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Research Guides

Looking for scores and sheet music

Scores


In the UO Local Catalog Advanced Search screen, use the dropdown menus to enter your search terms. You can use any or all of the fields and limits.

Author: keywords in names of composers, librettists, lyricists, editors, arrangers

Title: keywords in the title or uniform titles of musical works

Subject: keywords in the subject. Of particular interest for performance purposes, note how the following are defined when they are used in subjects:

  • Parts: performance parts
  • Scores: regular and miniature scores for instrumental and orchestral music (not used for music for one instrument)
  • Vocal scores: piano reductions of operas, musicals, and choruses

From the Material type dropdown box, select MUSIC,PRINTED to limit your results to scores

The other tabs in the UO Local Catalog allow you to browse a list in order by call number or alphabetically by title, subject, or composer. The alphabetical searches will display a list of references to standard names, titles, and subjects.

Score call numbers

You can use these to browse the catalog (call number tab) or the shelves in music services. There are guides for the outline of the M call numbers at the end of the shelves in the Music Services stacks. For detailed information, the Library of Congress has published a guide to Class M - Music (pdf). Monuments of music (Denkmaler) and complete works of individual composers are classed in M2 and M3, respectively, and most are located in Music Reference.

Locations

Miniature and oversized scores are shelved separately from the main collection of scores. They are indicated with MINIATURE or x before the call number.


Songs or arias from operas or musicals


Look for aria, opera, song, or musical title as keywords in the catalog, with your search limited to MUSIC, PRINTED. Or, browse the catalog or shelves with call numbers starting with...

  • M1503 Vocal scores of complete operas/musicals, shelved alphabetically by composer
  • M1507 Vocal score anthologies, alphabetical by title (multiple composers) or composer (single composer)
  • M1508 Vocal scores of excerpts from a single musical or opera, alphabetical by title
If you are cannot find the song/aria title in the catalog and you need to find out what complete work contains the song/aria, in addition to online sources there are indexes to songs in collections in the Music Reference section (call numbers start with ML128.S3). For more information see our subject guide "How to Find Individual Songs in Recordings and Sheet Music at the University of Oregon."
 

Piano/Vocal sheet music (pop/rock)


To find sheet music for piano/guitar and voice for pop, rock, country, or jazz, look up song title or artist and the as keywords in the catalog and limit your search to "Music, Printed" (UO Local) or "Musical Score" (UO WorldCat). Or, browse in the UO Local catalog or shelves for call numbers beginning M1630.18.


Lead sheets and fake books


Search for lead sheets or fake books as subjects in the catalog. For play-along lead sheets, you can also browse the Jamey Aebersold or Hal Leonard CDs in the Douglass Room Circulating Collection—these are accompanied by lead sheets.

 

Bibliographies and lists of music


Lists by instrument or type of music (choral, motion picture, etc.): Browse by call number in the catalog or in the Music Reference section for numbers beginning with ML128.
Lists by composer: Many of the thematic indexes and bio-bibliographies include lists of published music and manuscripts. Browse by call number in the catalog or in the Music Reference section for numbers beginning with ML134 (alphabetical by composer).
For lists of music composed by women, try our Scoreography of music by women composers.

 

Internet Resources


Sheet music and scores on the web:

Vocal music information (indexes, lyrics, composers/lyricists/authors):

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Maintained by: Rebecca Belford rbelford@uoregon.edu

Last Modified: 11/10/2009