Music Guide

About this Collection
Received through Copyright deposit, gifts, and purchase, Library of Congress musical theater holdings range from rare opera excerpts of the late 17th century, through the popular music boom of the 19th century, to US Copyright deposits from all over the world. Most of the music is written for voice and piano; a significant minority is instrumental.

Included in this database are hits and flops by famous Tin Pan Alley songwriters, as well as manuscript and published materials from amateur composers. Rare and special items include early operas; music published in newspapers; lead sheets and other unpublished formats of musical and film music; college and civic productions; and shows produced in Europe between the two World Wars. This dynamic form is still popular in the 21st century, and additions will be made to this page as relevant sheet music is acquired by the Library.

Please Note: It's Showtime! contains only pieces found under Library of Congress Classification of M1508. Therefore, it does not contain information about all of the theater music available either in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia or in the Library's collections.

Born in Russia around 1893 (the exact year and day are uncertain), Leo Ornstein was recognized as a prodigy at an early age. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Alexander Glazounov but in 1907 was forced to flee with his family to America where he entered what would one day become the Juilliard School of Music. There he studied with Bertha Fiering Tapper in whose classes he met the influential Claire Reis. More significantly, he met Pauline Mallet-Prevost, herself a fine pianist, whom he would marry in 1918; she would become his lifelong collaborator, and musical scribe.

1896 - born on Dec. 1, in the town of Kazanluk, in the family of the industrialist Grouyu Petkov Stainov and Anka Stainova. This is where he spends his early childhood years, together with his two junior brothers, Zahari and Stoyan, and his sister Penka, the youngest child. The summers he passes in his grandfather’s farm in the village of Ovoshtnik.

1902 - at the age of 6, he accidentally injures one of his eyes. It begins suffering and gradually loses its strength. Soon afterwards the other eye begins ailing irreversibly. Eleven years old, Petko Stainov becomes blind with both eyes.

1906 - enrolls in the newly opened (1905) Institute for the Blind in Sofia.

1907 - while in the Institute, studies the flute with Dimitur Hadjigeorgiev and Nikola Stefanov, the violin with Schwertner, and harmony with Kraus.

1912 - begins studying the piano with Mila Buchvarova.

1913-1915 - studies the piano with Andrei Stoyanov and participates actively in the Institute’s choir and orchestra under the leadership of Mihail Shekerdjiev and Nikola Stefanov.

1915 - graduates from the Institute for the Blind. Succeeds in mastering the Braille system for the blind in both Bulgarian and German and later uses it throughout his entire life.