Studio Guides: Composition

You can find sheet music, music reference works, bound scores, miniature study scores, bound periodicals, CDs, DVDs, and LPs on the fourth floor of the library. Please ask at the fourth-floor desk for help with mini scores and audio and video recordings.

Items in our sheet music collection are placed in hanging folders organized by ensemble size (from solo to octet, followed by vocal music), then by composer and title.

You can find books about music on the third floor under the call numbers that start with ML and MT. 

You can search our online catalog for resources available from the library: print books and ebooks; musical scores; articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers; and physical and streaming audio and video recordings. Here are some tips for using the catalog most efficiently:

• Use the filters on the left side of the screen to fine-tune your search results. The principle is much like online shopping. Some especially helpful filters for music research include Resource Type (to limit your search to scores, audio, books, or whatever else you need), Subject, and Availability.
• Consider starting with an Advanced Search. You can refine your keyword searching to look for author (or composer) name and title in separate fields and choose your resource type right away.
• Check your spelling of a name or title. Unlike Google, unfortunately the catalog isn’t smart enough to figure out what you’re looking for if you misspell something.
• Try opus or work numbers. Composers' works are often numbered in an opus number system or a cataloging system such as the Köchel numbers of Mozart's works. For example, if you are having difficulty finding Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major but you know the Köchel number, try searching "mozart 330" . Opus and work numbers are easily found on Google and most major streaming music platforms.
• Make sure you're getting what you want. Pay close attention to the information in the “General note” field of a catalog record for a musical score. A full score may not be what you need for a simple harmonic analysis, and a piano reduction may not be what you want to study orchestration!
• If our collection does not have something that you want, please request the item through Inter-Library Loan or through a purchase request.