Finding music: printed music

Information on most of the music and music-related material in the British Library can be found in one of our online catalogues. There are some categories of material, however, for which more detailed information exists in other forms (some not yet online).

The reference collection

Online catalogue

Items from the Library's reference collection of printed music can be traced via the Integrated Catalogue. To restrict your search to printed music alone, choose the 'Catalogue subset search' option from the main menu, and then 'Printed Music'.

The Integrated Catalogue includes all the printed music from each from the special 'named' collections - The Royal Music Library, Hirsch Collection and Royal Philharmonic Society - as well as from the general music collections. New acquisitions are added to the Integrated Catalogue as soon as they have been catalogued.

Other catalogues

During the 1980s, a 62-volume catalogue of the printed music in the British Library was published in book form, as The Catalogue of Printed Music in the British Library to 1980 (CPM) (London, 1981-1987). CPM contains details of printed music published before 1980 and acquired by the Library before the catalogue went to press. It is available in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at the British Library, and in many other reference libraries.

The data in CPM has been incorporated into the Integrated Catalogue. However, the printed volumes can still be a useful research aid, as they allow the user to see a list of the works of each composer, at a glance, in linear format, with all editions of the same musical work gathered together and listed in date order. This can be especially useful when looking for a work that appeared in many different editions, such as a Beethoven symphony. CPM also includes some useful subject headings - e.g. Hymns, Psalms, Chants - under which collections of material are gathered by type.

A CD-ROM catalogue of the Library's printed music holdings, CPM Plus, was published in 1996. It contains the data from CPM, plus acquisitions up to 1995. It has largely been superceded by the Integrated Catalogue, which contains more recent acquisitions. The CD-ROM does, however, allow more complex searches than are available on the Integrated Catalogue (for instance by instrument and subject). The CD-ROM is available in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at the British Library and in some other reference libraries.

Uncatalogued printed music

A small amount of printed music held by the Library is not yet listed in any of the catalogues. This comprises popular instrumental tunes and teaching material that was published between 1900 and 1980. This sheet music has been sorted and arranged by decade of publication and by composer. If you would like to know whether a particular piece of music in this category is held, we can check in the relevant box of material on your behalf. N.B. This applies only to popular instrumental pieces. All popular vocal music is listed in the Integrated Catalogue.

The lending collection

The British Library holds a separate collection of modern printed scores and sets of chamber parts which can be borrowed on interlibrary loan via a local library. Only a small number of items from the lending collection are listed in the Integrated Catalogue. These can be distinguished from reference-only scores in the catalogue by their shelfmarks, which contain the letters DSC (Document Supply Centre collection). Most of the items in the lending collection of music scores are not listed in the online catalogue. More information about the collection can be found on the Document Supply webpages.