Bronisław Kaper (1902-1983) was an Oscar-winning film composer who left Poland in the early 1920s for Berlin and then Paris. Kaper emigrated to the US in 1935 and lived in Beverly Hills until his death in 1983. During that time he wrote over 200 film and TV scores for Hollywood, and became the first Polish-born composer to win an Academy Award for scoring in 1954. Kaper also served for many years on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association's Board of Directors, which later named an award for young musicians after him.
The Polish Music Center’s Bronisław Kaper Collection was initiated in October 2006 by Kaper’s agent, Steve Goldring, who donated 5 original film scores:
The Stranger (1946)
The Glass Slipper (1955)
Green Mansions (1959)
Tobruk (1967)
The Way West (1967)
In addition to Kaper’s own music and notations, the Kaper Collection includes a signed manuscript by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos, who notated an indigenous chant for the score of Green Mansions. Between 2007 and 2010, Kaper’s friend Irene Kearney donated several volumes of sheet music featuring some of Kaper’s most famous songs, such as Lili, On Green Dolphin Street, Blue Love Bird, and Invitation, among many others.
The USC Digital Library is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes and makes no warranty with regard to their use for other purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as holders of publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may be content that is protected as "works for hire" (copyright may be held by the party that commissioned the original work) and/or under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.
Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Users should consult the bibliographic information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the USC Digital Library and the Polish Music Center regarding the corresponding items and may assist users in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items as related to their desired uses.
In some cases, the Digital Library was unable to identify a possible rights holder and has elected to place some of those items online partially or in their entirety as an exercise of fair use for strictly non-commercial educational uses.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through IMLS Grant RE‐85‐18‐0110‐18. All digital items are a part of The Dianne and Tad Taube Polish Music Center Digital Archives at the USC Thornton School of Music.