Choral Music

Use OneSearch to find printed music in the Music Collection:

Printed music and books are located in the "Music Collection," which is part of Education, Music and Media on the Lower Level West. Use OneSearch on the Libraries' main page to find scores. Start with keywords including a composer, title, or number:

From the preliminary results, you can check facets like "Library Catalog" to narrow results. You can then select formats under Content Types including "Music Score":

The Music Collection at University Libraries uses Library of Congress Classification, or LCC, for organizing scores on the shelves. This system, maintained by the national library of the United States and utilized by libraries across the country and around the world, groups together scores by genre, form, and instrumentation. Each item is then assigned a unique call number which combines alphabetical and numerical characters. These features are designed to make browsing library collections easier for users and librarians alike. Hint: Enter the first part of a call number into OneSearch to see all items in a given section.

Call Numbers for Choral Music:

M1500 - 1527   Dramatic music (secular) --> opera choruses

M1530 - 1609   Choruses (secular) --> cantatas, madrigals, oratorios

M1530 - 1546   Accompaniment of orchestra or other ensemble

M1548 - 1570   Accompaniment of keyboard instrument

M1578 - 1600   Unaccompanied

M1627 - 1853   Folk, national, and ethnic music

M1670 - 1671   African American music, including spirituals

M2000 - 2007   Dramatic music (sacred) --> oratorios, passions

M2010 - 2017.6   Choral services

M2010 - 2014.6   Roman Catholic

M2010 - 2014   Masses. Requiems

M2014.6   Offices and other services --> vespers

M2015   Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholic

M2020 - 2101   Choruses (sacred) --> cantatas, motets, anthems

M2115 - 2146   Hymnals. Hymn collections

M2147 - 2188   Liturgy and ritual --> chant, psalters

Oxford Music Online defines a scholarly edition as one which is "prepared on the basis of a critical evaluation of all known primary sources [and] designed to present the most authoritative, authentic version of its contents." While the terms "scholarly" edition and "critical" edition are essentially synonymous, they are distinguished from a "practical" or "performance" edition which is meant primarily for the use of the performing musician and might make interpretive adjustments to assist in its usage. In musicological research, it is important to understand which edition you are studying and to seek the scholarly edition when possible.

In the print Music Collection, many scholarly editions can be found in M2 and M3, although these are far from the only places you will find them. According to Library of Congress Classification, M2 corresponds to Musical Sources, including Monuments and various facsimile series, while M3 consists of Collected Works such as the Complete Editions of a single composer. Most M2s and M3s are shelved in Ranges 1 through 5 toward the back of the Music Collection; oversize volumes and miniscores are in Ranges 15 and 16. To learn more about these types of publications and view lists of Music Collection holdings, see the Musical Sources (M2) and Complete Editions (M3) pages on the Music History Research Guide.

Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) has over 12,000 online score published before 1923.

Internet Music Score Library / Petrucci (IMSLP) includes 380,000 public domain scores in all genres from before 1923, as well as scans of primary sources uploaded by the world's great libraries. Browse the Genres/Instrumentation guide for choral music or go to the Home Page to search for a specific piece. (Non-members encounter a delay when downloading scores)

The Web Library of Seventeenth-Century Music is a scholarly series published by the Society for Seventeenth Century Music. Many of the works are for choir. This open-source series is scholarly and also practical. It includes parts for orchestra and keyboard when indicated.

Boosey & Hawkes offers free online perusal of scores by important modern composers including Adams, Andriessen, Floyd, Reich, Rorem, Stravinsky, and others.

Benson Collection of Hymnals and Hymnology at Princeton Theological Seminary includes over 6,000 books and hymnals, most from the 1800s.

OneSearch includes scores available through HathiTrust. After starting a search, limit to "Full-Text Online" and then select "Book / ebook."  HathiTrust does not distinguish among content types.

Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.