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| The Beginning Like most non-profit cultural organizations, the Morrison Foundation started in 1984 as an idea and a dream by one man who wanted to make music history a vibrant part of everyone’s musical experience, not just dry, trivial names and dates so meaningless to most people— even musicians. There were no funds to sustain such a project nor was there the promise of any. Few understood the vision of the founder, even close friends and relatives were not encouraging. With few resources, the Morrison Foundation began by providing program notes for concerts and lectures to music groups, churches, and civic organizations. A break came in 1985, the year the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth was celebrated. In the library at Yale University, 33 unpublished organ preludes by Bach were discovered by Harvard professor, Christoph Wolff. The excitement of the discovery spread world-wide. The Morrison Foundation sent a representative to Yale in February 1986 to examine the new manuscript, alongside Yale and Harvard experts . The visit and subsequent publicity offered more opportunities for exposure. A Side Trip In the late 1980’s, a new opportunity came for the Morrison Foundation to extend its music education possibilities into a new area—performance. Civic leaders asked the Morrison Foundation to conduct and operate a new youth orchestra for children from five surrounding counties. That successful venture proffered a subsequent, even more successful performing group: a community concert band. Though the excursion into performance helped the Morrison Foundation’s profile and popularity, the original vision of the founder—to make music history a vibrant part of everyone’s musical experience—was far removed. A new course needed to be plotted that would bring the Morrison Foundation back in line with the vision. Course Correction On a trip to Europe, the founder observed that people were particularly curious about some historical documents on display in a museum case. They were letters, cards, and photographs signed by Richard Wagner, the German opera composer. Perhaps it was the visual elements or proximity to a "real" person in history, but those he observed that day showed a definite interest in music history. When the founder returned home, he began to investigate the possibility of starting a music history museum. Naturally, such a venture was prohibitively expensive and even if such a museum were built, how many could ever benefit from it? Enter the Internet With the advent of the World Wide Web, it was at last logistically and financially feasible to open a music history museum to everyone in the world. MF began collecting documents from all periods of music and from all parts of the world. A derived benefit from the Morrison Foundation’s efforts is that music documents, especially minor, seemingly insignificant documents that might otherwise be lost or destroyed, are being preserved. On January 1, 1999, the Morrison Foundation's first website was launched with a few documents along with other offerings about music history. It became clear that what had happened in the European museum years before was happening on the Morrison Foundation website. People were showing a huge interest in the musical documents on display. That interest inspired a new direction, one centered on the light beaming from the lighthouse anchored on the shore of the founder’s original vision. A Revised Vision On January 1, 2001, seventeen years after our founder’s idea and dream, the Morrison Foundation opened the virtual music history museum on the World Wide Web, wholly dedicated to the preservation and research of musical documents of historical significance. The vision, once stated to make music history a vibrant part of everyone’s musical experience, has been adjusted. Believing that our premise is correct—that the museum’s documents will make music history come alive for people throughout the world— we now look to the future to become the world’s leading music history resource. Rev. 3/05/03 |
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