Music Resources
Searching for Scores
For the most accurate catalog search results, use the Advanced Catalog Search feature.
Music Scores can be divided between the scores with musical forms in their titles (e.g., sonatas, concertos) and scores with distinctive titles (e.g., Rite of Spring or Don Giovanni). Therefore, searching for a Vivaldi concerto is a different search than looking for Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. Use the following examples to practice catalog searches with form titles and distinctive titles.
Example #1: Music Forms as title - symphonies, concertos, sonatas, etc.
Symphony No. 35 in D major, K385 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Go to the UH Library Catalog Advanced Search Page
- Enter Mozart AND Symphonies AND 35
- Limit your search by material type to MUSIC SCORES.
Tip: When searching for a musical form such as a sonata, symphony, etc., use the plural form of the word; the specific instrument is useful, but not essential.
Example #2: Distinctive Titles - Marriage of Figaro, Rite of Spring, etc.
The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Go to the UH Library Catalog Advanced Search Page
- Enter Marriage of Figaro
- Limit your search by material type to MUSIC SCORES.
Tip: By limiting your search to MUSIC SCORES at the outset, you can avoid sifting through a.) many, many sound recordings and b.) other forms of "The Marriage of Figaro", such as the popular play on which it is based by Beaumarchais.
Web Resources
- Benson Collection of Hymnals and HymnologyThe Princeton Theological Seminary Library Theological Commons, in cooperation with Archive.org, has digitized over 6,000 titles from the Benson Collection of Hymnals and Hymnology.
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library: Volume I This link opens in a new windowMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume I contains over 400,000 pages of the most important classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material, allowing for the study and analysis of more than 25,000 scores. All the major classical music genres are included - orchestral, chamber, opera, vocal, solo instrumental, and choral.
- IMSLP /Petrucci Music LibraryIMSLP is an online collection of public domain scores.
- La Biblioteca Valenciana Digital (BIVALDI)Relevant and significant Valencian works, both literary and scientific, as well as works that have been considered of greater interest for scientific research development on the Autonomous Region's bibliographical and cultural heritage. Includes scores and libretti in Spanish and Italian.
Historical Sets, Collected Editions, & Monuments of Music
Historical editions are large, multi-volume sets of past musical repertory. Two common types of historical editions are collected editions and monuments of music.
Collected Editions
A collected edition contains the collected works of a single composer. Some of the collected editions available at the Music Library include:
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Claude Debussy
- George Frideric Handel
- Joseph Haydn
- Franz Lizst
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Gioacchino Rossini
- Arnold Schoenberg
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Franz Schubert
- Robert Schumann
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Richard Wagner
Monuments of Music
Monuments of Music are collections of closely related musical repertory. Monuments of Music available at the Music Library include:
- Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich
- Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst
Searching Historical Editions
The Library Catalog does not detail every piece within most historical editions. To see if a musical work is part of an historical edition, use one of the following books in the music library:
Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music by Call Number: ML113 .H52 1980 v. 1, v. 2
Collected Editions, Historical Series and Sets, and Monuments of Music by Call Number: ML113 .H55 1997Inventories some 8,000 historically important collected editions of music, including numbered monumental sets and composers' collected editions, as well as musicologically significant publishers' series and anthologies.
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Alexander Street Classical Music Resources
Alexander Street Classical Scores Library will contain 400,000 pages of the most important classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material, allowing for the study and analysis of more than 15,000 musical scores. Many items have associated audio tracks in Classical Music Library, so that subscribers to both databases can listen to a recording online while following along with the full score.
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library: Volume I This link opens in a new window Music Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume I contains over 400,000 pages of the most important classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material, allowing for the study and analysis of more than 25,000 scores. All the major classical music genres are included - orchestral, chamber, opera, vocal, solo instrumental, and choral.
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library: Volume II This link opens in a new window Music Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume II brings together over 200,000 pages focusing on major composers of past eras, new works by living composers, critical editions of compositions that are lesser-known but often studied, and many previously unpublished works available to scholars for the first time.
- Music Online: Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window Music Online: Classical Music Library contains online listenable classical recordings. This is a collection of music from Medieval to contemporary.
Scores in Braille and Large Print
The Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has a collection of music scores in braille and large print that are available for free to eligible individuals. For more information or to sign up for the service, please visit their website.