How to Find Musical Scores & Recordings
This video shows you how to find scores and audio recordings in Scout. It briefly addresses limiters, key terms, and other search criteria specific to music.
More Search Tips (Instrumental Only)
Formatting Names:
- Use full names for composers with common surnames
- Use standard English-language spellings (i.e. "Rachmaninoff" instead of "Rachmaninov")
- Avoid abbreviating names (i.e. J.S. Bach)
Keys:
- Avoid using keys in your search terms (such as "C" or "G minor")
Finding recordings by format:
- For CDs, add a keyword search for "compact" or "CD"
- For LPs, add a keyword search for "LP"
- For streaming media, add a keyword search for "electronic"
Scout
- ScoutScout is a powerful search tool that can be used to find both print and electronic resources. Scout simultaneously searches the libraries' catalog, databases, electronic collections, streaming media, and much more.
Digital Scores
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new window
Contains scores spanning the Renaissance to the 21st century and including in-copyright works from major publishers. Also includes never-before-published scores and contemporary self-published scores by composers from around the world. Coordinates with recordings in the Classical Music Library.
- Recent Researches in Music Online This link opens in a new windowOnline access to all titles published in 2018 and later in the seven Recent Researches in Music series: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, 19th/20th centuries, American (including M.U.S.A.), and Oral Traditions.
- I.M.S.L.P. (Petrucci Music Library)The International Music Scores Library Project is a free digital library of public domain scores. It also contains some recordings.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of research institutions committed to digital preservation of the cultural record. The Digital Library provides access to public domain and some in-copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. Materials are available to the extent permitted by copyright law.
Streaming Media
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of classical music available for streaming online; also includes selections from historical recordings, jazz, world, folk, and Chinese music. Contains the entire Naxos, Marco Polo, and Da Capo catalogs as well as recordings from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, BIS (Sweden), and Analekta. Updated monthly.
- Naxos Music Library Jazz This link opens in a new windowNaxos Music Library Jazz features a wide range of jazz music, from jazz legends to contemporary jazz. Recordings are from various artists and labels, including Blue Note Records, Warner Jazz, E.M.I., Fantasy, and others. New albums are added weekly.
- Music Online: Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical Music Library not only includes recordings but also program notes, composer biographies, and images cross-referenced to the recordings.
- Met Opera on Demand This link opens in a new windowFull length Met performances, including H.D. videos from the Met’s Live in H.D. series of movie theater transmissions, telecasts from the 1970s-1990s, and radio broadcasts back to 1935. All videos include English subtitles, and recent H.D. videos include subtitles in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and/or Swedish.
- Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall This link opens in a new window
The Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall makes available live video of concerts by this great orchestra. The site also offers on-demand streaming of both recent and archived concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as educational films about important musicians and musical works.
- DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) This link opens in a new windowD.R.A.M. (Database of Recorded American Music) provides on-demand streaming access to audio (192kbps Mp4), complete original liner notes and essays from independent record labels and sound archives
- Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Digital Theatre Plus showcases British theatre, music, and dance productions from The Old Vic, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, English National Ballet, and London Symphony Orchestra, along with rehearsal films and interviews.
