Research Guides

MUSIC MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

GENERAL MANUSCRIPT LISTS

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections. [Known as Nuc-Muc]
Available on the web at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/
In paper, for 1956/1961- present
[KNIGHT Z 6620 .U5 N3]

The University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections Department
Subject guide to Music in Manuscript Collections.
A comprehensive list to resources found in some of the manuscripts collection at the UO's Special Collections
Department. The guide is located on the UO's Special Collections website at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/
guides/music.html

International and National Resources for Tracing Music Manuscript Collections:

Brown, Howard Mayer.
Instrumental music printed before 1600; a bibliography.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1965.
[MUSIC REF. ML128 .I65B77]

Eitner, Robert, ed.
Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung
bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. 10 v.
New York, Musurgia, 1947.
[MUSIC REF. ML105 .E36 1947]
Lists of music manuscripts in primarily European libraries and archives in the 19th century.

Krummel, Don, ed.
Resources of American Music History: a Directory of Source Materials from Colonial Times to World War II.
Urbana: University of Illinois, 1981.
[MUSIC REF ML 120 .U5 R47]

The RISM Series (International Inventory of Musical Sources)
[MUSIC REF ML 113 .I6 Series A-B]

This series, put out by the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries, includes lists of manuscripts in libraries around the world for the following topics:

Hebrew notated manuscript sources up to circa 1840
The Theory of Music in Arabic writings, c.900-1900
Hebrew Writings Concerning Music
Ancient Greek Music Theory
Das Tenorlied
Das Deutsche Kirchenlied
Handschriftlich uberlieferte Lauten-und Gitarrentabulaturen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts (Lute and Guitar Music manuscripts from the 1500's to the 1800's: a bibliography)
Theory of Music, Vol. IV: Manuscripts from the Carolingian era up to c. 1500 in Great Britain
and in the United States of America.
Recueils imprimes: XVIIIe siecle.
Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music: The British isles, 1100-1400.
Manuscrits de musique polyphonique:XVe et XVIe siecles, Italie.
[Note: Series A is also available through the Internet and the World Wide Web. However, you must be a University of Oregon affiliate to access this resource. It is found off the Databases & Indexes section of the UO Library's web catalog.]

Sartori, Claudio.
Bibliografia della musica strumentale italiana stampata in Italia fino al 1700.
Florence, Italy: L.S. Olschki, 1952-68.
[MUSIC REF. ML120 .I8 S3 v.1 &v.2]

Vogel, Emil and Alfred Einstein.
Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusik Italiens aus den Jahren 1500-1700. [Biblioteca della musica
vocale italiana di genere profano stampata dal 1500 al 1700] Enthaltend die Litteratur der Frottole,
Madrigale, Canzonette, Arien, Opern, etc.
Hildesheim: G. Olm, 1962.
[MUSIC REF. ML120 .I8 V8 1962 v.1& v.2]

Other Resources Include:

Catalogs to Libraries of Manuscript Collections:

British Museum. Dept. of Manuscripts.
Catalogue of manuscript music in the British Museum. [1st ed. reprinted]
London, British Museum, 1964-
CONTENTS v. 1. Sacred vocal music.-v. 2 Secular vocal music. v. 3. Instrumental music, treatises, etc.
[MUSIC REF. ML136.L8B722 v.1 - 3]

Kast, Paul.
Die Bach-Handschriften der Berliner Staatsbibliothek.
Trossingen, Hohner, 1958.
[MUSIC REF. ML136.B4D5]

Library of Congress. Music Division.
Autograph musical scores in the Coolidge Foundation collection.
Washington [U.S. Govt. Print. Off.] 1950.
[MUSIC REF. ML135.U6]

University of California, Berkeley. Music Library.
Thematic catalog of a manuscript collection of eighteenth-century Italian instrumental music in the University of California, Berkeley, Music Library.
Berkeley, University of California Press, 1963.
[MUSIC REF. ML128.I65 C3]

Wood, David A.
Music in Harvard libraries : a catalogue of early printed music and books on music in the Houghton Library and
the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1980.
[MUSIC REF. ML136.C23 H33]

For other catalogs of music manuscripts, search the UO Library's catalog by subject = MUSIC - MANUSCRIPTS- CATALOGS
or browse the Music References shelves in the ML 135 and ML136 ranges.

Digitized and Historic Resources for Musicians:

The University of Oregon's Sheet Music Collection

The Sheet Music Collection is housed behind the Douglass Room desk, and consists of over 20,000 pieces of popular sheet music from the 1830's to the 1960's. Access to the collection is through computer printouts available at the Douglass Room Desk. The printouts include lists by song title, publisher, composer, lyricist, cover art, subject, as well as in chronological groupings by decade. The collection itself does not circulate, but may be used for research by filling out a request form, available at the Douglass Room Desk. Requests usually take at least 24 hours to be pulled-and the patron should plan to come to the Douglass Room desk and ask for the items on the hold shelf, when they have been pulled. Patrons may look at the items only in the confines of the Douglass Room.

Getting Copies: Anything that is out of copyright (at least 75 years old) may be copied for $.25 a page. Requests for copies are made to the Douglass Room permanent staff, with copies made by the Special Collections Department.

Other Sheet Music Collections:

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820 - 1860 and 1870-1885,
[Available on the web at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/smhtml/smhome.html]

This major collection from our nation's Library of Congress consists of tens of thousands of pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the pre- and post-Civil War era. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred music and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra. The first release of the on-line collection consists of over 22,000 musical compositions registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1879. The second on-line collection release makes available an additional 23,000 titles registered during the years 1880 to 1885. Collections are being added to this site periodically.

Other resources on sheet music and music copyright

Research Guide on Finding Songs in Collections

Research Guide on Copyright

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Maintained by: Leslie Bennett, lbennett@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 08/18/2006