The collection documents the life and career of Lukas Foss. The music materials consist of holograph manuscript scores and parts, and sketches. Later compositions, especially those which reflect his interests in twelve-tone and aleatory music, are accompanied by extensive supplementary notes, tone rows, mathematical charts, and performance instructions. Photocopied scores and parts often include annotations by Foss or various conductors and performers. The correspondence contains items to and from such notable musical figures as Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Paul Hindemith, Mauricio Kagel, Yehudi Menuhin, Olivier Messiaen, Eugene Ormandy, Kristoff Penderecki, Mistislav Rostropovich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis. The business papers include correspondence with organizations and lesser known individuals, programs, clippings, and legal or financial documents related to Foss' tenure with various orchestras in the United States and abroad, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, there is information on many of Foss' commissions, performances, and teaching relationships involving the Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati and Cleveland orchestras and the American Symphony, as well as other orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories across the country. Additional files consist of lecture notes and correspondence with universities, ideas for concert programming, writings by or about Foss, and miscellaneous documents for other topics of interest. The collection also contains Foss' extensive file of correspondence, clippings, notes, programs, and promotional items related to specific musical works.