Library Catalog: Find Music Scores
This page illustrates a variety of common (and not-so-common) ways to search for scores and other printed music materials (for more detailed instructions on finding recordings on CD, DVD, and VHS, see Find Movies & Music).Many of the examples in this guide were adapted from the University of Miami Albert Pick Music Library's Searching for Music guide.
Author/Composer | Title | Subject | Word | Call Number
Click on any linked search example to see the search results in the catalog. See also tips on limiting search results.
Find a composer by last name (Author search).
You enter: Schuman
Finds all materials, print or media, with Schuman as a listed author, including names that start with Schuman (i.e., Schumann). Note: the well known composers with this name
will appear along with other non-composer authors sharing that name.
Find a composer by exact name (Author search).
You enter: Schuman, William
Finds all materials, print or media, with William Schuman as a listed author. Note: type last name, first name.
Find a musical piece by popular title (Title search).
You enter: Jupiter Symphony
Note how the catalog refers from the variant popular title "Jupiter Symphony" to the uniform author/title for this work by Mozart: Jupiter symphony. -- see Mozart,
Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Symphonies, K. 551, C major. Click on this cross reference link to see all materials, print or media, by Mozart with this title.
Find a musical piece by uniform (generic) title (Title search).
You enter: Symphonies, K. 551,
C major
If the title is generic (i.e., based on a type of composition, concerto, sonata, quartet,
etc.) the uniform title will begin with the form name in plural, followed by instrumentation, thematic catalog or serial
number and key in that order. The title search is best used when you are sure of the exact title or at least the first
few words of the title and you are looking for the title of a score or recordings, not a title for an individual work
found within collections or recordings. For more information on how uniform titles are constructed for musical works,
see Principles of Music Uniform Titles by Matthew Wise, New
York University.
Find music materials by subject (Subject search).
You enter: string quartets
Subject searches are based on Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings (a multi-volume guide to LC
Subject Headings is available in the Cline Library reference room). The above search in the Cline Library catalog will
return over 550 items (recordings, scores, etc.) grouped under 35+ different subject headings
(all starting with "string quartets," including such specific headings as string
quartets 18th century scores). Even if you don't know the exact LC
Subject Heading, typing in your best guess may return a "see reference" directing you to the proper form of
the subject heading: try piano and violin
music. See also the Indiana University Music Library's Index
of Music Subjects.
Find music materials by keyword (Word search).
You enter: mozart violin concertos
scores
Word searches pick up the occurrence(s) of the entered words in various fields of records: title, author, contents, etc.
A word search can be useful when exact titles and/or authors/composers are not known. The above search picks up only those
catalog records for materials that have the words "mozart," "violin," "concertos" and "scores"
together in same record. Adding the word "scores" to the search helps to narrow it to just written scores, weeding
out catalog records for audio discs, tapes and other recordings (the word "scores" often appears as a material
type sub-heading in the subject heading). See also limiting search results to material types.
Find music materials by call number (LC Call Number search).
You enter: M 452
The Library of Congress (LC) call number system allows for quick retrieval of items as well as for
more efficient browsing by grouping items together by subject categories on the shelves. M represents the broad area of
Music in the LC system, and M 452 more specifically represents the subject
area of string quartets. If you know something about the call number system for Music (M), you can use use an LC
Call Number search to browse the "virtual" music collection shelves in the web catalog. See also the University
of Tennessee-Knoxville's Guide to Library of Congress Music Classification.
The Advanced Catalog Search page allows you to type in keywords like those in the above examples and specify "music scores" as a material type before performing the search.
You can also limit any catalog search results to a particular type of material after the search is done. Once the search results
are displayed, click on 
at the top of the search results screen. You can then choose to limit
your results to a variety of material types. In the illustration below, a word search for symphonies mozart that
retrieved 29 items is further limited to material type: music scores. Once
the "Limit/sort items..." button is clicked, the catalog will display
only printed music scores matching the keywords symphonies
mozart, screening out recordings or other types of material.
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This page last modified
September 2, 2008
