Find music scores in the library using Library Search (search box to the left). Hints:

• Type keywords in the box to the left, click on "Search."
• Once you have completed a search, you can try an Advanced Search from the results screen and combine several terms to find specific scores.
• To limit Library Search to only books, scores, and other items owned by the WMU Libraries, click on the "Books and Media" tab.
• Composers and editors should be searched as authors.
• For symphonies, string quartets, etc. without unique titles, it is best to combine terms in an Advanced Search.
• It often helps to include an opus or other number (BWV number for Bach, Kochel number for Mozart, etc.).
• Search song titles as phrases, using quotation marks.
• Use categories on the left of the results screen to narrow your results.

We use the Library of Congress classification for music. Very briefly:

M 1-3  Collections, anthologies
M 5-1480  Instrumental music
   M 5-175  Solo instrument
   M 177-990  Two or more instruments (Trios at M 300; quartets, M 400, etc.)
   M 1000  Orchestra
M 1495-2199  Vocal music
   M 1500-1508  Opera and musicals
   M 1530-1609  Secular choral
   M 1611-1624  Secular vocal
   M 1999-2199  Sacred vocal & choral
   M 2000-2003  Oratorios
   M 2010-2013  Masses, requiems, etc.

Library of Congress subject headings are used to describe books and music.

Note about scores from free sites: Most are in the public domain (no longer under copyright), and were published before 1923. The library may have newer editions in print.

These are generally the most authoritative editions of a composer's works. They are shelved at M 3.

To find a work in the editions: find the composer's biography in Grove Music Online (in Oxford Music Online) and go to the list of works. It usually indicates in which volume of the edition(s) a work appears.

Access to Oxford Music Online is under the Dictionaries & Encyclopedias tab above.

Composers' thematic catalogs (Ref ML134) may also have this information.