Dorothy Starr was the beloved proprietor of a Hayes Valley music store who had a vast stock of sheet music and an encyclopedic knowledge of the Great American Songbook. You can read her biography on our webpage.
What Is Sheet Music?
Sheet music is printed or written music on single sheets, not bound into book form. The most typical sheet music is a single large piece of paper folded and includes a decorative cover.
Background
Over the past 30 years, staff and volunteers have cataloged more than 42,000 records of vocal sheet music into the Dorothy Starr Collection Database. While the collection is best known for its Tin Pan Alley era songs, showtunes and songs from movie musicals, it is far vaster in scope. There are songs in nearly one hundred languages. It includes folk songs and classical music like choral music, art songs and opera arias. Published music in the collection dates from 1820 all the way to 2020.
Searching
The main search page highlights many of the features of the catalog records:
You can perform the usual keyword, title and author (composer / lyricist / arranger) searches. In addition to this you can focus on first lines of verses and choruses and the names of films or Broadway shows.
To aid searching, the music cataloging includes the first lines of verses and choruses. It also lists the musical, film, television show or opera that a song was used in as well as the names of people portrayed on sheet music covers. The records also note whether the music includes chord symbols and guitar or ukulele chord diagrams. You can also search for choral music by including standard choral abbreviations like SATB for mixed chorus, SSA for women’s chorus, or TTBB for men’s chorus.
Using The Dorothy Starr Collection
The Dorothy Starr Collection is a semi-archival special collection. Patrons request sheet music from the collection at the Art, Music & Recreation Center reference desk. The music cannot leave the library; we hold collateral ID for any music that leaves the reference desk. We request that the public use our vast songbook collection whenever possible before using the Dorothy Starr sheet music. Bound songbooks are far more durable and will stand greater wear and tear than fragile single music sheets.
Even though we have a large circulating songbook collection, singers are very accustomed to using our reference collections to make personal copies of songs. Whenever we realize that a patron is best served by using the Dorothy Starr sheet music, we make it available to them in exchange for collateral ID like any reference item. We remind the user to treat the sheet music very gently.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the Dorothy Starr Collection or our music collections in general. Phone us at 415-557-4525 or email us at artmusicrec@sfpl.org
Listen to a 1986 interview with Dorothy Starr.
Listen to “Ladies of the Nightclubs,” a program with Janet Roitz and Sean Martinfield celebrating 20 years of the Dorothy Starr Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.
What Is Sheet Music?
Sheet music is printed or written music on single sheets, not bound into book form. The most typical sheet music is a single large piece of paper folded and includes a decorative cover.
Background
Over the past 30 years, staff and volunteers have cataloged more than 42,000 records of vocal sheet music into the Dorothy Starr Collection Database. While the collection is best known for its Tin Pan Alley era songs, showtunes and songs from movie musicals, it is far vaster in scope. There are songs in nearly one hundred languages. It includes folk songs and classical music like choral music, art songs and opera arias. Published music in the collection dates from 1820 all the way to 2020.
Searching
The main search page highlights many of the features of the catalog records:
To aid searching, the music cataloging includes the first lines of verses and choruses. It also lists the musical, film, television show or opera that a song was used in as well as the names of people portrayed on sheet music covers. The records also note whether the music includes chord symbols and guitar or ukulele chord diagrams. You can also search for choral music by including standard choral abbreviations like SATB for mixed chorus, SSA for women’s chorus, or TTBB for men’s chorus.
Using The Dorothy Starr Collection
The Dorothy Starr Collection is a semi-archival special collection. Patrons request sheet music from the collection at the Art, Music & Recreation Center reference desk. The music cannot leave the library; we hold collateral ID for any music that leaves the reference desk. We request that the public use our vast songbook collection whenever possible before using the Dorothy Starr sheet music. Bound songbooks are far more durable and will stand greater wear and tear than fragile single music sheets.
Even though we have a large circulating songbook collection, singers are very accustomed to using our reference collections to make personal copies of songs. Whenever we realize that a patron is best served by using the Dorothy Starr sheet music, we make it available to them in exchange for collateral ID like any reference item. We remind the user to treat the sheet music very gently.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the Dorothy Starr Collection or our music collections in general. Phone us at 415-557-4525 or email us at artmusicrec@sfpl.org
Listen to a 1986 interview with Dorothy Starr.
Listen to “Ladies of the Nightclubs,” a program with Janet Roitz and Sean Martinfield celebrating 20 years of the Dorothy Starr Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.
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