Abstract
In the summer of 2008 the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign acquired the papers of Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995), avant-garde composer, faculty member, and performer. This case study examines how the new electroacoustic compositional techniques present in Martirano's papers and his ground-breaking electronic music instrument, the Sal-Mar Construction, dramatically challenged the archivists to explore access and preservation practices for this unique cultural record. Context plays a key role in the preservation of electroacoustic compositions and instruments, considering that these tend to become ephemeral works of art once the composer ceases to maintain them in working order.