Scope and Content Note
Materials in the the Warner/Chappell Collection span the years 1880 to 1987, the bulk of which dates from 1920 to 1970. The Show Music series contains manuscript scores, piano-vocal scores, vocal scores, parts, sketches, and lyric sheets from not only musicals that appeared on Broadway and elsewhere, but also television shows, movies, operettas, plays, ice shows, and two World's Fairs. The shows represented include well-known classics and shows long forgotten, some of which may never have been produced. Even among the classics there are songs that were cut or never performed.
Many of the Popular Songs likely originated in Tin Pan Alley, though a few were composed for advertisements. Prominent composers and songwriters represented in the series include Harold Arlen, Milton Babbit, Claude August "Bennie" Benjamin, Irving Berlin, Irving Caesar, Sammy Cahn, Hoagy Carmichael, B. G. DeSylva, Vernon Duke, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, E. Y. Harburg, Fletcher Henderson, Herman Hupfeld, Mary Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, Harold Rome, Dana Suesse, Fats Waller, and Kurt Weill. The songs are represented by manuscript piano-vocal scores, parts, sketches, lead sheets, and lyric sheets.
Please note: During processing we discovered that not all the information associating songs with particular shows is accurate, and the names of some songwriters may be missing, incomplete, or misleading. Song titles were largely transcribed from the scores themselves, and these may differ from their final or known versions. We have made some corrections if we discovered them and felt they were likely to cause serious confusion, but we assume there are many we missed, so information provided in this finding aid should not be assumed to be definitive. Please be aware that there are song titles with outdated or offensive language.
Manuscript scores and parts chiefly comprise the Concert Music and Arrangements series. The ensembles range from orchestra, band, big band, jazz orchestra, and choir to smaller chamber groups, including solo instruments with piano, vocal duets, trios, and quartets.
The Programs series consists of programs and playbills for musical theater productions and variety shows from 1924 to 1930 on Broadway, in London, and in several cities in the United States and Australia. Many of the playbills contain annotations, and several have corresponding music located in the Show Music series.
The Business Papers consist of papers and cancelled checks. The papers include rights and royalties agreements, lists of works, correspondence, contracts, and licenses primarily concerning Cole Porter and Kurt Weill, and the cancelled checks somewhat illuminate the daily operations of a music publishing business. Checks dating from 1920 to 1932 from several different music publishers are made out to composers, arrangers, lyricists, printers, engravers, advertisers, equipment suppliers, paper companies, and so forth.