Four Short Typed Letters Signed to Doc Sirmay

Group of four short typed letters signed from the great composer and lyricist to Albert "Doc" Sirmay, head of the music publisher Chappell and a close collaborator with Porter. In the first letter, dated August 12, 1961, Porter reflects on his "happy days at the Ritz-Carlton[...] How I should love to go back with a brand new show[...]" and thanks Sirmay for sending him clippings and the sheet music from Noel Coward's new show. In a letter of February 27, 1962, Porter thanks Simray for sending "pictures concerning Dick Rodgers"; in the following letter of October 26, 1963, he mentions Simray's sending the playbill for the musical Jennie and writes that "The press has been very unkind to her [Mary Martin, the show's star] and I hope the press is wrong as Mary Martin is an old friend of mine." In the final letter of March 5, 1964, Porter thanks Simray for sending another playbill, from the show Anyone Can Whistle. Each 1 p. Folds from prior framings, small losses or skinning to edges of two, else fine. 

Composer, arranger and editor Albert "Doc" Sirmay was the music director of the leading music publishing firm Chappell. According to Mark Eden Horowitz, Sirmay can be considered a collaborator with Porter: he "worked closely with [Chappell's] roster of composer, including Kern, Gershwin, and especially Porter. Many of the published piano-vocal scores of standards of the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s owe their elegance, clarity, and playability to Sirmay. He could convert a lead sheet to a richly accompanied song; he could wed melodies to accompaniment figures to make the totality of a song playable on the piano; he was a master of chord voicings. Many of the Porter music manuscripts in both the Library and Yale collections are in Sirmay's clear and flowing hand." ("Cole Porter's Papers," in A Cole Porter Companion, p. 310.) (14466)

---

TLS

Song

Theater

• Sold