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Anton Webern: A Guide to Primary and Secondary Resources at the Library of Congress

Music Manuscripts

The Music Division holds over a dozen music manuscripts in Webern's own hand. This page describes the Music Division's unique holdings: Webern's holograph manuscripts and sketches for his own works, manuscripts of arrangements of works composed by others, and related manuscripts and arrangements in the hands of others.

How to Find Holograph Manuscripts by Webern

The Music Division holds just over a dozen music manuscripts and sketches in Webern's own hand. The physical manuscripts live in different places in the Music Division's collections, a reflection of how they were acquired. Search for them using the following information:

The majority of the Music Division's Webern manuscripts were acquired through the Moldenhauer archives. Hans Moldenhauer acquired the Webern Archive in the 1960s and, with his wife Rosaleen, discovered many important manuscripts—many of which included additional handwritten annotations be Webern— as well as wrote a biography of the increasingly influential composer, titled A Chronicle of His Life and Work. The following title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

Digitized Manuscripts

Several—but not all—of the Music Division's Webern manuscripts have been fully digitized and are available online:

Search for digital scans of additional and related manuscripts held by other institutions in the Music Treasures Consortium Digital Collection and the Moldenhauer Archives - The Rosaleen Moldenhauer Memorial Digital Collection. Request and view items that have not been digitized in the Performing Arts Reading Room.

Other Music Manuscript Materials

The Music Division holds other significant manuscript materials in Webern's hand:

Request and view items that have not been digitized in the Performing Arts Reading Room.