ROMANTIC AND SENTIMENTAL
Boxes 108-176
Most of these pieces are of a romantic, sentimental nature, often
with illustrated covers. Some have a gentle humor. They are arranged
alphabetically within each decade and range in date from 1801 to
1966. Much, but not all, is vocal.
EARLY 19th CENTURY
(ca.2500 items)
Nearly two thousand of these sheets are listed in Richard
J. Wolfe's bibliography, Secular Music in America (1801-1825), and of
these about 200 pieces are unique. Among the bound volumes the rarest
and most noteworthy are Carr's Musical Journal and Musical Miscellany.
There are complete copies of Vols. 1, 2 and 5 of the Musical Journal.
Another of the bound volumes contains early and rare material published
by John Paff of New York at the beginning of the 19th century. The Journal
of Musick was arranged and published by Madame Le Pelletier, Baltimore,
1810. New and Improved Method of the Spanish Guitar is an exceptional
guitar instruction book with illustrations. There are several volumes
of drinking songs, catches and glees published in the 1820s. Musical
Bagatelles, book 2nd was published by B. Carr in Philadelphia about 1824.
The first volume has never been found and this second volume is extremely
rare. Another volume entitled Masses, Vespers, Litanies, Hymns, Psalms,
Anthems & Motetts,
Baltimore, J. Carr, 1805, has a four-page preface written by Benjamin
Carr and a fragment of musical score in manuscript by him. This valuable
item was probably at one time in Carr's own library.
1826–CIVIL WAR
(ca.2000 items)
In this section thee are many of the poetic works of
Thomas Moore set to music by Sir John Stevenson during the early decades
of the 19th century. Other contemporary composers are William Clifton,
Henry R. Bishop and Henry Russell. There are compositions of Jullien
during the 1840s and 1850s and of L.M. Gottschalk in the 1850s and 1860s.
A rare bound volume is The Musical Album for 1855, which contains early
works of Theodore von La Hache, a major composer of Confederate songs
during the Civil War.
1860–1900 POPULAR SONGS
(ca.2500 items)
Songs of the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s continue in the sentimental
vein of the earlier decades. Songs of the 1890s, however, introduce two
new styles-the narrative set to music (i.e. "The Little Lost Child" and "Mother
Was a Lady") and the so-called "coon" song, a white man's
version of Black dialect.
There are 5 volumes of delightful comic songs, mostly published in Boston
and New York in the 1880s and 1890s.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 1840–1940
(ca.200 items)
Some of these music sheets lean toward the classical side,
particularly in the early years. Most are illustrated, and were arranged
for the home-rather than the concert- piano.
VOCAL MUSIC 1900–1960
(ca.1600 items)
Throughout this period new forms of arrangements became
popular,i.e. ragtime, jazz, blues, and later rock and roll. There are
a few pieces by Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake.
For the first two decades of the 1900s there are many songs by Rudolph
Friml, Sigmund Romberg, Franz Lehar; also Albert and Harry von Tilzer,
Gus Edwards and Ted Snyder. Among the favorite singers of this period
were Marie Cahill, Emma Carus and Nora Bayes. Many of the most delightful
songs of the 1920s and 1930s were composed by B.G. De Sylva, Lew Brown
and Ray Henderson, and Vincent Youmans. There is a considerable amount
of music from the Ziegfeld Follies from 1907 to 1936.
Many of the songs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s were featured in motion
pictures or Broadway shows.
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