Applied Music: Musical Works and Performance

This library organizes its physical materials in line with the classification system of the Library of Congress. 

M = Music and Books on Music

• Physical Scores are most likely to be found in the basement or "Garden Level"
• Audio and Video recordings are most likely to be found with the AudioVisual materials on the Second Floor
• A small assortment may also be accessed by appointment through a visit to Special Collections and Archives

Finding Resources to Support Performance Practice

You can conduct searches for the suggested subject terms by keyword or, you may achieve best results if you limit the search to have the words appear only in the "subject".

See below for some suggestions of specific search terms to explore. These are not exhaustive! For additional terms as well as specific call number ranges you may browse, you can consult the facets of the Library of Congress's subclass M

• For specific repertoire terms and call numbers, see the breakdowns in M.
• For libretti and physiological aspects, consider the breakdowns in ML.
• Composition, improvisation, interpretation, and technique can be found broken out  in the MTs.

Instrumental

• [instrument name or family] -- Instruction and study 
  • example: violin -- instruction and study
  • example string instruments -- instruction and study
• [instrument name] -- methods
• [instrument name] -- studies and exercises
• Violin -- Instruction and study

Vocal

• singing -- diction
• singing -- instruction and study
• vocal music interpretation
• voice -- care and hygiene
• voice -- physiological aspects
• acting in opera

Note that if you run the same search replacing singing with voice (and vice versa) you may achieve additional results.

For additional tips and general support, see "Searching for Library Resources" in the general Music Research library guide

For notated Music, there is a lot to be aware of when searching a library catalog or database:  

• The ‘titles’ of individual pieces may be in translation, or may have been added by someone other than the composer, or might only refer to a style or genre of music. They might even be so general as to be unusable for a search (e.g. “melody”, or “dance”). 
• Music composed for one instrument may be transcribed for another (e.g. violin sonata written as piano). 
• Music for a group or soloist may or may not be paired with accompaniment/full orchestra.  
• Many compilations of music are bound together based on instrument and may consist of many composers and styles rather than just one.  
• Typically,  individual pieces in a compilation are not indexed – you have to physically look at the table of contents…and the table of contents may be in a language other than English, or may be a bar of music rather than a title. 
• The date of composition is often unrelated to the date of publication of the printed music. 
• There may be multiple possible spellings (including names that may have originally been in another alphabet and have been transliterated into English).

• Many musical scores are available via the catalog through the "Search @UW" feature
• Many digital scores may also be located through this same search feature. 
• If you want to look for only digital scores, consider database searches, including those listed in the "Featured Library Databases" section of this guide. 
• If you only want a physical score and it is not available locally
  • If it is visible in the catalog as at another UW school
    • You can use the "request this item" option via the catalog (or use interlibrary loan if needed)
  • If it is not visible in the catalog
    • You can conduct a search in WorldCat to get detailed bibliographic information
  • (Recommended: conduct one more catalog search once you have the full bibliographic information)
  • And then you can use that information to place an Interlibrary loan request

Here is a record from the catalog: 

• Notice the location – the “Garden Level” (a.k.a., basement) has a CALL NUMBER that begins with the letter ‘M’, which is the Library of Congress area for music.
• If you open the record in the catalog you can see more detail:

• Notice in particular the AUTHOR and SUBJECT, as well as unusual things like “Uniform Title”.
• It's worth paying attention when the Contents, Summary and Notes tell you what is included…or excluded (All compositions EXCEPT the sonatas, variations and dances”).