The American Music Research Center and CU Boulder Libraries have acquired a vast trove of silent film musical scores that dramatically augments its existing collections and transforms CU Boulder into a premier center for the study of the live music that was a hallmark of early 20th-century moviegoing.
The vintage scores鈥攎ore than 3,000 of them in 70 boxes鈥攑rovide a window into a vivid and stylish corner of American popular culture and represent a major new resource for music and film scholars, students and performers alike.
The addition of the scores, most of which date from 1900 to 1929, means CU Boulder now has 鈥渙ne of the most important collections anywhere,鈥� says Professor of Musicology Susan Thomas, who directs the AMRC.
Nearly all the sheet music once belonged to Los Angeles鈥� Grauman theater chain, which owned the famed Grauman Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard and several other local movie houses. Alumnus Rodney Sauer (MS 鈥�89) bought the scores in 2013 and donated them to CU Boulder this year.
鈥淚 would like this repertoire to be known in the same way the repertories of operas are known and plays are known,鈥� says Sauer, who founded The Mont Alto Silent Film Orchestra, one of the nation鈥檚 top performers of silent film music.
Music in the silent film era, as today, prompted and intensified viewers鈥� emotional response to the screen action. The Grauman scores bear titles like 鈥淪torm Music,鈥� 鈥淭he Furious Mob,鈥� and 鈥淎 Simple Love Episode.鈥�
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