of Music in 1929 and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1934. Verrall studied composition with Zoltan Kodaly at the Liszt Conservatory of Music in Budapest. He also studied with Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Frederick Jacobi. Before becoming an editor for G. Schirmer and the Boston Music Company, he taught at Hamline University from 1934 to 1942 and at Mount Holyoke College from 1942 to 1946. Verrall received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947 and a D.H. Lawrence Fellowship in 1964. He taught composition at the University of Washington from 1948 until his retirement in 1993.

Verrall composed works in a variety of different genres, ranging from solo piano works for children to large orchestral and operatic pieces. He wrote seven string quartets, and composed or arranged a large number of works for the solo french horn with accompaniment. For the Washington Centennial Celebration, he wrote a choral symphony in honor of Chief Joseph; it was premiered by the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra in 1989. Many of his compositions used a nine-pitch scale consisting of two tetrachords on either side of a central pitch that was alterable (C-Db-Eb-E, F or F#, G-Ab-Bb-B).

Scope and Content

The John Verrall papers consist almost entirely of musical compositions and arrangements by John Verrall. The music is primarily made up of the composer's facsimile editions printed by the American Composers Alliance (ACA). There are also published musical scores but only a few handwritten manuscripts. However, many of the printed copies have handwritten notes. Some published works are labled "analysis copy" and contain highlighting and musical analysis, presumably by Verrall. Other pieces consist of copy masters for proofreading and editing. Pieces with significant correction markings or added notation have been noted on the inventory. Some pieces contain penciled-in performance markings and bowings.

Also included are Verrall's arrangements of works by other composers, most notably Bach, Mozart, Edvard Grieg, and Stephen Heller; compositions of other composers; an article by John Beale entitled "The Music of John Verrall"; and Verrall's personal catalog of his compositions, which sometimes contains information about the premiere performances and the performers of the compositions.

Arrangement

Arranged by type of document.

Restrictions on Use

The creator's literary rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Restrictions on Access

The papers are open to all users.

Separated Material

Twenty-one duplicate scores, including some parts, were transferred to the University of Washington Music Library, June 4, 2004.

Preferred Citation

John Verrall Papers. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.

Acquisition Info

Most of the Verrall papers were donated by John Kunz on November 29, 2001. A few additional scores, including a program and an annotated copy of the prologue and first act of The Cowherd and the Sky Maiden, were transferred from the University of Washington Music Library on March 22, 2004.

Processing Info

Processed in 2004 by Nicholas Netzel.

In processing the papers, efforts were made to keep the highest quality and most complete version of each work.

Inventory