Henrik Almon
The Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Schwerin preserves, alongside its historical court chapel collection, approximately 25 linear metres of popular salon music from the first half of the twentieth century. Acquired through bequests and donations from local musicians, this holding has so far been only roughly arranged and not yet catalogued in detail. A separate, fully catalogued holding — the season schedules (Spielpläne) and programme booklets of the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater, together with further archival material documenting popular music concerts in the region — provides a complementary body of sources.
The research project undertakes the first systematic survey of the uncatalogued sheet music and asks what these materials can reveal about the production and circulation of popular music in the region, with a focus on the years 1930 to 1950. Three questions guide the investigation: Which publishers and edition formats are represented in the holding, and what does their distribution indicate about regional and supra-regional publishing networks? What traces of use — performance annotations, arrangements, assembled repertoire collections — do the sources carry, and how do they document local music-making as part of the production process of popular music? And, drawing on the theatre’s schedules and programme booklets: in which contexts was this music performed, and how was it framed and described for its audiences?
Combining bibliographical survey, material analysis and repertoire studies, and reading the uncatalogued holding against the catalogued performance records, the project treats the collection not as a representative sample but as a contingent survival — shaped by the decisions of donors and the library alike — whose very selectivity sheds light on how popular music of this period was used, valued and preserved. It thereby contributes to a more differentiated picture of popular music in Mecklenburg between 1930 and 1950.