Sheet Music
The collection of sheet music at the American
Antiquarian
Society consists of about 60,000 pieces of instrumental, vocal,
secular, and religious music by both American and foreign composers
that were printed through 1880 (more than 4,100 compositions were
printed in the United States before 1826). Although Boston
imprints are in the majority, the collection also embraces works
published in many other sections of the country, notably New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and San
Francisco.
The music is shelved
alphabetically by composer. A title index housed with the
collection provides a second means of access for researchers. In
addition to the title and name of the composer, the index lists the
place of publication, publisher, and date. It also indicates any
special filing category for retrieval of the music. Both Richard
J. Wolfe's bibliography Secular Music in America, 1801-1825 (New
York, 1964) and A Bibliography of Early Secular Music [18th
Century] (Washington, 1945) by Oscar G. T. Sonneck and William T.
Upton, are annotated to reflect the AAS holdings and new
acquisitions. The numbers assigned by Wolfe are also added to the
collection's title index.
The Sheet Music collection is divided into six categories.
The largest contains about 44,400 pieces. As with all the other
subdivisions, it is arranged first by composer's name, then
alphabetically by title, and, in the case of multiple variant
imprints, by place of publication and publisher. Some 9,000 pieces
of music with lithographed pictorial covers forms a second
division. This group is used extensively by researchers.
The
covers not only give a pictorial dimension to the musical content
but also present a social and cultural commentary on the era.
Songs were composed to pay tribute to the heroism of fire fighters
or to celebrate such important events as the first water piped into
New York in 1842. These pieces also illustrate issues of
the day such as temperance, slavery, and women's rights. They extolled
the pleasures of rowing or bowling, ice cream parlors, and tobacco.
Even the appearance of the great comet in 1843 was deemed
appropriate for the popular composer and the cover artist. The
artists who illustrated the pictorial sheet music included some of
the nation's most prominent--Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler,
David Claypoole Johnston, and Fitz Hugh Lane. Consequently, this
category of sheet music is in demand not only by scholars, but also
by many publishers who wish to use the illustrations for current
publications. To aid researchers, there are supplemental indexes
to lithographers and titles for this group and an index by
subject.
The topical classification for sheet music
with pictorial lithographed covers is available online.
About 5,000 pieces of music with
engraved pictorial covers forms a third category. Another 800 or so pieces
are filed by the names of authors cited in P.K. Foley's bibliography
American Authors 1795-1895 (Boston, 1897). A smaller group of
sheet music includes compositions displaying photographic or
lithographed portraits on their covers.
The final category is the group that constitutes
the "Worcester
Collection," containing about 600 pieces. This category comprises music
either composed by a
Worcester native, published in Worcester, or celebrating a
Worcester subject; and it is the only group that contains
imprints extending into the twentieth century. Included are such
pieces as the "Rangers Trip to Westborough or Lion Quick Step" by
James Hooten, written for the opening of the railroad to Westboro,
Massachusetts, on November 15, 1834, and "Good Old Worcester Town,"
composed in 1917 by Hamilton B. Wood, a former president of the
Worcester County Music Association.
Supplementing the large number of compositions by Stephen C.
Foster is a three-volume, privately printed set containing
reproductions of all Foster's known works and arrangements, the
Foster Hall Reproductions (Indianapolis, 1933). The Society also
holds a small but significant group of vocal and instrumental
compositions that were published as serials. Two volumes of the
serial Musical Journal for the Pianoforte, first published in
1800 by Benjamin Carr in Philadelphia, are included, as well as a
complete four-volume facsimile reprint published in 1972.
Rare items in the Society's pre-1826 group of sheet music
include the 1814 Baltimore printing of the second issue of the
first edition of "The Star Spangled Banner," Benjamin Carr's "The
Wreath of Roses" (Philadelphia, ca. 1816), and the "Hunters of
Kentucky," composed by William Blondell in support of Andrew
Jackson as a presidential candidate in 1824.
The Sheet Music collection is one of the outstanding
collections in the country. The Society continues to augment the
collection with as much pre-1826 music as possible. Also of
interest is music published through 1880 in the West, Midwest, or
South.
- Audrey T. Zook, former graphic arts assistant. Updated by Georgia
B. Barnhill, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts
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Almost as soon as baseball became a popular pastime, the game was
celebrated in song. The cover for The Baseball Quadrille, composed
by
Henry von Gudera, was printed in color by John H. Bufford's firm about
1870. The composer dedicated the song to the Tri Mount Baseball Club of
Boston.
The cover for a piece of sheet music, The Death of St. Clare
depicts a
scene from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. This
immensely
popular novel was adapted for the stage and several songs were
published. M. A. Collier wrote the lyrics for this song published in
Boston in 1852, the same year as the publication of the first edition of
the novel.
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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