- unitid
-
{"value"=>"20156", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"JPB 93-4", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b11982092", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"[approximately 1873-1931]", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1873/1931", "certainty"=>"approximate"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"David Belasco collection of incidental music and musicals"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"125 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"31.25 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Music Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The David Belasco collection of incidental music and mMusicals contains primarily manuscript parts used for incidental music of plays and musicals either written by and/or produced by David Belasco."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Belasco, David, 1853-1931.", "type"=>"persname", "role"=>"col"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Actor-manager, playwright, director, producer and theater owner, David Belasco was one of the outstanding personalities of the American theater. Born in San Francisco on July 25, 1853 to parents (of Portuguese-Jewish ancestry) who had emigrated from England, Belasco, whose father had been on the London stage, began acting as a child. He was a call boy and then stage manager in San Francisco before moving to New York in 1882 to manage the Madison Square Theatre under Daniel Frohman. Seeking greater freedom, he left that theater and was a freelance playwright and director before becoming stage manager of the Lyceum Theatre in 1887, again under Daniel Frohman.</p> <p>In 1890 he left to again work independently, staging a number of his own plays, mainly collaborations. The most successful of these were <span class=\"title\">The girl I left behind me</span> (1893), <span class=\"title\">The heart of Maryland</span> (1895), <span class=\"title\">Zaza</span> (1898), and <span class=\"title\">Madame Butterfly</span> (1900). In 1901 he began his association with the actor David Warfield in Charles Klein's <span class=\"title\">The auctioneer</span>. In 1902 he took control of the Republic Theatre at 209 West 42nd Street (originally opened in 1900) and renamed it the Belasco Theatre. Several of his most famous plays were first seen in that location including Klein's <span class=\"title\">The music master</span> (1904), <span class=\"title\">Adrea</span> (1905), and <span class=\"title\">The girl of the golden West</span> (1905). His success enabled him to build a new theater which opened in 1907 as the Stuyvesant Theater at 111 West 44th Street with Warfield in <span class=\"title\">A grand army man</span>. That theater was renamed the Belasco Theatre in 1910 and carries that name through the present day. (The earlier Belasco Theatre reverted to its original name; today that venue is known as the New Victory Theatre.). It was here that he staged <span class=\"title\">The return of Peter Grimm</span> (1911), considered by many his finest work. He remained at the Belasco until his death on May 14, 1931.</p> <p>Belasco's greatest contributions to the American stage were his elaborate, realistic scenic displays using the latest mechanical inventions and experiments in the use of lighting, his discovery and launching of a number of the stars of his day including Mrs. Leslie Carter, Blanche Bates, David Warfield and Frances Starr, and his participation in the ultimately successful fight against the Theatrical Syndicate, Klaw-Erlanger, which was strangling theater in the United States. He continued the tradition of importing plays from Europe rather than encouraging new American dramatists. His own plays, mostly melodramas, were primarily adaptations and dramatizations of earlier works; he was sued for plagiarism a number of times, but always won. His last two decades saw his influence decline, eclipsed by the rise of a new generation of American playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill, and a new kind of theater. But Belasco had brought a fresh realism to theater production and was the most successful man of the theater in turn-of-the-century America where spectacular and emotionally wrenching melodramas were in vogue.</p> <p>Belasco was married to Cecilia Loverich from 1873 until her death in 1925. They had two daughters, Reina, who married theatrical producer Morris Gest, and Augusta, who predeceased her parents.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The first installment of David Belasco's estate was donated to the New York Public Library in August 1931 on the condition that it create a curatorial division devoted to the theatre (what is now the Billy Rose Theatre Division). A second installment, which included these scores, arrived in October 1936. Once received, the scores were transferred to the Music Division.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>Most of the of the music in the David Belasco Collection of Incidental Music and Musicals is incidental music for plays. During Belasco's time most plays had musical accompaniment that was needed for overtures, scene changes, underscoring of melodramatic or climactic moments and for occasional songs. Scores are infrequently found for this material; nearly all of it is written in parts. On occasion, orchestra leaders (often the first violinist) created a cue sheet listing the musical sequences (sometimes with their verbal cues from the play) which would serve as a guide for what music to use during a particular sequence. A few of these exist in the collection. At times the first violin part doubles as a cue sheet, containing not only the violin part but also indicating cues and entrances for the orchestra.</p> <p>Noted composers of incidental music represented in the collection are William Furst (1852-1917) and Manuel Klein (1876-1919). These two composers wrote musicals and incidental music for many Broadway shows. (Klein's work is well-represented in the Music Division's Burnside Collection, call number JPB 83-48, which includes music used for productions produced by Charles Frohman.)</p> <p>Because of the significance to the genesis of Giacomo Puccini's well-known operas <span class=\"title\">Madama Butterfly</span> and <span class=\"title\">La fanciulla del West</span>, the materials for Belasco's productions of Madame Butterfly and The Girl of Golden West have been separated from the collection and cataloged individually. <span class=\"title\">Madame Butterfly</span> is cataloged with the classmark JPB 82-37; <span class=\"title\">The girl of the golden West</span> is cataloged with classmark JPB 82-38.</p> <p>Another Belasco play was <span class=\"title\">The Stranglers of Paris</span>. The music for this work (not part of the present collection) had been in the possession of Frances Tannehill Clark who donated it to the Library in 1966. This work now has the classmark JPB 83-138.</p> <p>Virtually none of the scores include dates. Dates of the first performance on Broadway (or when a play never played in New York the earliest known performances) have been supplied. Most of these dates (particularly those prior to 1900) should be regarded as approximations. Although the earliest performances of a play probably had music, it can not be stated with certainty that the music in this collection represents the music heard at the earliest performances. Additionally, the music could have changed in subsequent performances. In the music for <span class=\"title\">Madame Butterfly</span> there exists published parts for Puccini's opera. Since the opera had its first performance in the United States six years after the play's premiere, the presence of the published Puccini music along with William Furst's original music strongly suggest that on some occasions, music was added to a work, sometimes years after its initial performances. As has become the custom for music theatrical music, it may be impossible to identify any score as the \"original\" since the practice has always been one of altering things to suit the occasion.</p> <p>There are a number of scores to musicals in Belasco's collection which are not associated with his career. Their existence in his collection might have been the result of contractual or other professional obligations, or Belasco might have inherited works from others' music libraries, which was an occasional practice. Among the musicals are materials for <span class=\"title\">Adele</span> by Jean Briquet, <span class=\"title\">Aphrodite</span> by Henri Fevrier and Anselm Goetzl, <span class=\"title\">The little café</span> by Ivan Caryll, <span class=\"title\">Miss Helyett</span> by Edmond Audran, and parts for an early touring production of <span class=\"title\">No, No, Nanette</span> by Vincent Youmans.</p> <p>Also contained within the collection are a number of materials from shows or burlesques produced by the comedy team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, composed by John Stromberg with lyrics by Edgar Smith . These include <span class=\"title\">The big little princess</span>, <span class=\"title\">The college widower</span>, <span class=\"title\">The con-curers</span>, <span class=\"title\">Fiddle-dee-dee</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pousse-Café</span>, <span class=\"title\">Quo vass iss</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Whoop-de-doo</span>.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection organized in a single series, arranged alphabetically by title of show. Boxes and folders are numbered continuously. Authorial information on the materials in this collection tends to be sparse. To provide context, nearly all the information in this finding aid concerning details of the play (authors, first performances) have been supplied from external sources. In some cases no information was found for particular productions, suggesting either the play was never performed, or (more likely) the titled work is part of a larger work which is unidentified.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The estate of David Belasco.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Finding aid created by Ruth Zhang, Jonathan Greenberg and Music Division Staff.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>• David Belasco papers, *T-Mss 1931-001, Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts</p>"}
- date_start
-
1873
- keydate
-
1873
- date_end
-
1931
- date_inclusive_start
-
1873
- date_inclusive_end
-
1931
- extent_statement
-
31.25 linear feet (125 boxes)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"David Belasco collection of incidental music and musicals, JPB 93-4. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}