Finding Music Scores

Film images of fragile and unique material are contained in this collection, including music manuscripts and early printed editions. All microforms are kept in offsite storage and available by request.

• Use the Library Catalogue to identify the scope of this collection. Search the catalogue by author if you are seeking a work written by a particular composer. Search by keywords to identify microforms on a particular topic. Type in keywords that identify the institution, the work/s or collection, etc. Combine words and phrases with connecting words AND, OR, NOT: eg microform AND manuscripts AND music

For detailed contents of the following Primary Source Microfilm Music Manuscript Collections, click on each title or use the CD-ROM PRIMMUS which indexes item-level full content of this collection.

Guides to the microform collections in the above box can be located  below.

• Italian Music Mss in the British Library, London c.1640-c.1800 - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1052
• Music Collection of Christ Church, Oxford - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 525-570
• Music Collection of St. Michael's College, Tenbury - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1017
• Music Collection of the Bodleian Library, Oxford - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1019
• Music Mss Collection of the British Library, London - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1021
• Music Collection of the Royal Academy of Music, London c.1650-c.1930 - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1064
• Music Collection of the Royal College of Music, London - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1022
• Music Collections of the Cambridge Libraries - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1051
• Music Mss in Chapel and Cathedral Libraries - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1066
• Gerald Coke Handel Collection - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1054
• Twentieth Century Composers - not held

• British printed music in the British Library, 1750-1800 - UniM Bail Music Mic/o 1118. 
  Index: UniM Music REF 016.78062 BRIT
• Women Composers Collection, University of Michigan - UniM Baill Mic/o 1117 
  Index: UniM Music REF 016.78082 WOME

• History of Music, 1500-1800 : Music in Harvard Libraries from the Renaissance through the Early Classical Period.
  Woodbridge, Conn. : Research Publications, 1985. 107 microfilm reels. UniM Bail Music MIC/o 1065.

  From the Houghton Library, the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library and the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library.
  "Nearly 1,000 items of printed music along with more than 400 works of music theory representing a spectrum of music, writers, composers and national sources. English music from the Restoration and Jacobean periods is included, along with Italian and French dance music and European secular music of the 16th and 17th centuries, and mid-18th century South-German part-books. American music is represented by an array of Thomas walter editions. Among the composers represented are Thomas Arne, Samuel Arnold, C.P.E. and J.C. Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, Nicolas Dalayrac, Handel, Haydn, Philippe de Monte, Mozart, Palestrina, Pepusch, Philidor, Henry Purcell, Rameau and Vivaldi."
  Refer to the following printed guide :

  • Wood, David A. UniM Music REF 016.78026 WOO GUIDE
    Music in Harvard libraries, a catalogue of early printed music and books on music in the Houghton Library and the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library. Woodbridge, CT : Research Publications, 1985.
    To be used in conjunction with the microfilm collection: History of music. Contains an introduction, catalogue, bibliography and index, along with a reel summary insert with item numbers for convenient microfilm access.