HOME - GLOSSARY - CREDITS
Sections: Newspapers & Periodicals - Manuscripts - Photographs
Prints, Posters, & Drawings - Books - Maps - Music - Sound & Film
Music
The original cover was re-used.
Before treatment
After treatment
|
An American in Paris
George Gershwin
[An American in Paris: a musical score]
Bound volume, 1928
Music Division
The original 1928 musical score for An American in
Paris was donated to the Library of Congress in
1953. It was among the first bequests of Mrs. Leonore Gershwin
(Ira's widow) in establishing the George and Ira Gershwin
Collection. George Gershwin had the score bound in an elaborate
gilt leather presentation binding.
Treatment: The spine of the presentation
binding was inflexible, causing the brittle paper to crack
when the volume ws opened. The score was disbound, and the
pages were repaired. The folios were sewn to the outer folds
of a concertina guard. This reduced the flexing of the pages
upon opening and eliminated the cracking caused by the original
spine structure of the binding. The book was rebound using
the original covers, but the joints were slightly extended
to accommodate the concertina guard. |
|
Don Giovanni in Beethoven's Own Hand?!
Ludwig Beethoven
[Don Giovanni in Beethoven's Own Hand]
Music manuscript, 1803-1805
Music Division
The text of Mozart's Don Giovanni appears
in German translation. Beethoven bibliographer George Kinsky
assumed that Beethoven made this copy for study purposes
in preparation for composing ensemble sections in Fidelio.
Treatment: The loose sheets of the unbound
manuscript were discolored and slightly dirty. Stains and
small tears could be seen. The pages were washed, deacidified
and sized before being bound in a simple folder case. |
Before treatment
After treatment
|
|
|
"Stars and Stripes Forever"
John Phillip Sousa
[Stars and Stripes Forever]
Music manuscript, 1896
Music Division
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) wrote this score for "The
Stars and Stripes Forever," on April 26, 1897. First composed
in 1896, it has become a musical calling card for our nation.
Treatment: Cellulose acetate lamination
was removed from the document. It was then hinged to buffered
support paper, encapsulated in polyester for protection,
and bound. |
|
Bach Cantata
Johann Sebastian Bach
Dominica 6. Post Trinitatis
(BWV9)
1730s
Music Division
In the early 1730s, Bach wrote his Cantata for the Sixth Sunday
after Trinity, BWV9, 'Salvation has come to us here," drawing
for the text from a hymn by Paul Speratus. The work was a late
addition to his second annual cycle of cantatas composed in
Leipzig in 1724-25, according to the J.S. Bach Composer
Companion (1999), because "Bach and his wife were away
from Leipzig for the sixth Sunday after Trinity in 1724....Bach
prepared no new cantata for that week, but a decade later he
filled this gap in the Chorale Cantata with BWV9."
Treatment: Conservators disbound and collated
the manuscripts. They removed as much surface dirt and grime
as possible by drycleaning. Each leave was deacidified with
a non-aqueous alkaline solution. They mended damaged areas
with Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste. Because the
fragility of the brittle paper, especially where heavily
inked, required maximum support to limit flexing and abrasion
of the sheets while allowing optimum reader accessibility,
they collaborated with the Music Division to separate the
few remaining severely weakened folds and encapsulated individual
leaves in polyester film. Conservators then matted these
encapsulations and they were sewn into a linen support. They
covered the binding in limp vellum, made vellum endsheets
and endbands, and laced the whole together with alum-tawed
goatskin. |
Detail of manuscript
Encapsulated manuscript leaves
Completed binding
|
|
Page from the orchestral score
Revision pasted directly to score
Score was encapsulated and bound
|
Whole Brahms Manuscript
Johannes Brahms
[Concerto for Violin, Op. 77]
hand written manuscript
Music Division
This full score of Concerto for Violin, Op. 77, written in
the hand of Johannes Brahms, was the product of a lengthy epistolary
collaboration between Brahms and violinist Joseph Joachim.
The masterpiece that emerged premiered in Leipzig, Germany,
but the two continued to revise in red ink and red pencil,
with Brahms focusing on the orchestral parts and Joachim the
violin solo. This correspondence between composer and performer
suggests the existence of at least one full score, one piano
score, possibly two solo violin parts, and many orchestral
parts, all undergoing any number of revisions and being transported
back and forth across continental Europe and to and from London.
Treatment: This Brahms music manuscript
was originally bound in a half calfskin with paper sides.
The original leather was deteriorated and the boards were
detached. Conservators disbound the music manuscript pages
and encapsulated them between polyester sheets. They extended
the top piece of the sheeting beyond the spine edge of the
text to create a flange and drilled sewing holes along the
spine edge of this polyester flange. They laid two-inch strips
of linen and pared goatskin along the spine edge and side-sewed
the text with linen thread. They constructed a box of four-ply
matboard to fit over the sewn spine. The box was covered
with linen which also extended to create a 2-inch flange,
which they glued to the linen flange from the text. Finally,
they used goatskin to cover this attached spine box and the
boards, creating a 1/4 leather and linen cover. |
|
American Chorale
Graduale Dominicale
1576
Second edition
Bound volume
Music Division
This second edition of the 1576 Graduale Dominicale, a large
choral book, is the earliest 16th-century American musical
imprint in the Library's collections. The Graduale is an
early example of a liturgical book with music published in
many of the Spanish colonies, and it is among the first books
containing music printed in the Americas. The copy of the
Graduale at the Library of Congress contains chants for the
Proper of the Mass for the feasts of the Temporale for the
whole liturgical year from the first Sunday in Advent to
the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.
The textblock had become detached from the leather covered,
wooden-board binding. The pages were brittle and stiff from
the sizing and had many previous repairs. Many of these repairs
were large patches of paper adhered to the Graduale's pages
with adhesives which were discolored and brittle. In some
areas where there were losses of text restorers had filled
in the missing text with pen and ink.
Treatment: The sewing was removed from
the text block and the pages were separated. They were washed
in water to remove the old sizing, paper patches and adhesives.
The pages were immersed in an alkaline bath which deposited
and alkaline reserve in the paper. They were then mended,
losses were filled and folios were reattached using Japanese
paper and wheat starch paste. Previous patches that contained
replacement text were photocopied onto Japanese paper so
that new fills with better quality paper, retained the information
from the previous repair. |
Before treatment
After treatment |
|
|
Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin
[Rhapsody in Blue: a musical score]
Bound volume, 1924
Music Division
While most of the George and Ira Gershwin materials are in
the Gershwin Collection, two manuscripts of the Rhapsody in
Blue are in the Ferde Grofé Collection (Grofé made
the original orchestrations of that work), and lyric sheets
for five songs written by Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke are
found in the Duke Collection. In addition to the manuscripts
of Gershwin's concert works, the Gershwin Collection has considerable
manuscript music for his stage musicals--especially Of Thee
I Sing ("Love Is Sweeping the Country") and Let 'Em Eat Cake
("Mine"). It also has material from his late songs for Hollywood
musicals, with Gershwin's own piano accompaniments crafted
carefully as an art song: "They Can't Take That away from Me," "Nice
Work if You Can Get It," "Slap That Bass." The Division has
full score, sketch score, typescript libretto, and sheaves
of sketches for the archetypal American opera, Porgy and Bess.
The Collection also contains material concerning Ira Gershwin,
including letters to Ira from Kurt Weill written during their
collaboration on Lady in the Dark.
Treatment: Conservators disbound the manuscript.
They removed tissue guards and lightly dry cleaned the pages
before pray deacidifiying them. They then mended and applied
guards to the pages using Japanese paper. They repaired the
decorated fly leaves, replacing white fly leaves with archival-quality
paper. Book conservators sewed the manuscript to a concertina
guard, using a long, non-adhesive stitch. They inserted a
tube lining to allow more flexibility in the spine. They
extended the original covers by creating grooved rather than
tight joints and reattached them with new leather across
the spine. Finally, the bookbinders reattached the previous
spine over the new leather spine.
|
|
National Anthem
First printed edition of Star Spangled Banner
1814
Music Division
In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote new words for a well-known
drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," to celebrate America's
recent victory over the British. However, only in 1931, following
a twenty-year effort during which more than forty bills and
joint resolutions were introduced in Congress, was a law finally
signed proclaiming "The Star Spangled Banner" to be the national
anthem of the United States. The present copy, one of only
five known to have been made by Key, is the earliest of four
dating from the period 1840-1842 near the end of his life.
Treatment: Item had been silked many years
ago. The silk was manually removed. The item was washed and
deacidified. The item was fully lined with Japanese paper
and placed in a window matte to provide support and to allow
access and use. |
 |
|
|
Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland
Holograph score
1924
Music Division
Appalachian Spring, with music by Aaron Copland and choreography
by Martha Graham, was commissioned by and first performed at
the Library in 1944. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. Described
by Graham as having "to do with roots in so far as people can
express them without telling an actual story" it had a complex
birth. Copland received three different scripts from Graham
before beginning what he called his "Ballet for Martha" (Graham
gave it the current title). When she heard the music, Graham
decided to redo the action yet again. So, finally, there is
no "script" for Appalachian Spring-only the dance.
Treatment: The two scores were not originally
bound but housed in two portfolios. The individual pages
were mended using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste.
They were encapsulated in polyester with acid-free paper
inserts, to help slow deterioration. The polyester sleeve
pages were post bound in green buckram and placed into especially
made drop spine boxes.
|
|
HOME - GLOSSARY - CREDITS
Sections: Newspapers & Periodicals - Manuscripts - Photographs
Prints, Posters, & Drawings - Books - Maps - Music - Sound & Film
|
