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Williams/Watson Theatre Collection: American Popular Music
The American Popular Music collection (informally known as the sheet music collection) is a collection within the Williams/Watson Theatre Collection comprising individual sheet music principally of the period 1800-1950, printed albums, personally-bound music, instrumental scores, other miscellaneous popular music in many forms, and intensive collections of the works of Stephen Foster, the Hutchinson Family, and the Baker Family. The general emphasis in collecting is, considering the historical diversity involved, necessarily and deliberately broad. The collection complements that of the Paddock Music Library, with which its development is carefully coordinated.
The College's undergraduate curricula place a certain emphasis on the history of what might generally be termed "popular culture," that is, the life of the common folk as compared to statesmanship, war, and other matters of a grander scale. The American Popular Music collection seeks to gather, organize, and preserve the objets real of a significant facet of that history and tradition. While a great deal of noncurricular and serendipitous use is made of the collection, the principal academic use stems from the Department of Music, which has a number of courses (e.g., Music 5: "American Popular Song") which concentrate on this area.
The scope of the collection includes American popular music, both vocal and instrumental, published before 1950. "Popular music," broadly defined, includes songs and arrangements specifically intended for home use. Editions of classical (or other so-called "serious") music fall within the collecting scope of the Paddock Music Library (e.g., an edition of Mozart's "Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je..." would presumably go to Paddock, whereas a version titled "Mozart's 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' arranged for parlor performance" would be in the American Popular Music collection).
Sheet music for songs that are part of a theatrical performance is also within the scope of the Williams/Watson Collection. Some sheet music may be retained or acquired primarily for the value of cover illustrations.
The collection consists primarily of English-language editions published in the United States. Foreign editions are included in the collection as long as the items were generally available for purchase and use in the United States. Especially in the earlier years the music publishing industry was not large and much sheet music was imported.
Formats include loose sheet music, commercially-issued albums, and personally-bound collections.
Other collections in the College Libraries which may incorporate similar materials include New Hampshire Imprints, White Mountains, D.C. History, the Paddock Music Library, and various manuscript collections.
November 1986 (Stanley Brown)
April 1994
Stanley W. Brown
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