Still haven’t found what you’re looking for? How to find printed music in Cambridge University Library (with a short detour for music manuscripts!)

What’s in the UL? Cambridge University Library has ca. 600,000 items of sheet music (and rising!) including both printed and manuscript music.

What’s in the UL? Orchestral scores Chamber music : scores and performing sets Full and vocal scores for opera, musicals etc. Songs Hymnals Choral music

What’s in the UL? Popular music Teaching materials aimed at the junior market Ephemera (including some very odd things indeed….)

What’s in the UL? Antiquarian music Facsimiles Manuscripts including composers’ archives

What’s not in the UL? Orchestral and vocal sets

Helpful hints…. Find out how the UL’s classmarks work BEFORE you need to use them (they’re not quite like anyone else’s) Have a look at our friendly webpage at rv/music/musclassnos.html rv/music/musclassnos.html

Helpful hints…. Find out how the UL’s classmarks work BEFORE you need to use them (they’re not quite like anyone else’s). Look at our friendly webpage at rv/music/musclassnos.html rv/music/musclassnos.html And have a look at the “Cracking the code” blogposts on musicb3.wordpress.com musicb3.wordpress.com

Did you know that……? Although Cambridge University Library has circa 600,000 items of printed music…. Only around 1/3 of all music is on the online catalogues : LibrarySearch or Newton. All music is divided into “Primary” (i.e. deemed to be more academically important) and “Secondary” (ephemeral, or not originally aimed at the degree level / academic market)

Music catalogues at the UL Music catalogues are among the most diverse in the library : Online catalogues : Newton / LibrarySearch / JANUS Card catalogues : With a choice of primary or secondary music, and in a variety of locations Sheaf catalogues : Secondary music “only” but with a few surprises

Music catalogues at the UL And the behind the scenes manual and computer catalogues for uncatalogued items (there are around 61,000 of these!) Remember - if you find a non- borrowable copy on the electronic catalogues, it’s worth double checking the card catalogues for a borrowable copy

Why’s it so complicated?? A quick history lesson In the beginning was the card catalogue

Why’s it so complicated? Or in the case of Cambridge : Guardbooks While card catalogues were reserved for secondary material

Parallel lives BUT….printed music was not included, and inhabited its own parallel (but slightly different) universe. Primary music had a card catalogue, while secondary originally had a sheaf catalogue and then moved to cards.

Parallel lives Music literature was included in the Guardbooks and also had its own duplicate card catalogue in the Music Department

Parallel lives Both the music card catalogues can be found in the Anderson Room The Anderson Room in 1935 and today

Finding your way Some basic guidelines: If an item was published after 1989 and has been catalogued, it will be on Newton / LibrarySearch. Pre If it has been catalogued it should be included in the card catalogues in the Anderson Room.

Finding your way If you can’t find anything please ask. We can do an uncatalogued search for you. Or advise on the best catalogue to consult.

Newton

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Library Search

It’s in the cards…. If you can’t find what you want on the online catalogues, or there are only a limited number of editions, remember to look in the card catalogues…

It’s in the cards…. Cards are arranged alphabetically by composer (anonymous works will be listed by title) If we have few works by a particular composer they will be arranged alphabetically by title within that composer More works and they’ll be sub- divided by medium

Few compositions….

More compositions….

Still more….

The big guys….

Faintly pencilled….

Odd spelling? There are a couple of oddities that occur with Cyrillic names: Russian names beginning with Tch (Tchaikovsky, Tcherepnin) will usually be found in the card catalogue under C NOT T Newton can be worth trying to give you ideas for alternative spellings

First among equals? The primary / secondary card catalogues can have some surprises…. George Gershwin?

It’s in the cards…. John Lennon? Virtually all secondary…except for the pseudo- classical …. Remember: for song writers who were in pop groups check under the group’s name too.

It’s in the cards…. Mozart? Mozart as he wrote it… - primary card catalogue Popularized, simplified, or just plain odd... - secondary card catalogue

It’s in the cards…. For items received in the late nineteenth- century check out the sheaf catalogues (many of the Victorian songs will also be on Newton) If it’s made it to the online catalogue there will be no difference in finding it whether primary or secondary.

It’s in the cards…. Very occasionally some secondary material may be found in the secondary card and sheaf catalogues near the Reading Room

It’s in the cards…. Anthologies such as hymnals, and books of songs or choruses have their own section at the end of the Primary card catalogue in the Anderson Room. They are arranged (roughly) chronologically.

Searching for songs Songs and hymns can be some of the most difficult items to find. For hymns check out the relevant reference works in the Anderson Room The hymn tune indexes are especially helpful (MRR.27:22.14 and 15)

Searching for songs Traditional songs – search under title in the card or online catalogues Popular song index MRR.27: Victorian songs – Sing us one of the old songs / Kilgariff MRR.27:4.31 Pop songs – Popular music, MRR.27.8:23 Pop songs – Great song thesaurus MRR.27.8:29 (not the easiest to search, but good for British music)

Searching for songs And don’t forget Google!

Manuscripts Most music manuscripts including composers’ archives are in the Manuscripts Department If they’re still in process of being catalogued and sorted, they’ll usually be in the Music Department If in doubt…. ASK!

Manuscripts Many have been catalogued and can be found on Newton

Manuscripts Some manuscripts can also be found on the Manuscripts catalogue JANUS Try the advanced search, and aim for a fairly wide range of keywords

Missing? If you still can’t find what you want it may be in our uncatalogued backlog (which is vast) Some items can be found on the MUS- MAX-MIP catalogue

Still missing? ASK! It may be in our behind the scenes card catalogue for uncatalogued material MONYC (Music Ordered Not Yet Catalogued)

Still missing? Or….if it’s been received under the Copyright Act may be on the Resource File (ask staff) – if you’re enquiring about copyright material, a date is very helpful!

Any questions? Things I wish I’d remembered to ask but…. Contact me : Margaret Jones – Or come to the Anderson Room