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Finding Aid - Index

Canadian sheet music

Canadian sheet music collection. -- [ca. 1850-ca. 1986]; predominant 1910-1950. -- 2.2 m of textual records. -- The measurement refers only to the sheet music that have finding aids.

The Canadian sheet music collection contains music with lyrics predominantly in English, although several of the songs have lyrics in French. There are also a few songs in aboriginial languages and European languages. There are also many instrumental pieces. Subjects include World War I and World War II, patriotic songs and anthems, religious and dance music. A detailed description has been done for each piece of music in the first accrual -- including a subject classification. This sheet music collection also has a number of music related items.

There have been six accruals. The first accrual consists mainly of sheet music. There are also programmes, books and pamphlets in the first accrual as well as puzzles and games, time blocks, wooden notes -- all of these used to teach children music by the Fletcher music method. The second accrual consists mainly of books although there is some sheet music. The third and fourth accruals (26-2007; 50-2008) are sheet music, as are the fifth and sixth accruals. Many of the books in the second accrual are published in the United States and Britain. Eventually the books from both accruals will be catalogued either for Research Collections or the general library stacks. There are still several boxes of sheet music that have not yet been unpacked. There are also three copies of a poster, "'Cello, Otto Joachim, Kinderspiel", n.d.

Researchers are also referred to the War Songs from the first half of the Twentieth Century collection.

Title based on content of collection.
The first accrual was acquired in December 1984; the second accrual in March 1996. Both accruals were donated by Dorothy H. Farquharson. The collection has been called the Farquharson collection in the past. The third accrual was discovered in 2007 and was presumably acquired from Dorothy H. Farquharson. The fourth and fifth accruals were acquired from Morris Norman in 2008 and 2009. The sixth accrual was acquired from Morris Norman in 2011.
Finding Aid for part of the first accrual is available electronically. It is taken from Gayle D. Sherwood's Indexed Guide to the Dorothy H. Farquharson Collection of Canadian Sheet Music (Res Coll Ref ZML136.H36M36 1989). The finding aid for the second accrual to sixth accruals consists of listings of sheet music. There is also an appendix of books. These are available electronically. There is no finding aid for the parts of the collection not yet unpacked.
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are not expected.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: May 14, 2003
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