(b Chicago, 30 Oct 1864; d Cambridge, MA, 4 Nov 1953). American patron of music. Her maiden name was Sprague and on 12 November 1891 she married Frederic Shurtleff Coolidge at Chicago. The Berkshire festivals of chamber music, held under her patronage at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, were begun in autumn 1918 as the South Mountain Chamber Music Festival. As an outgrowth of the festivals she created the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in 1925 at the Library of Congress by placing in trust a large sum of money, the income of which is paid to the library. The trust was intended, among other things, to enable the Music Division of the library to conduct music festivals, to give concerts, to offer and award a prize or prizes for any original composition or compositions performed in public for the first time at any festival or concert given under the auspices of the library, and to further the purposes of musicology through the music division of the library. Among the works that have resulted from commissions by the foundation are Copland's Appalachian Spring, Stravinsky's Apollon musagète and Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children.
In 1925 Elizabeth Coolidge presented the library with an auditorium (capacity 511) costing over $90,000 exclusive of the organ, which was also her gift (it was removed in 1954). Her numerous benefactions also included contributions towards the gift of a music building to Yale University (primarily the gift of her mother, Nancy Ann Sprague), an endowment for the first pension fund for the Chicago SO (1916, in memory of her parents), and the establishment of a tuberculosis hospital and a school for crippled children at Pittsfield. In 1932 she instituted the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal ‘for eminent services to chamber music’, which was awarded annually to one or more recipients until 1948, when the library ceased making awards. She was an accomplished pianist and an experienced ensemble player. She began to write music in the 1890s, and composition later became for her primarily a spiritual refuge from the deafness which began to afflict her in her thirties.
For her contributions to education Coolidge received an honorary MA from Yale University, Smith College and Mills College, as well as a DLitt from Mt Holyoke College, a DMus from Pomona College and an LLD from the University of California. She brought many European composers and performers to the USA and contributed towards cultural activity in Europe. In recognition of her European activities she received decorations from several foreign governments, as well as the Medal of Citizenship from the city of Frankfurt and the Cobbett Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London. In 1931 she was admitted by France to the Légion d'Honneur.
The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Papers at the Library of Congress contain business and personal correspondence as well as books from her library, photographs and scrapbooks. The Library of Congress also holds the papers of the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, which contain correspondence and autograph scores by many major 20th-century composers, programmes, photographs, and other materials relating to contemporary music and musicians.
The following is a list of composers who have received commissions either from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation (marked by a dagger) or at the instigation of Elizabeth Coolidge herself. Full documentation regarding these commissions is being prepared by the Library of Congress.
†Hugh Aitken, Franco Alfano, Paul Arma, †Milton Babbitt, †Sándor Balassa, George Barati, †Samuel Barber, †Béla Bartók, Ernesto Bartolucci, Arnold Bax, †Gustavo Becerra, Conrad Beck, Herbert Bedford, †Nicolai Berezowsky, †William Bergsma, Balthasar Bettingen, †Thomas Beveridge, †Arthur Bliss, Ernest Bloch, Renzo Bossi, Domenico Brescia, †Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Hans Burian, †Stephen Douglas Burton, Adolph Busch, †Roberto Caamaño, John Alden Carpenter, Francisco Casabona, Alfredo Casella, Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, †Carlos Chávez, Raymond Chevreuille, †Rebecca Clarke
Anthony Collins, †Aaron Copland, †Roque Cordero, †John Corigliano, Mario Corti, †Henry Cowell, †Paul Creston, †George Crumb, †Luigi Dallapiccola, †Jon Deak, Eric De Lamarter, †Norman Dello Joio, Marcel Dick, Mme Albert Domange, Henry Eichheim, †Jean-Claude Eloy, George Enescu, Arthur Farwell, Jacobo Ficher, †Irving Fine, †Vivian Fine, †Ross Lee Finney, Jerzy Fitelberg, Johan Franco, Friedrich Frischenschlager, †Blas Galindo Dimas, †Miriam Gideon, Henry Gilbert, †Alberto Ginastera, †Eugene Goossens, †Marcel Grandjany, †Ray Green, †Louis Gruenberg, †Camargo Guarnieri, †Sofiya Gubaydulina, †Cristobal Halffter, †Iain Hamilton
†Howard Hanson, †Donald Harris, †Roy Harris, Tibor Harsányi, Leigh Henry, Edward Burlingame Hill, †Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Mary Howe, Henry Holden Huss, Josef Hüttel, Albert Huybrechts, Tadeusz Iarecki, Frederick Jacobi, Erich Itor Kahn, Jenö Kerntler, †Leon Kirchner, Rudolph Kolisch, Emil Kornsand, Boris Koutzen, †William Kraft, William Kroll, Mario Labroca, †Ezra Laderman, László Lajtha, Wesley La Violette, Miguel Llobet, Normand Lockwood, †Charles Martin Loeffler, Nikolai Lopatnikoff, †Gian Francesco Malipiero, †Riccardo Malipiero, †Donald Martino, Bohuslav Martinů, Renzo Massarani, †Yoritsune Matsudaira, †Peter Mennin, †Gian Carlo Menotti, †Olivier Messiaen
Georges Migot, †Darius Milhaud, †Lyndol Mitchell, Roderick Mojsisovics, Nicolas Nabokov, †Luigi Nono, Leo Ornstein, †Juan Orrego-Salas, George Nelson Page, †Robert Palmer, †George Perle, Raymond Petit, †Goffredo Petrassi, †Burrill Phillips, Gabriel Pierné, †Walter Piston, †Ildebrando Pizzetti, Quincy Porter, †Francis Poulenc, †Mel Powell, †Sergey Prokofiev, †David Raksin, †Maurice Ravel, Alois Reiser, Ottorino Respighi, Wallingford Riegger, †George Rochberg, George Rogati, Jean Rogister, Julius Röntgen, Cyril Rootham, †Ned Rorem, Alfred Rosé, Feri Roth, Albert Roussel, Beryl Rubinstein, †Ahmet Adnan Saygun, †Arnold Schoenberg
†Gunther Schuller, †William Schuman, Roger Sessions, †Ralph Shapey, †Elie Siegmeister, James Simon, David Stanley Smith, Leo Sowerby, †Frederick Stock, †Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Strube, Théodore Szántó, †Josef Tal, Alexandre Tansman, Lionel Tertis, Randall Thompson, †Virgil Thomson, Ernst Toch, Burnet C. Tuthill, Ludwig Uray, †Aurelio de la Vega, †Heitor Villa-Lobos, H. Waldo Warner, Anton Webern, Leo Weiner, Egon Wellesz, †Richard Wernick, Eric Walter White, Willy White, Frank Wigglesworth, Clara Wildschut, Mabel Wood-Hill, †Russell Woollen
See also Washington, DC, §3 and Chamber music, §5(i).
DAB (M.T. Wilson)
GroveA (G. Reese) [incl. further bibliography]
E.S. Coolidge: Da capo (Washington DC, 1952)
C. Barr: ‘The Musicological Legacy of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’, JM, xi (1993), 250–68
C. Barr: ‘The “Faerie Queene” and the “Archangel”: the Correspondence of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and Carl Engel’, American Music, xv (1997), 159–82
R. Locke and C. Barr: Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists since 1860 (Berkeley, CA, 1997)
C. Barr: Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge: American Patron of Music (New York, 1998)
GUSTAVE REESE/CYRILLA BARR