Music: Scores and Recordings

Scores

The importance of consulting scores during your research cannot be overemphasised. It is not enough to read what others have written: you must become acquainted with the music yourself.

Scores are available in several different formats within the music library.  The Music Branch Library has an extensive holding of Collected Editions (call numbers begin with CE).  Collected Editions are scholarly editions, prepared, not primarily for performance, but as a resource for the music researcher.  They are usually organised by composer (eg. Johannes Brahms Samtliche Werke [complete works]), country (Musica Britannica), or genre (Early Romantic Opera). 

A number of works are also available in miniature score (eg. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, no 6).  The call numbers of miniature scores commence with a P or Q. 

Scores of music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and vocal scores can also be found in the library (eg. Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata or Monteverdi's L'Orfeo), classified by instrumental or ensemble group.

Many significant manuscripts (manuscript refers specifically to a handwritten score) are also available in the library in facsimile.  A facsimile edition provides a photographic copy of a manuscript  (Mozart's autograph of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) or early edition (Yonge's Musica Transalpina), and provides many of the advantages of the being able to consult the original  source, but obviously in a much more accessible format.  Although it is always a worthwhile (and enjoyable) experience to consult a facsimile edition if one is available, it will rarely be essential for undergraduate essays.

A small but increasing number of scores are also available on the web. See, for example, http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/. A useful listing of early scores and manuscripts can be found at http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/scores/.

It is worth bearing in mind that almost all scores (apart from facsimiles) have been edited by someone other than the composer. A good scholarly edition will indicate all editorial changes or additions. The older the music, the more likely it is that the edition you have in front of you will differ substantially from the original upon which it is based, and the more careful you need to be to distinguish the work of the composer and the editor.
 

Sound recordings and DVDs

Although you will generally not be required to document recordings to which you have listened, it is essential to listen to recordings of the music at all stages of studying music history.  The Library holds a large quantity of sound recordings, on CD, vinyl and cassette, and these are catalogued in the University Sound Recording Database.

The Music Branch Library also holds a number of DVD and video recordings, particularly of operas, such as Handel's Julius Caesar.

Finding scores | Documenting scores