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Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection

Call Number

MSS.158

Date

circa 1958-1998, inclusive

Creator

Baker, Buddy, 1918-2002

Extent

103 Linear Feet (94 boxes)

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Abstract

The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection chronicles the career of Norman "Buddy" Baker in his roles as composer, orchestrator, conductor, and musical director with Walt Disney Studios from the mid 1950s to the 1980s. The bulk of the collection consists of autograph, typed, and photocopied music scores, sketches, lead sheets, musical breakdowns and parts from music composed for Walt Disney theatrical, television, and theme park productions.

Biographical Note

The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection, consisting of nearly 12,000 pages, chronicles the celebrated career of Norman "Buddy" Baker in his roles as composer, orchestrator, conductor, and musical director with Walt Disney Studios - much of it spent in daily collaboration with Walt Disney. Initially hired as an orchestrator for the 1954 television series Davy Crockett, and appointed as the musical director of the original Mickey Mouse Club in 1955, his twenty-eight years with Disney Studios featured 40 films, 125 television shows, and music for the Disney theme park attractions worldwide, including The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of The Caribbean, and It's A Small World at Disneyland. Among his scores for live-action and animated theatrical features were The Monkey's Uncle (1965), the Cannes award-winning featurette Donald In Mathmagicland, the Oscar-nominated Napoleon and Samantha (1971), and The Fox and The Hound (1981).

He was awarded the accolade Disney Legend in 1998, the Walt Disney Corporation's most prestigious creative award. Honoring his multifaceted career as composer and pedagogue, Buddy was the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. Buddy Baker's pre-Disney years, as jazz trumpeter and composer/arranger in the big-band era, featured collaborations with jazz legends Harry James and Stan Kenton. His 1944 arrangement of Stan Kenton's And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine became a Top 10 hit. Buddy also served as music director for the live radio shows of Bob Hope and Jack Benny.

Buddy's music is embedded in American culture through television in The Wonderful World of Color, The Mousketeer Club, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. In the years following Disney's death in 1966, Buddy Baker continued to compose music for many of the attractions and rides throughout the Disney theme parks, including The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of The Caribbean. At one point, Buddy had composed the lion's share of all music heard in the Disney parks worldwide.

Buddy Baker was a pioneer and great proponent of the study of film scoring in higher education. His teaching career began in the 1940's at Los Angeles' City College, where one of his students was Jerry Goldsmith. From 1987 until his death on July 26, 2002 at the age of 84, he was the driving force and Chair of the USC Program in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television.

Arrangement

The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection is arranged into four series in which the material is arranged alphabetically by production title.

Series I: Scores by Buddy Baker;

Series II: Manuscript Scores by Others;

Series III: Assorted Media;

Series IV: Miscellaneous.

Missing Title

  1. Series I: Manuscript Scores by Buddy Baker
  2. Series II: Manuscript Scores by Others
  3. Series III: Assorted Media - research copies may not be available for this material yet
  4. Series IV: Miscellaneous

Scope and Content Note

The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection, consisting of nearly 12,000 pages, chronicles the celebrated career of Norman "Buddy" Baker in his roles as composer, orchestrator, conductor, and musical director with Walt Disney Studios - much of it spent in daily collaboration with Walt Disney. The Collection consists of 94 boxes of approximately 103 linear feet of materials. The majority of the collection consists of manuscript scores composed by Buddy Baker for Disney productions. The purposes of the scores fall under the broad categories of film, television, and theme parks, along with a fair amount of material whose production purpose is unspecified.

The collection includes various autograph, typed and photocopy versions of materials, including autograph scores, conductor short scores, sketches, typed scripts, vocal and orchestral parts, lead sheets, and music breakdown forms.

Access Restrictions

Materials are open without restrictions. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Use Restrictions

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, which was created by Norman "Buddy" Baker, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection; MSS 158; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.

Provenance

The Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection was donated to the Fales Library in 2004 by Buddy Baker's wife, Charlotte Baker.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers.

Separated Material

There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.

Related Material at Fales Library and Special Collections

John Canemaker Animation Collection (MSS.040)

Collection processed by

Gillian B. Anderson

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:15:26 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from NBB 10 June.xls.

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012