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Online Collections
Allen A. Brown Music Collection
Philip Hale Collection
Serge Koussevitzky Collection
Marchard Orchestra Collection
Walter Piston Collection
Music Program Collection
John B. Sanromá Collection
Victor Young Collection
Handel & Haydn Society CollectionUse Of the Music Department
Collections
Additional Music Resources at the Library
ONLINE COLLECTIONS The Boston Public Library is working to digitize its historical collections. The following materials are available online for easy access:
Allen A. Brown Music Collection
The heart of the Music Department's holdings is the Allen A. Brown Music Collection, named
for the donor who presented it to the Library in 1895. By the terms of the gift, the
original collection is housed in a specially designated area, and the books and other
materials included in it are restricted to use in the Music Reading Room. Mr. Brown made
regular additions to his original gift of 6,990 volumes so that it had nearly tripled in
size by his death in 1916. The collection continues to grow through purchases from trust
funds, including the Allen A. Brown Fund, and now contains more than 40,000 books, scores,
and manuscripts.
The Brown Collection reflects the broad musical interests and activities of a collector
and serious amateur musician at the turn of the century. It is well rounded in the area of
operas, oratorios, orchestral and chamber music as well as solo songs and catches and
glees both in manuscript and published score format. One of the important aspects of the
collection is the ephemera Mr. Brown collected and preserved. Reviews of performances,
published interviews, biographical sketches, concert programs, etc. are pasted in many of
the books and scores that he purchased as well as in the numerous scrapbooks which he
compiled.
Years of heavy use and environmental conditions have taken their toll on the collection.
As a result, certain parts of the Collection have had to be restricted to persons working
on serious research projects and graduate students working on their theses or
dissertations. Prospective users should be prepared to present letters of introductions
and proper credentials. For further information, please contact the Music Department.
Philip Hale Collection
Consisting of clippings, photographs and scrapbooks compiled by Boston music critic and
Boston Symphony Orchestra program annotator, Philip Hale (1854-1934), the collection
includes biographical materials, obituary notices, reviews, essays and short articles
collected or written by Hale on musical subjects. Photographs, taken between 1853-1931,
are primarily of opera singers and musicians. The scrapbook volumes of Hale's own Musical
and Dramatic Criticism (1887-1933) are available on microfilm in the Music Department.
An appointment is required to use the pictorial and non-microfilmed portions of the Hale
collection.
Serge Koussevitzky Collection
Mrs. Olga Koussevitzky donated the Koussevitzky Music Archive in 1974 in memory of her
late husband Serge Koussevitzky (1875-1951), conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
from 1924 to 1949 and founder of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation located at the Library
of Congress. The scores, some of them annotated in his own hand, scrapbooks, and
photographs come from his home Seranak in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Non-musical materials are available by appointment only.
Online access: Selections from the Koussevitzky collection are accessible through the BPL's online sound archives.
Marchard Orchestra Collection
The Marchard Orchestra, a Boston-based dance band, played at dances and other society
functions along the "Champaign" route which ranged from Bar Harbor down to
Virginia and to the mid-west. It played on a regular basis at the Ritz Carlton and the
Plaza Room at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. The collection consists of the repertory
of the Orchestra from the 1930s to 1960s. Many band arrangements (both published and
manuscript) of popular songs, seasonal music and "light classics" make up this
collection of "charts."
Walter Piston Collection
Books, scores, antique musical instruments and personal effects belonging to the two time
Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Piston (1894-1976) are mostly housed in the Piston Room
located off of the Koussevitzky Room. Many of Piston's compositions are represented in
this collection, in both printed and holograph forms. The Music Department has a Piston
Room which is furnished after Piston's home library in Belmont, Massachusetts. Manuscript
scores are in the custody of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department.
Music Program Collection
Concert and theatre programs for many Boston area musical events are found in this
collection. Programs date from the mid 1800's to the current time period. They represent
both music theater, opera, chamber music, orchestral and popular music programs.
The collection is available by appointment only.
John B. Sanromá Collection
During the 1930's, John Sanromá was the staff photographer for the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department, the first "candid
camera" photographer for the Boston Herald, and active as a private commercial
photographer. The collection includes many pictures of BSO rehearsals and performances,
musicians (including his brother pianist Jesus Maria Sanromá, 1902-1984) as well as
Boston politicians, Boston Park events, formal portraits, weddings, etc. The collection is
divided between the Music Department and the Print Department.
Access to the collection is by appointment only.
Victor Young Collection
Victor Young (1900-1956) was an active instrumentalist, orchestra leader and
composer-arranger for vaudeville, radio and film from about 1929 to 1956. The collection
includes manuscript scores (with some parts) of Young's original compositions and
arrangements for radio shows and Paramount films. Film scores include Academy Award Winner
Around the World in 80 Days (1956), the Quiet Man (1952) and Shane (1953), among
others.
Access to the collection is by appointment only. A card index "finding aid" is
available.
Handel & Haydn Society Archives
The Handel & Haydn Society officially transferred its collection to the Library in
April 1978. The Society gave its books, scores, and archives to the Trustees of the
Library to be maintained and preserved as part of the permanent research collection.
Presently housed in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, the collection ranges from
early imprints of Handel's music and copies of the Handel and Haydn Society Collection
of Church Music to the holographs of commissioned works. The archives includes copies
of bills and disbursements dating back to 1815, printers' plates for tickets, programs
from 1815-1912, membership lists and by-laws. A finding aid to the Handel & Hayden Archives is available online.
Use Of the Music Department Collections
The Music Department Collection is used exclusively for reference and research. It is not
a performance collection. Major reference works-current encyclopedias, bibliographies,
indexes, dictionaries, discographies, and similar research guides-are available in open
shelves in the alcoves of the West Gallery. Included are such major reference works as the
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The International Cyclopedia of Music and
Musicians, The New Oxford Companion to Music, The Music Index, RILM, RISM, and other
similar research tools.
The main part of the Music Department collection is housed in closed stacks. To obtain a
book or score from the stacks, or to ascertain the Library's holdings in the various
fields of music, a reader has access to five catalogs which provide guidance to music
collections: The Dictionary Catalog of the Music Collection (20 volumes), the First
Supplement to the Dictionary Catalog of the Music Collection (4 volumes), a second and
third supplement which are in card catalog form, and an online catalog which is part of
the supplement of the Research Library catalog. All of the cards which were filmed for the
Dictionary Catalog have been interfiled in the Research Library which is available
on microfiche. This part of the catalog has not been converted to the online catalog. The
print or microfiche sources must be consulted for in depth research.
To obtain a music item from the stacks, the reader fills out a call slip, copying the call
number completely-i.e., all the letters, numbers, dates-from one of the corners of the
catalog cards. A double asterisk preceding the number indicates that the book is part of
the Allen A. Brown Collection. Please consult with the Music Librarian about access to the
Brown and other special collections.
Additional Music Resources at the Library
A circulating collection of music and books on music is located on the second floor of the
General Library and provides for the home reading needs of Library users. Sections within
the Children's and Teen Rooms of the General Library offer books for young
people's tastes and interests.
Musical recordings in compact disc and cassette tape formats as well as spoken word tapes
and discs along with videos are available for home use in the Audio Visual Department
located on the Concourse Level of the General Library.
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