Donald Oliver/Chelsea Music Archive
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Donald Oliver/Chelsea Music Archive consists of documents collected both personally by Donald Oliver and by Chelsea Music Services. Chelsea Music Services, Inc. was established as a "music factory of six or seven orchestrators willing to step in when needed." It became one of Broadway's favored music preparation services, producing "green-books," handwritten, and bound piano-conductor scores until 1988. The collection consists of librettos, piano-vocal scores, orchestrations, and video recordings pertaining to Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals. Among the prominent productions featured in the collection are A Chorus Line, The Phantom of the Opera, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Merrily We Roll Along. The collection also documents the work of individual theater personalities, including actor Mandy Patinkin, performer Marti Stevens, and lyricist Dorothy Fields. Additional material includes playbills, newspaper clippings of reviews, screenplays and teleplays.
Biographical / Historical
After studying at the Manhattan School of Music and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop under the direction of Lehman Engel, Donald Oliver served as the Artistic Director of Octagon Theatre Company in New York, an off-off-Broadway playhouse that produced musical revivals, including Zorba and Drat the Cat!. In 1978, Oliver began working with Chelsea Music Services, Inc., preparing music for numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, his credits include Cats, Guys and Dolls, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Into the Woods, and The Phantom of the Opera. In addition to his work at Chelsea Music Services, Oliver has also collaborated with lyricist Dan Butler in the production of The Case of the Dead Flamingo Dancer, first performed in 1986, and authored How to Audition for Musical Theatre: A Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Preparation (1995).
Founded by Don Walker and Mathilde Pincus, Chelsea Music Services, Inc. was established as a "music factory of six or seven orchestrators willing to step in when needed." Under Pincus's direction, Chelsea Music Services, Inc. became one of Broadway's favored music preparation services, producing "green-books," handwritten, bound piano-conductor scores, until Pincus's death in 1988. Spiral bound scores have been produced for more recent shows.
Sources:
Oliver, Donald, How to Audition for the Musical Theatre: A Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Preparation. Smith & Kraus Publishing, 1995.
Suskin, Steven, The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Arrangement
The Donald Oliver/Chelsea Music Archive is arranged into five series, with additional oversize series for Series I and III listed at the end of the finding aid. All series are arranged alphabetically by production title or subject's last name.
The series are as follows:
Series I: Librettos and Playbills
Series II: Screenplays and Teleplays
Series III: Conductor Scores and Orchestrations
Series IV: Video Recordings
Series V: Paper Documentation from Video Recordings
Oversize Series I: Librettos and Playbills
Oversize Series III: Conductor Scores and Orchestrations
The titles of the librettos received in the 2016 accretion were integrated into Series I: Librettos and Playbills in alphabetical order, an arrangement scheme that had been adopted previously for the collection.
Scope and Contents
The Donald Oliver/Chelsea Music Archive consists of documents collected both personally by Donald Oliver and by Chelsea Music Services, Inc. The collection consists of librettos, piano-vocal scores, orchestrations, and video recordings pertaining to Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals. Among the prominent productions featured in the collection are A Chorus Line, The Phantom of the Opera, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Merrily We Roll Along. The collection also documents the work of individual theater personalities, including actor Mandy Patinkin, performer Marti Stevens, and lyricist Dorothy Fields. Additional material includes playbills, newspaper clippings of reviews, screenplays and teleplays.
Subjects
People
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Donald Oliver/Chelsea Music Archive; MSS 254; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated to NYU's Fales Library by Don Oliver in 2009. An accretion was later received in September 2016; the accession number associated with this gift is 2016.047.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions concerning the arrangement, description, and physical intervention decisions prior to 2016 have not yet been recorded. The librettos of the accretion received in 2016 were foldered, reboxed in October 2016, and intellectually integrated into Series I. in accordance with the existing arrangement structure.
