Books and printed music are arranged according to the Library of Congress' Classification System. The library has circulating and non-circulating (reference) collections. Each collection is divided in to three sections.
The Jones Music Library has distinct collections for music education and music therapy resources. A complete description of the library's collections may be found here.
Call Number | Genre |
M 1500 | Operas/Musicals - Full scores |
M 1503 | Operas/Musicals - Vocal scores |
M 1507 | Anthologies |
M 1572 | Film music |
M 1619 | Songs & lieder (printed music) |
M 1620 | Anthologies with piano |
M 1621 | Collections with piano (one composer) |
ML 48-50 | Librettos |
Typically, vocal music and music theatre repertoire is published in collections (e.g. Broadway Songs of the 1940s) or within a complete work (Rodgers/Hammerstein. Carousel). The library collection also includes anthologies of songs published for specific tessituras and/or specific genres (e.g. Singers Musical Theatre Anthology). The Jones Music Library includes a modest collection of musical librettos.
Use the following guidelines when searching OPAL for vocal repertoire.
Searching for... | Keyword Search | Alternate Keyword search | Limited to material type |
Popular song/Lieder | Composer's last name AND song title (original language) | Composer's last name AND "songs" (or title of larger work) | music score |
Aria/song from opera/musical | Composer's last name AND song title (original language) | Composer's last name AND Title of opera/musical | music score |
Complete opera/musical | Composer's last name AND Title of the work (original work) | Composer's last name AND Alternate title | music score |
Libretto | Title of the work AND "librettos" | Librettist's last name AND "librettos" or "lyrics" | book |
There are a wide variety of public domain scores available on the Internet. The Loeb Music Library at Harvard University provides a more comprehensive list of digital scores collections available on the web. This is a list of more substantial collections.