The Historic Sheet Music Collection (HSMC) consists primarily of popular music of the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Although most of the music is composed or arranged for voice with piano accompaniment, some pieces incorporate other instruments such as guitar, and some are for instrumental solo (primarily piano or guitar). A few classical works are also included in the collection.
Sheet music can offer an interesting interdisciplinary research opportunity. The lyrics, cover art, and advertisements open a window on the society and culture of the time. Subjects range from popular love songs to laments to humorous ditties - and everything else in between. Many songs reflect on the U.S. Civil War, World War I, and World War II. There is even a song about Wheaties in the collection.
This page contains links to 63 different pieces of sheet music from a single bound collection, The Shower of Pearls :A Collection of the Most Beautiful Duets ... published by Oliver Ditson & Co. in Boston in 1859. The rest of the sheet music collection can be browsed at http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/.
Submissions from 1859
Home, F. Abt
Come O'er The Moonlit Sea, D.F.E. (Daniel François Esprit) Auber and Charles Jefferys
No, Ne'er Can Thy Home Be Mine, Thomas H. Bayly
Hour of Parting, Vincenzo Bellini and Elizabeth Anne White
Leaf and the Fountain, H. R. Bishop
Tea and Turn Out, Jonas Blewitt
List, to the Convent Bells, John Blockley
Moon is Beaming O'er the Lake, John Blockley
All's Well, J. Braham
Shells of Ocean, John William Cherry
Last Link is Broken, William Clifton
What Fairy-Like Music, Joseph De Pinna and Cornewell Baron Wilson
I'll Pray for Thee, Lucia di Lammermoor
Hope That the Nearest, Gaetano Donizetti
I'll Pray for Thee, Gaetano Donizetti
While Thus Around Joy Hovers, Gaetano Donizetti
Matrimonial Sweets, W.H. Freeman
There's a Sigh in the Heart, Anne Fricker
Two Cousins, Charles William Glover
Gently Sighs the Breeze, Stephen Glover
Gipsy Countess, Stephen Glover
Midnight Moon, Stephen Glover
Murmuring Sea, Stephen Glover
Music, and her Sister Song, Stephen Glover
Two Merry Girls, Stephen Glover
What are the Wild Waves Saying?, Stephen Glover
Voice from the Waves, Stephen Glover and Richard Ryan
Our Way Across the Sea, Jacques-Nicolas Goulé
Roy's Wife, Elizabeth Grant
Herd Bells, Ferdinand Gumbert
Evening Song to the Virgin, Felicia Dorothea Hemans
Messenger Bird, Felicia Dorothea Hemans
Holy Mother, Guide his Footsteps, Holy Mother, Guide his Footsteps
I Know a Bank, Charles Horn
Are There Tidings in Yon Vessel, Chas. E. Horn
Come, With thy Lute, to the Fountain, John P. Hullah
Ah! Could I Teach the Nightingale, Karl Keller
Minute Gun at Sea, Matthew Peter King
Barcarole, Friedrich Wilhelm Kucken
Make Me No Gaudy Chaplet, Make Me No Gaudy Chaplet
When a Little Farm We Keep, Joseph Mazzinghi
I Would That My Love, Felix Mendelssohn
May-bells and the Flowers, Felix Mendelssohn
O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast, Felix Mendelssohn
Passage Bird's Farewell, Felix Mendelssohn
Go Thou and Dream, Thomas Moore
La Ci Darem, Wolfgang Amadeus von Mozart
Hear Me, Norma, Sydney Nelson
Music at Nightfall, Sydney Nelson
When Night Comes O'er the Plain, Sydney Nelson
Speed, My Bark, O Gently Speed Thee, Sigismund von Neukomm
A,B,C. Comic Duet, John Parry
Pescator Dell' Onda, Pescator Dell' Onda
Where the Warbling Waters Flow, Brinley Richards
Rome! Thou Art No More!, Rome! Thou Art No More!
Dark Day of Horror, Gioacchino Rossini
Arrayed in Clouds of Golden Light, Oliver Shaw
Bird Let Loose, Oliver Shaw
Meet Me by Moonlight, Robert Shrival
Flow on Thou Shining River, Sir John Stevenson
Back to Our Mountains, Giuseppe Verdi
Parigi. O Cara, Giuseppe Verdi
I've Wandered in Dreams, Joseph Augustine Wade
Light May the Boat Row, John Watson
Mrs. Smith, My Dear!, John Watson
Larboard Watch, T. Williams