Scope and Content Note
The twenty-six volumes of bound sheet music that comprise the majority of the Leonard Feist Collection have been organized in chronological order, with the first twelve volumes organized alphabetically therein. These volumes include songs published between 1880 and 1911, and are organized into two alphabetical sets: volumes 1 through 6 comprising one set and volumes 7 through 12 the second set. It appears that the original reason for this organization was that one set would contain vocal music with the second set containing primarily instrumental music (piano and violin); but actually both sets contain vocal and instrumental music. Several alphabetical inconsistencies have been identified in these volumes. Volumes 13 through 26 are, for the most part, arranged chronologically by publication date with occasional overlaps and inconsistencies. These volumes cover the years 1912 through 1930. It should be noted that the volume for 1925 was never received. The volume numbers were supplied by the Library of Congress, and represent what was considered to be the most logical organization of the collection.
This finding aid is arranged alphabetically by composer's last name, then alphabetically therein by title of work. Date of publication, instrumental or vocal format, and title of folio compilation (if any) are also provided for each musical title. Notes specific to individual titles indicating such things as unusual bindings, missing pages, or other physical imperfections are included.
There were many inconsistencies as to how composers were listed on sheet music published during the period represented by this collection. An attempt was made to organize the collection under uniform spellings for each composer, based on established headings of composers as cataloged in the Library of Congress general music collections.
Researchers using the Leo Feist Collection should be aware of a card catalog in the Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room that indexes all titles from several Leo Feist dance folios, mostly from the 1920's, found in the Library's general music collections. The majority of these dance folios are not included in the bound volumes of the Leo Feist Collection.