Billy May musical scores

Collection

Identifier: 2159

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains musical scores and parts for songs arranged by American musical arranger Billy May (1916-2004), dating from the late 1930s to early 1970s. There are files for 567 titles from more than 100 different composers including Count Basie, Bob Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Glenn Miller, and Henry Mancini. For each title, there is typically a holograph score showing all of the parts for different instruments and holograph sheet music for individual instruments. The music includes popular songs, Big Band and Swing, jazz, Latin music, and music for television and movies.

Housed with the collection in Box 1 are some photocopies of Mays' arrangements and "As you remember them: volume 2" (1972) a Time-Life vinyl record set. It is unclear if the record was received with the collection or added later.

Dates

Creation: 1937 - 1972

Creator

May, Billy (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Cinematic Arts Library at ctlibarc@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Cinematic Arts Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Billy May (1916-2004) was an American musical arranger, composer, and trumpeter. May began arranging music in high school. He worked steadily as an arranger and musician during the Great Depression. May performed regularly as a trumpeter and toured during the Big Band era of the 1940s. In the 1940s, May moved to Los Angeles, California, and worked as an arranger and studio orchestra leader.

Extent

45 Linear Feet (40 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains musical scores and parts for songs arranged by American musical arranger Billy May (1916-2004), dating from the late 1930s to early 1970s. The music includes popular songs, Big Band and Swing, jazz, Latin music, and music for television and movies.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged alphabetically by the name of the composer in two groupings:

Boxes 1-24: Ambrose-Chick Web

Boxes 25-38: Herb Alpert-Roger Williams

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Billy May.

Processing Information

Transferred from the USC Music Library to the Cinema Arts Library. Some processing by USC students in 2019 as part of the "Piloting a Shared Practice for Accessible Archival Descriptions" Dean's Challenge Grant. Additional description by Diann Benti in 2021.