At least 100,000 pieces of music by the leading 20th century Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires.
The sheet music was kept in his family's music production company, which burned down in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood last week.
Although no original manuscripts were lost, the music owned by Belmont Music Publishing was the main collection of scores rented to orchestras and musicians.
American Symphony Orchestra director Leon Botstein said it was an “indispensable resource” for performing musicians.
Schoenberg's son, Larry, 83, said the sheet music was kept in a building behind his house. Both buildings were destroyed by fires last week.
Other Schoenberg memorabilia, including photographs, letters and posters, were also destroyed.
“For a company focused exclusively on Schoenberg’s works, this loss represents not just a physical destruction of the property but a profound cultural blow,” Larry said in a statement.
He described the collection as a “essential” for musicians who rely on “meticulously curated versions” of his father's back catalog.
Arnold Schoenberg was born to a Jewish family in Vienna in 1874. He achieved great success as a composer in Berlin before fleeing to the United States in 1933 to avoid persecution from the Nazis.
He eventually settled in Los Angeles where he continued his pioneering compositions. He was known for his atonality and his 12-tone style, which departed from traditional harmonies. He died in 1951 at the age of 76 in Los Angeles.
Belmont said in a statement that it hopes to create digital versions of the results.
“We hope that in the near future we will be able to rise from the ashes entirely digitally,” the statement said.
Most of Schoenberg's original manuscripts are preserved in a museum in Vienna, Austria.
Firefighters are still struggling to control massive wildfires in Los Angeles that started in early January. So far they have killed at least 24 people, destroyed thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
There are two major fires still burning in Los Angeles, including a larger blaze in the Palisades area that has burned more than 24,000 acres.
