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Creator
Royal, Ted, 1904-1981
Call number
JPB 06-4
Physical description
20 linear feet (40 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Ted Royal Scores, JPB 06-4. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Ted Royal was an arranger and conductor and composer for Broadway musicals, radio programs, big bands and film. This collection consists mainly of scores for Royal's band and radio arrangements, as well as Broadway arrangements and his own compositions. Also included are production files for shows Royal worked on and writings by Royal and a correspondence course by Joseph Schillinger.

Biographical/historical information

Ted Royal was born in Skedee, Oklahoma on September 6, 1904. He spent several years as a pianist, conductor and arranger at various venues in the central and southern states. He worked as an accompanist for silent movies at the Queen Theatre in Houston and as a pianist on the vaudeville circuit. He also worked as an arranger for Wayne King, Ted Weems and NBC in Chicago.

Royal arrived in New York City in the fall of 1935 and soon found work as an arranger for Isham Jones, Al Katz and Billy Rose. He also had his own radio program, "The Pompeiian Hour" with Jerry Cooper and Donald Novis. Later, he worked as an arranger for the bandleader Paul Whiteman and for the Radio City Music Hall from 1943-1949.

Ted Royal's first Broadway credit was for additional arrangements for DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), which lead to orchestration assignments on other Cole Porter shows, such as Let's Face It (1941), Something for the Boys (1943), Mexican Hayride (1944) and Seven Lively Arts (1944). Other musicals Royal orchestrated include Leonard Bernstein's On the Town (1944), Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Harold Arlen's House of Flowers (1954), Frank Loesser's Where's Charley? (1948) and Guys and Dolls (1950), and Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon(1947) and Paint Your Wagon (1951).

Royal studied with Joseph Schillinger from 1939-1943 and taught a course at Julliard in Commercial Arranging from 1945-1947. Royal also wrote unproduced musicals, songs and other compositions, including the music for the documentary When Comedy Was King (1960). Ted Royal died in 1981.

Scope and arrangement

This collection contains scores, writings and productions files from 1892 through 1975, though the bulk of the collection is from the 1930s through the 1950s. The strengths of this collection are the parts for Royal's arrangements of well-known and obscure songs and his own compositions, many of which were not published. The collection also includes writings on music theory and arranging by Royal and correspondence courses he subscribed to, most notably by Joseph Schillinger, with whom Royal studied. Of special interest is sheet music for several songs from Paint Your Wagon, (1951) which were cut prior to its Broadway opening. This is a collection of professional materials and its scope does not extend to personal materials.

The Ted Royal scores are arranged in three series:

  • Series I: Scores
    1909-1975
    33 boxes

    This series contains scores, in most cases full orchestra parts of songs and musical pieces written by Royal or orchestrated by him. Most of these songs were part of band arrangements or written for Broadway musicals or film and projects.

  • Series II: Writings
    1892-1967
    6 boxes

    This series consists of writings by Royal on music theory and arranging as well as articles and correspondence courses by other music theorists.

  • Series III: Production Files
    1947-1951
    1 box

    This series includes scripts, correspondence, notes and financial records pertaining to two Broadway musicals Royal orchestrated, Brigadoon (1947) and Paint Your Wagon (1951) and to his own full-length musicals Carnival Time Down in New Orleans and Pleasure Express.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Ted Royal Scores were donated to the New York Public Library in 1993 by the Ted Royal Estate.

Processing information

Processed by Diana Bertolini; Machine-readable finding aid created by Diana Bertolini.

Using the collection

Location

Music Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Music Division.

Alternative form available

March Debonair, score and parts (Box 24, f. 12-24). Also available on microfilm as part of Ted Royal scores; service copy classmark: *ZB-4341