Music Materials
Most music research materials are located in the Reading Room and Stacks on the Third Floor of Regenstein Library. Rare music materials, such as the Chopin Early Editions and the collections of the Chicago Jazz Archive, are located in the Special Collections Research Center on the First Floor of Regestein Library. It is recommended that patrons contact the Curator of the Chicago Jazz Archive for an orientation to those materials.
Music materials have call numbers that start with "M":
- M + number = Music (printed and manuscript music, facsimilies, etc.)
- ML + number = Literature on Music (journals, libretti, biographies, history)
- MT + number = Musical Instruction and Study (theory, performance practice)
- Specific categories under the M, ML and MT classifications [PDF]
Search Basics
Because music materials with the same title can come in multiple formats, the Basic search mode of the online catalog returns far too many items to sort through. For the best music search -- the right stuff, but not too much -- we recommend you follow these steps:- Use the Advanced Keyword mode of the catalog.
- Use Author+Author Contents for the composer
- Use Title + Title Contents for the title
- Use the appropriate limit, available in the Format dropbox, e.g.:
- Journals, newspapers, magazines and serials
- Films, videos, DVDs
- Microforms
- Music -- manuscript
- Music -- printed
- Music -- recorded
- Recordings -- nonmusical
- Don't try to use diacritical marks -- the catalog won't take them.
- Use uniform titles whenever possible. What's a uniform title? Keep scrolling for the answer!
- Ask for help from the Music Staff! The main number is (773)702-8451, we're here in JRL360, M-F, 9am-5pm.
Tricky Names
Some names are just a pain to search. Some examples:- Most names transliterated from non-Roman scripts have multiple spellings in English: Prokofiev, Prokofieff, Prokofief...Tchaikovsky, Chaikovsky, Tchaikovski , Tchaikowski, Tchaikovskii. Find the one that works, then note the spelling used in the subject headings in bibliographic record, that's the form of the composer's name to use when searching the catalog.
- Umlauts in German names are sometimes rendered with added letters in English: Schonberg, Schoenberg.
- Mendelssohn is sometimes Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Uniform Titles
Uniform titles are assigned to every musical work during cataloging, so that a single search will retrieve all the different editions and formats of that work, even if they are in different languages. This is a crucial concept when using the online catalog, and often the solution when you're sure we must have something in the Music Collection, but you can't find it. Scores almost always have uniform titles; recordings may or may not have them.There are three main types of uniform titles:
- Form titles
- Distinctive titles
- Collective titles
Form titles start with the musical form of the work, then give the instruments used to perform the work (unless the form implies them), the opus or catalog number, and the key of the work. As a practical matter, the composer's name along with the work and opus number are usually enough to retrive the item. However, if there are specific catalogs for a composer -- BWV for Bach, K. for Mozart -- use those numbers.
- Beethoven's Fifth Symphony = Symphonies, no. 5
Here, the form "Symphony" implies "orchestra" so the "instrument" is omitted.
- Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto = Concertos, violin, orchestra,
op. 64, E minor
- Brahms, Five songs for male chorus, op. 41 = Lieder, men's voices, op. 41
Distinctive titles are titles assigned by the composer, and are always in the original language of the composer. Operas are found by their distinctive titles:
- Arvo Pärt's Fratres for Cello = Fratres, violoncellos (4)
- Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture = Hebriden
- Mozart's Magic Flute = Zauberflote
- Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen = Prihody Liski Bystrousky
- de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain = Noches en los jardines de Espana
- Form: Brahms, Complete symphonies in full orchestral score
= Symphonies
- Performance medium: Harbison, String quartets = Chamber
Music, Selections
- Mixed Forms: Bach, Werke. Hrsg. von der Bach-Gesellschaft zu Leipzig = Works
Strategies for Specific Materials:
Ethnic Music
The Subject field is very helpful in finding music for Ethnomusicological study.
For a quick and dirty strategy, think carefully and specifically about what you are looking for, then type a term into the Subject field of the catalog. This will drop you into the LCSH. Look at a few catalog recrods. Once you find something that looks good, take a look at the subject headings assigned to it down in the catalog record. Depending on what you've chosen, it's likely to look like one of these. Let's say you're looking for Zulu music:
- Music (too general, too much to go through)
- Music -- Africa, South (still a lot)
- Zulu (African people) -- Music [bingo!]
Music -- Africa in Subject and Mali in Title + Title in Contents gets 11 hits, while Music--Africa--Mali in Subject gets only 2. This is because the first search gets to the contents of compilations that contain music from other African countries.
More useful subject headings:
- Studying Hungarian folk music? Folk Music -- Hungary
- Need Afro-pop? Popular Music -- Africa
- Looking for gypsy music? Romanies -- Music
- World Music? It's a small subject heading, just type it into Subject and take a look.
Jazz and Popular Music
With rare exceptions, there won't be uniform titles for jazz and popular music; you may have to try a few types of searches to get what you want. Here are a few shortcuts:
- Use limits to find printed or recorded music only.
- To find specific songs, or performers, use the Notes and Contents field
and limit as appropriate. It's a keyword search, so you may get a
few oddities in addition to the good stuff. E.g., try April in Paris
and limit to recordings!
- Many album titles are also song titles. If you ONLY want the album
title, use Title rather than Title + Title in Contents,
or if you know the exact title use the Basic mode and search
for Title
Opera
- Learn the opera titles in the original language -- that's the uniform title, and it will pick up operas in translation, both scores and recordings.
