Rick Benjamin’s
Collection of Historic Orchestral Scores

Mr. Benjamin with a few of his discoveries.

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s performances are the product of serious historical research aimed at authentically recreating American orchestras of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At core of this work is the discovery and preservation of original orchestra sheet music from that period – the “orchestrations.” An orchestration is the vital blueprint through which composers and arrangers notate the sounds they want performers to play in order to create the music.

For nearly forty years Paragon’s founder,
Rick Benjamin, has searched far and wide for historic American orchestra scores…

He has combed the attics and basements of ancient theaters, crumbling warehouses, and old barns, as well more comfortable places (archives and libraries) in a never ending search for rare musical scores. The creation of his Paragon Ragtime Orchestra was a direct result of Mr. Benjamin’s first such discovery – the 1985 rescue of the lost orchestrations of the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Through these efforts, today Mr. Benjamin’s collection contains 20,000 historic orchestrations spanning the years 1830 to 1945. This remarkable archive includes rare published scores and manuscripts by more than 700 American composers, including luminaries like Scott Joplin, Edward MacDowell, W.C. Handy, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin. This material encompasses music for the theater (operetta, musical comedy, vaudeville, revue, and “silent” cinema), concert stage (and bandstand), and ballroom. The works of African-American composers are especially well represented. All of the Paragon Orchestra’s concerts, silent film screenings, and recordings are created exclusively using the orchestrations from this world-class collection.

The Benjamin Collection is made up of the following 19th and early 20th century orchestra libraries:


The Arthur Pryor/Victor Talking Machine Company Collection
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania & Camden, New Jersey, c.1900-1925)

The Mantia Arcade Orchestra collection
(Asbury Park, New Jersey, c.1922-1926)

The Joseph Weyr collection
(New York City, c.1905-1930)

B.F. Alart/Capitol Theatre music library
(Washington, DC c.1900-1927)

The Frank H. Wells collection
(Cohoes, New York, c.1890-1920)

Anthony Gasparro’s Society Orchestra collection
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c.1895-1925)

Creighton’s Queen City Orchestra collection
(Allentown, Pennsylvania, c.1900- 1920)

The Andrew Stopper Orchestra library
(Williamsport, Pennsylvania, c.1880-1920)

The Edwin G. & Herbert L. Clarke Family Orchestra Collection
(Toronto, Canada & New York, NY, c.1880-1910)

The Ford Motor Co. orchestra library
(Detroit, Michigan, c.1909-1940)

The Strand Theatre orchestra library
(Erie, Pennsylvania, c.1913-1928)

The Lyceum Theatre orchestra collection
(Ithaca, New York, 1893-1927)

The Max Morath Collection
(U.S. touring, 1963-2007)

The George C. Horner Dance Orchestra collection
(Camden, New Jersey, c.1883-1920)

The BMI Radio Network Orchestra collection
(1939-1941)

The Rex Spencer collection
(New York, New York, 1900-1930)

The U.S. Soldiers’ Home collection
(Washington, D.C., 1852-1930)

The Gunther Schuller Collection of Historic Orchestrations
(Newton Centre, MA, c.1850-1920; collected c.1965-1992)

The New Grand Opera House collection
(Pittsburgh, PA, c.1870-1916)

The William Knighton collection
(New York, NY, c.1900-1930; Gift of the U.S. Marine Band)

The Paramount Theatre collection
(Seattle, WA, c.1929-1933)

The F.B. Helmsmüller / John M. Lander Collection
(New York, NY, c.1835-1900)


 

The 1st violin part to Benjamin collection #7,348 – a 1914 medley of Jerome Kern Broadway songs as arranged by the legendary Frank Saddler.

 

A rare manuscript part from the original Broadway stage version of The Wizard of OZ (1902); the Collection includes orchestrations from hundreds of operettas, musical comedies, and revues of the 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, and early ’20s.

 

SILENT FILM MUSIC – Rick Benjamin has one of the world’s finest collections of original period orchestra music for the silent films (c1896-1928); it includes rare cue sheets, scores, and parts for hundreds of movies, as well as over a thousand “photoplay” cues. Here is the cover of the conductor’s part to the 1917 melodrama Within The Law. The film itself is apparently lost.

 

Of course, ragtime is the centerpiece of the PRO’s repertoire, because the Collection contains nearly 700 original orchestrations of rags. Some of these are arrangements of piano pieces, but many were composed especially for small orchestras, like this rare 1912 number, “A Greasy Rag.”

 

Scott Joplin’s music is very well-represented in the collection: holdings including many rare and a few “only know copy” items (several are in manuscript). Here is Mr. Joplin’s own orchestral arrangement of his “Euphonic Sounds: A Syncopated Novelty” (1910).

 


 

Pasadena Star News

"Benjamin and his orchestra filled the second half of the evening with lilting, humorous, and even elegant readings of ragtime numbers, a W.C. Handy blues song, and even a Sousa march…Popular music, A.D. 1900, is still going strong."
– Pasadena Star News

Kansas City Star

“This group is like a ragtime early music ensemble, striving to protect the integrity of this uniquely American musical genre.”
– Kansas City Star

Fanfare 2

“…delightfully infectious. The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and its dynamic director have found a winning formula for educating the public in the most enjoyable way…”
– Fanfare magazine

LaCrosse Tribune

“The magical, musical time machine.”
– La Crosse Tribune

Washington Post 2

“Summoning both the subtle interplay and brassy vitality these pieces demand, the PRO does itself proud.”
– The Washington Post

Buffalo News

“The results were irresistible. Halfway through the opening Knock-Out Drops Rag, someone enthused audibly, ‘Gee, they’re terrific!’ She was right.”
– Buffalo News

American Heritage

“…the twelve-member Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been touring the country in the ghostly footsteps of the thousands of ‘theater orchestras’ that once played in every hotel, vaudeville hall, and fair-sized restaurant. Few of them can have played with more bite and sparkle than the Paragon.”
– American Heritage magazine

Gramophone

“…genteel melodic lines swim like fish through pure water.”
– Gramophone magazine

BBC Music magazine

“superbly presented….prize-worthy.”
– BBC Music magazine

American Music magazine

“… a deft, crisp, and energetic group…. one of the premiere forces in the reassertion of this repertoire in our musical consciousness.”
American Music magazine

New York Times

“Best of all, the concert came off not as a dry musicological dig, but as an evening of…abidingly energetic fun.”
– The New York Times

Wall Street Journal

“…protecting an important American treasure…not just be a pleasure to hear but for many a true revelation.”
– The Wall Street Journal

Washington Post

“Vibrantly revived music.”
– The Washington Post

Classics Today

“There’s plenty of variety here to give a representative sampling of some of the era’s finest pop music, and it’s all played with polish, authenticity, and all-out enthusiasm by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra under Rick Benjamin’s inspired direction.”
– Classics Today

Fanfare magazine

“If PRO is not already labeled a national treasure it should be.”
– Fanfare magazine

Philadelphia Inquirer

“Four Stars…The music is incomparably sweet and stirring. And Rick Benjamin, who founded and conducts the PRO, is a musician of wit and sensibility.”
– The Philadelphia Inquirer

Denver Post

“To hear the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra play the compositions of Scott Joplin or Irving Berlin… is to hear the promise many Americans felt about the prospects for the U.S. a century ago.”
Denver Post

The San Francisco Chronicle

"Ragtime and opera joined hands and danced together in the most joyous fashion at Stern Grove on Sunday afternoon, with a vigorous and utterly charming performance of Scott Joplin’s 'Treemonisha'…the score, superbly led by conductor Rick Benjamin, is a resourceful marvel….For this performance Benjamin…unveiled his new arrangement of 'Treemonisha' for the 11-piece Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. That lithe, pungent blend of strings, woodwinds and brass…gave the performance a lively grace that helped fill the sunny meadow to perfection.”
The San Francisco Chronicle

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