David Belasco collection of incidental music and musicals

[approximately 1873-1931]

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.

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.)

Because of the significance to the genesis of Giacomo Puccini's well-known operas Madama Butterfly and La fanciulla del West, the materials for Belasco's productions of Madame Butterfly and The Girl of Golden West have been separated from the collection and cataloged individually. Madame Butterfly is cataloged with the classmark JPB 82-37; The girl of the golden West is cataloged with classmark JPB 82-38.

Another Belasco play was The Stranglers of Paris. 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.

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 Madame Butterfly 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.

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 Adele by Jean Briquet, Aphrodite by Henri Fevrier and Anselm Goetzl, The little café by Ivan Caryll, Miss Helyett by Edmond Audran, and parts for an early touring production of No, No, Nanette by Vincent Youmans.

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 The big little princess, The college widower, The con-curers, Fiddle-dee-dee, Pousse-Café, Quo vass iss, and Whoop-de-doo.