Collection Title: Kenneth Neidig Music Collection
Series Number: MS22-02
Processed and Cataloged by: Carolyn Mollette and Sarah Marie Owens
Date Listed: February 2, 2024
Date Span: 1922 - 2023
Size of Collection: 29.17 linear feet
Number of Boxes: 50
Type of Material: Books, sheet music/scores, scripts, reports, journals, and photographs. Paper ephemera including posters, advertisements, personal notes, event programs, and newspaper clippings. Correspondence including greeting cards, letters, and telegrams. Audio and video materials including compact discs, cassette tapes, and vinyl records. Some 3D memorabilia and other objects.
Condition of Material: Good to fair.
Arrangement: Physical size, alphabetical.
Biographical / Historical Information: Murray State University alumnus, Kenneth L. Neidig is an editor and writer who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. After attending high school in Washington, New Jersey ('48) and serving as editor of his high school annual, he moved on to earn two music degrees, one from Murray State University and another from the University of Kentucky.
Neidig served a three-year enlistment in the United States Army Bands during the Korean War (1950-1953) reaching the rank of corporal. His tours of duty included time stationed in Fort Knox, KY, and Tokyo, Japan and served with the 158th Army Band, 293rd Army Band, and the 3rd Armored Division. He continued to play clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon in various amateur groups and wrote arrangements for the Mesilla Valley Concert Band, a 100-piece community organization in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
After his service during the Korean War, Neidig taught in Elizabethtown, KY, from 1955 to 1962 and Fort Knox, KY, from 1962 to 1970. His first book, "Band Director's Guide" was published by Prentice-Hall and released in 1964. It was followed by two more, "Choral Director's Guide" (1967) and "Music Director's Complete Handbook of Forms" (1973). Between 1967 and 1970, Neidig was a member of the Kentucky Music Educators Association and edited their official publication, the Bluegrass Music News.
Neidig's seventh book, "Brushes with Brilliance" (2023) is an autobiographical chronicle of personal contacts throughout a life centered on music as a player, teacher, writer, editor, and photographer.
In July 2023, at age 92, Kenneth Neidig moved to Eugene, OR, to a retirement facility that is less than five minutes away from his son, Robert E. Neidig.
Scope and Content: Included in the collection is Murray State University memorabilia like Phi Mu Alpha ephemera as well as personal legal papers and correspondence with music companies, family, friends, and personal acquaintances. There are books of scores and sheet music for instruments such as brass instruments like trombone and trumpet, woodwind instruments like various saxophones and clarinet and other types including percussion, piano, and vocal. Other music -related objects and papers include band magazines and "The Instrumentalist" catalog (1970-1984), a music awards catalog, newspaper clippings related to Elizabethtown and Fort Knox, KY, music programs, and newsletters. Photographs of various sizes and published articles by Neidig are found in the collection as well. Audio and video media include interviews with Kenneth Neidig in addition to various Benny Goodman vinyl records, and various recorded television shows and band performances on VHS cassette tapes.
Additional Resources:
1. Library of Congress, Veterans History Project, Kenneth Lew Neidig Collection, interview, audio recording: https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.104971/#item-service_history
2. Footage Farm Ltd, 1951- USA 293rd Army Band Concert, Memorial Hall, Tokyo, Japan, black and white video/audio footage: https://footagefarm.com/reel-details/cities/tokyo/1951---usa-293rd-army-band-concert-memorial-hall-tokyo-japan
