The Gustave Reese Collection preserves materials connected to one of the foundational figures of 20th-century musicology. Reese (1899–1977), often called the “father” of American musicology, left behind books, manuscripts, and correspondence that offer insight into the scholarship that helped bolster the study of early music.

At the center of the collection are first editions and original manuscript materials for Reese’s landmark studies Music in the Middle Ages (1940) and Music in the Renaissance (1954). Long regarded as foundational texts in the discipline, these books shaped generations of scholarship and pedagogy, defining how early music would be studied, taught, and understood throughout the 20th century.

The archival materials, housed in room 3492 of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York,  reveal the intellectual and editorial processes behind these monumental studies. Drafts, revisions, annotations, and working documents trace the construction of Reese’s historical narratives and demonstrate the depth of archival and comparative research that underpinned his work. Together with the published first editions, they document the transformation of early music studies into a field grounded in rigorous historical inquiry and its institutionalization in the United States. 

Explore the Gustave Reese Collection and encounter the foundations of medieval and Renaissance music scholarship in their original form.

Contact information:

Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 817-1991

cmrd@gc.cuny.edu