Musical Theatre

Scores and Songbooks

>> Vocal scores are shelved in M1503 and contain all the songs for a musical, arranged for piano accompaniment, sometimes with cues before the songs. The songs will be in the original keys. These will be the editions used by performers to prepare for stage performances. Hint: add "NOT excerpts" to your keyword search to eliminate selections and excerpts.

>> Vocal selections are shelved in M1508 and contain excerpts from a single musical, arranged for piano accompaniment. The songs are sometimes edited or transposed to different keys. Sometimes these are the only published songbooks for a musical, especially a recent show.

>> Anthologies, also called songbooks, are shelved in M1507 and contain excerpts from multiple musicals. They are usually for a specific voice type and can be on a particular theme or by a single composer. Two series of anthologies are worth special mention:

• The Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology from Hal Leonard consists of over fifty volumes. It includes six volumes for each voice type plus additional volumes of duets, songs for teens, and sixteen-bar audition excerpts. At the publisher's website, find searchable indexes of every song at the Songfinders link.

• The Contemporary Singing Actor, also from Hal Leonard, is less extensive. Its five volumes are divided into men's, women's, and duets editions.