“ANTIQUES; Sheet Music Is More Than Just Song Titles”
By Ann Barry
''Sheet music is a whole world,'' said Marianne Wurlitzer, a partner of Wurlitzer-Bruck, a New York firm specializing in antique musical instruments and musical material. ''You could do a history of the United States through sheet-music covers.''
In fact, the dilemma for collectors often is which cover illustrations to focus on. Subject matter is practically endless: historical scenes, portraits of famous people, depictions of World War I battle sites, sports figures, popular dances, Broadway scores by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and the like. (The collection of sheet-music covers by David K. Varnay, an actor, on view through March 25 in the arcade of the Park Avenue Plaza Building, 55 East 52d Street, reveals one enthusiast's enchantment with the theater and Hollywood.) ''There's some wonderful stuff out there, some at incredibly reasonable prices,'' said Ms. Wurlitzer, who is the great-great-granddaughter of Rudolph Wurlitzer, founder of the company noted for pianos, organs and juke boxes, and daughter of Rembert Wurlitzer, the leading violin dealer in the United States. ''You might just do pretty covers for under $10 - and $10 can represent good quality.''
''Out there'' is flea markets, countrified antique shows, ephemera and book fairs, antiquarian book dealers and music specialists like Wurlitzer-Bruck. Some of these sources may require that the collector root like a pig after truffles. Yet, with luck and persistence, rarities may be unearthed. A find of this sort might be a sheet-music cover illustrated by Fitz Hugh Lane or Winslow Homer (lithographic workshops were training grounds for aspiring fine artists) or Civil War material, particularly Confederate imprints. Prices then may climb into the $50 to $100 range. The truly exceptional can fetch far higher figures. ''The Favorite Piece of John Buckler,'' a highly ornate title cover dedicated to a German folk hero, recently brought well over $1,000; printed circa 1805, it was the first lithography in this country.
One of the most complete collections of American sheet-music covers can be found at the American Antiquarian Society, a historical organization in Worcester, Mass. The approximately 9,000 pictorial covers range in date from the late 1780's up to 1880.
According to Georgia Barnhill, the Andrew W. Mellon curator of graphic arts at the society, the field of pictorial covers ballooned with the advent of lithography in 1825. Sheet-music covers were enriched with full-page scenes, and sheet music became something of a household staple, tucked into the parlor's piano bench.
Altogether, the collection presents a social and cultural commentary of the period. As the society's 175th Anniversary Guide pointed out last year: ''Songs were composed to pay tribute to the heroism of fire fighters or to celebrate such important events as the first water piped into New York in 1842. These pieces illustrate such important issues of the day as temperance, slavery and women's rights. They extolled the pleasure of rowing or bowling, ice cream parlors or tobacco. Even the appearance of the great comet in 1843 was deemed appropriate for the popular composer and the cover artist.''
Mrs. Barnhill added that ''many pieces were composed during political campaigns, such as William Henry Harrison's log-cabin campaign of 1840.'' His backers presented him as a rough-and-ready individual born in a log cabin and with a fondness for hard cider, so that these elements appear on sheet music of songs promoting his campaign.
Music generated by the temperance movement was sometimes illustrated by a family shown in poor circumstances because the father was a drinker. The abolitionist movement inspired a rash of covers based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin.'' The women's suffrage movement prompted scenes of women lining up at the polls…
Sources for sheet music include Wurlitzer-Bruck, 60 Riverside Drive (by appointment only, 787-6431), and another music specialist, J. & J. Lubrano, 39 Hollenbeck Avenue, Great Barrington, Mass. 01230. Among antiquarian book stores in Manhattan are Pageant, 109 East Ninth Street; Argosy, 116 East 59th Street, and Gryphon, 2246 Broadway, at 80th Street.
Another font for collectors is the Sheet Music Exchange, a bimonthly publication edited by Pat Cleveland, with contributions by sheet-music dealers and collectors. Each issue contains both buy and sell advertising, as well as at least 40 pages of articles written principally by subscribers. In April, a special issue will be devoted to the sheet music of Harry Bache Smith, a librettist from the turn of the century through the 1930's, who wrote prolifically for the theater but whose name, according to Miss Cleveland, is in danger of being forgotten. An annual subscription to Sheet Music Exchange is P. O. Box 69, Quicksburg, Va. 22847. P. O. Box 69, Quicksburg, Va. 22847.