Music

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 (eg. “melody”, or “dance”). 
• Music composed for one instrument may be transcribed for another (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).

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”). 

• 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, such as of "Music Online: Classical Scores Library" and the "International Music Score Library Project," which are available in the list of Music Databases
• 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
  • 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