Scope and Content Note
The Tams-Witmark Library holdings reflect what was being performed in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The scope of the collection ranges from eighteenth century operas of Handel and Glück to a musical by George M. Cohan. The bulk of the materials are nineteenth century operas and operettas, the majority in full score, but there are also instrumental parts, particularly for those works from the latter half of the nineteenth century. Most of the scores have been annotated with cuts and performance markings, and some, such as Bizet's Carmen, Auber's Fra Diavolo, and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, feature reduced or non-standard orchestrations.
Early nineteenth century opera is represented chiefly by Italian composers such as Cimarosa, Cherubini, and Rossini. In keeping with Italian practice, the vast majority of these full scores are in manuscript form. French composers are represented by comic and serious works in equal proportion, with manuscript and printed scores by Auber and Meyerbeer being the most numerous. German Romantic operas from the first half of the nineteenth century are few, but mid- to late-nineteenth century opera is well represented, with seven works by Verdi, virtually the entire operatic output of Wagner, and operas by such lesser-known composers as Ignaz Brüll, Filippo Marchetti, and Ernest Reyer.
Operettas constitute a large proportion of the collection. Jacques Offenbach is the most represented composer here, but also included are many Viennese operettas from the last decades of the 19th century, particularly those by Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss, Jr., and Karl Millöcker. The phenomenally successful debut of H. M. S. Pinafore in Boston (1878) spawned a great demand for its performance materials. Several arrangements of this work in the collection, including one for military band, reflect the widespread use of pirated scores and parts. The collection also contains several annotated scores once used by the Boston Ideal Company (later, the Bostonians) as well as scores belonging to their rival, the McCaull Opera Comique Company.
Reginald De Koven, Julian Edwards, and Victor Herbert, all of whom gained tremendous fame during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, are well represented in this collection. The materials of De Koven and Herbert are particularly significant because they include not only finished manuscripts but also sketches and scores for numbers cut from various productions. Of special interest are the numerous scores, parts, and holograph sketches of Victor Herbert's 1912 opera Natoma. An additional strength of the collection is the large number of scores by Americans who are largely forgotten today, such as Louis Hirsch, Gustave Kerker, Thornton Cole, Frank Saddler, Willard Spenser, Henry Waller, and Woolson Morse.
Musical comedies from the early twentieth century are not well documented in the Library of Congress' portion of the Tams-Witmark collection, as most musical comedy materials from Tams-Witmark are housed at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. And, operetta composers from this period, such as Karl Hoschna, Franz Lehar, and Joseph Bayer, are marginally represented.
Concert music constitutes a small portion of the Library of Congress' Tams-Witmark Collection. Although several eighteenth and nineteenth century "masters" are represented, works by lesser-known composers are more numerous, with secular choral works such as Felix Weingartner's House of Dreams, Charles Stanford's Phaudrig Crohoore, and Joseph Rheinberger's Klärchen auf Eberstein, dominating this portion of the collection. There are also choral works of a patriotic nature, including the national anthems of Russia, Portugal, France, Great Britain, and the United States. Julian Edwards' The Redeemer, Niels Gade's Die heilige Nacht, and Adolf Jensen's Gesang der Nonnen are among the sacred choral works in the collection. Symphonic scores by Léo Delibes, Julian Edwards, and Victor Herbert appear in manuscript, some of which may be holograph. In addition, the collection includes printed full scores of incidental music by Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schumann, as well as Sir George Henschel's music for Hamlet, and a manuscript full score of Edgar Stillman Kelley's Ben Hur. A few small scale works also appear in manuscript score. The collection also contains several manuscripts that have been reproduced; in such cases, publisher citations are added (if known).
In the following container list, all titles are recorded as they appear in the collection; translations and non-standard spellings reflect the originals. A uniform title in brackets is supplied when there is a question about the title as it appears on the item itself. Other information appearing in brackets has been derived from secondary sources. An asterisk (*) after a title signifies that the composer's name does not actually appear on the item, but was supplied, based on external bibliographical information. All printed scores are assumed to have been engraved, unless followed by the designation "(lith.)," which indicates the lithograph transfer process. Although every item in the collection shows some sign of deterioration due to age, those marked [Fragile] should be handled with special care, and may not be served, at the discretion of library staff. Individual song titles are so indicated by quotation marks.