Music Resources: Musical Theater

From the Library of Congress' "vintage Edison phonograph Diamond Discs released from 1913-1927. These recordings feature comic skits, popular music and songs--including well-known favorites from the Civil War and World War I--and a dramatic monologue."

A collection documenting the career of Leonard Bernstein; more than 400,000 items, including music and literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, audio and video recordings, fan mail, and other types of materials. Available online: a selection of photographs, scripts from the Young People's Concerts and Thursday Evening Previews, over 1,100 pieces of correspondence, and the complete finding aid to the collection.

A collection of theatre ephemera (playbills, programmes, press cuttings, photographs, along with essays and maps) from 1827 to the present day from the V & A Theatre Collections, East London theatres and UEL archives.

From the Library of Congress.

Midi, audio, pdf files, and sheet music.

A website devoted to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, including synopses, libretti, scores, images, and audio.

This sheet music collection contains around 9,000 items published between 1800 to 1922, with the majority published between 1850 to 1920 in the U.S. and also Europe. Early works by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, and by other popular composers: Victor Herbert, Jean Schwartz, Paul Dresser, Ernest R. Ball, Gussie L. Davis, Charles K. Harris, and George M. Cohan form most of the collection. It also includes arrangements of tunes by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and other famous classical composers. Music written for voice and piano comprises the majority of the collection along with a few instrumental selections.

Provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre to the present.

Musical theatre and operetta scores from the Music and Performing Arts Library Special Collections.

An index of death notices for musicians, composers, and others, updated daily.

From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

"A multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini. Groups of theater posters and additional sound recordings will be added to this anthology in the future."

A journal of articles and reviews that focus on Kurt Weill and twentieth-century music and theater. Available online from 1983-present.

From the Library of Congress.