Arnold Arnstein collection, ca. 1950-1989

Links

• View catalog record
• View PDF finding aid (316.4 KB)

Creator

Arnstein, Arnold.

Location

Music Division

Extent

• 10 linear feet (40 boxes)

Scope/Contents Note

The Arnold Arnstein Collection contains music that was found in Arnold Arnstein's office when he died in 1989. Virtually all of it is undated. The composers represented in the collection are a cross section of contemporary composers of the 1950s through the 1980s as well as several pre-twentieth century composers. There area number of composers associated with film or television (Alfredo Antonini, Sol Kaplan, Samuel Matlovsky, and Marc Wilkinson), and also several associated with the Broadway stage musical and popular song (Don Pippin, Charles Strouse, Alec Wilder, and Meredith Willson). Among the material devoted to Charles Strouse are many lead sheets for his songs to unproduced or little-known musicals, including several for Let's Go Steady, the earlier versionof Bye Bye Birdie. There are also more unusual and obscureworks of Strouse, including his piano concerto as well as Voices, a musical setting of two case studies by Sigmund Freud. There are less well-known or obscure composers as well, such as René Guirma, a diplomat who, in 1971, composed an extensive service in African ritual style for St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. In summary, the Arnold Arnstein Collection represents a sample of the music that passed through the offices of one of the leading music copyists in New York City.

Biographical/Historical Note

Arnold Arnstein was a leading music copyist based in New York City. In 1925 he began to work for Paramount PublixCorporation as a music copyist. By 1932 he was able to setup his own office on west 72nd Street in New York City which he used until his death. Over the course of fifty-seven years, he was the copyist for Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Virgil Thomson, Charles Strouse, and many other leading as well as less well-knowncomposers. From the mid-1960s until his death, Arnstein taught classes in the preparation and copying of music manuscript at The Juilliard School of Music. Arnstein diedon December 2, 1989.

Controlled Access Terms

• Orchestral music.
• Chamber music.
• Musicals -- Lead sheets.
• Music -- Manuscripts.

Additional Creator Names

• Strouse, Charles.
• American Music Collection.