Music
Books and Periodicals
This is a collection of microcards of early music books and periodicals filmed from the collection in the Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music. Some of the periodical runs extend to late in the 19th century; there is some overlap with Nineteenth century American music periodicals on microfilm. Most of the books date from before 1850. There is no guide or publisher's catalog for the materials in this set. The individual titles appear in the Center's catalog.
Manuscripts
GUIDE: Bray, Roger. Italian music manuscripts in the British Library. Section D : c.1770 -c.1820. Parts one, two, three and four : a listing and guide of the research publications collection. B-46149 This set is also known as Music manuscripts in the British Library : Section D : c.1770-1820. The set includes opera, instrumental, and orchestral works. The four parts are:
- Part 1: Egerton Collection and Add. mss. 14144-16021
- Part 2: Add. mss. 16022-24289
- Part 3: Add. mss. 24298-57538
- Part 4: Manuscripts from the Royal Music Collection.
Information about the manuscripts included in this collection can be found in the following catalogs: A. For all material acquired before 1908: Hughes-Hughes, A Catalogue of the Manuscript Music in the British Museum. B. For all manuscripts with the classmark RM: W. Barclay Squire and H. Andrews, Catalogue of the King's Music Library. C. For manuscripts, etc., acquired or identified since 1908: P. Willetts, Handlist of Music Manuscripts in the British Museum, London. Rough Register' of Acquisitions of the Department of Manuscripts.
Formerly: Unpublished music manuscripts from the great English collections. The Center holds the following parts of this collection:
GUIDE: Reference Folder #18 CRL owns part 1 (of 2) of this series. This part is subtitled "Polyphonic music manuscripts before about 1640, Section A." Included are works that are the very earliest polyphonic fragments to music of the major Tudor and Jacobean masters. Reel 1 contains the companion listing and guide to the microfilm collection and Catalogue of manuscript music in the British Museum by Augustus Hughes-Hughes.
CRL owns this complete series. Fifty-one volumes of men's part-books, 24 volumes of organ part -- including an important sequence of 18th-century accompaniments -- 12 treble books, and several miscellaneous manuscripts make up the collection of St. George's Chapel. Composers include William Child, Benjamin Rogers, Thomas Tudway, Theodore Aylward and James Adcock. The part-books, ranging from 1660 to the mid-19th century (when printed music became predominant), are an important source for the works of these composers, and for tracing stylistic developments within the canon of English sacred music.
GUIDE: Reference Folder #18 CRL owns parts 2-3 (of 3) of this series. Part 2 is subtitled "Unpublished English Music Manuscripts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries" and contains some of the most important manuscripts of English music "selected from manuscripts 521-1246." About 4,000 pieces of music -- masses, madrigals and anthems -- are reproduced. Part 3 is subtitled "Unpublished Continental Music Manuscripts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries" and contains material selected from manuscripts 3-1216. This part contains about 1,200 pieces of sacred, secular, instrumental and vocal music.
Opera and Libretti
GUIDE: Library of Congress. Music Division. Catalogue of opera librettos printed before 1800, prepared by Oscar George Theodore Sonneck. CRL Reference Folder #224 This is the collection of German businessman Albert Schatz of Rostock, containing 12,238 pieces. The entire history of opera from its beginning through the 19th century is represented, although the collection is particularly strong in German and Italian librettos of the 17th and 18th centuries. Not all of the items listed in the Sonneck catalog were reproduced in this set. The collection is arranged alphabetically by composer and title, and entries are numbered consecutively with Schatz numbers found in the Sonneck catalog.
This set is a facsimile reprint of 44 orchestral scores of selected operas. The scores are authoritative -- either the composer's autograph manuscript or a manuscript or printed copy, preferably one corrected or supervised by the composer. Opera scores that are readily available in other sources have not been included, and comic opera of the period and the operas of the German Romantic tradition were omitted with a few exceptions. All titles appear in CRLCATALOG.
GUIDE: Herzog August Bibliothek. Kataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel : die neue Reihe, Bd.XIV. D-11545 The 1,742 items in this set are the libretti of operas, interludes, operettas, musical comedies, burlesques and ballets published up to 1800, and in the library at Wolfenbuttel. Other materials included are oratorios, cantatas and serenades, plays with incidental music and short plays with musical interludes.
This is a facsimile reprint of a representative selection of the most important Italian operas of the 17th and 18th centuries. Ten librettos and 50 opera scores are reproduced from contemporary manuscripts. The Center holds only Series 1. All titles appear in CRLCATALOG.
Periodicals
GUIDE: Reference Folder #94 This set reproduces 26 titles, published from 1914-1977, although most are from the mid-1930s to 1950. The first reel of each title contains an introduction to the periodical and a statement of missing issues. All except five of the titles were published in the U.S.
GUIDE: Weichlein, William J. A checklist of American music periodicals, 1850-1900. Reference Folder #278 This is a microfilm set reproduced some of the popular and scholarly periodicals listed in Weichlein. The titles are not cataloged individually and do not appear in the Center's catalog. Use the checklist or request the most recent list of titles received from the Access Services Department.
The Center has a number of titles in microform that are indexed by Repertoire de la Internationale Presse Musicale (RIPM). RIPM covers music periodicals published from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. It was produced in cooperation with the Center for Studies in 19th Century Music at the University of Maryland. The following titles in RIPM are held by the Center:
GUIDE: The Oxford Music School collection. Brighton. Reference Folder #18 CRL owns part one (of six), subtitled "Unpublished Music Manuscripts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries from the Oxford Music School Collection." The collection contains original compositions for voice and instruments, including the repertoire of the weekly music meetings held in Oxford in the Commonwealth and early Restoration periods (16th and 17th centuries). Reel 1 includes an index to composers and their works and a catalog of the collection.
Programs
The Center has the program notes produced in microfilm for the 133rd season, (1974/75) through the 146th (1987/88) seasons.
Sheet and Printed Music
This microfilm set includes sheet music from the Music Division of the New York Public Library. The works included are described as miscellaneous instrumental and vocal works published in the United States between 1769 and 1830, including original compositions and arrangements in both art and popular styles. The pieces are chiefly for solo piano and songs in English with piano accompaniment. The collection is arranged in two segments, instrumental works and vocal works; within each section, pieces are arranged alphabetically by composer. Each reel contains an index for items on the reel. Reel 23 is a comprehensive index to the collection: this is New York Public Library's card index, annotated with the reel and frame numbers for items that appear in the microfilm set. The works in the collection are listed in two bibliographies: Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore, 1873-1928. Bibliography of early secular American music. Wolfe, Richard J. Secular music in America, 1801-1825; a bibliography.