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1. A reproduction of an original document for patron use to protect the original from wear.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Access copies come in many forms, such as photocopies, scans, and microfilm. This image of a Stravinsky letter is an access copy of an original document because it is a scan available online. Scans of originals are also known as "digital surrogates."
2. A digital object of lower-quality and smaller size than the original master digital object.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
For images, JPEG files are often access copies of master TIFF files. Access files are not preserved, whereas master copies are incorporated into digital preservation plans. The smaller size of access copies make use over networks easier.
DEFINITION
Additions to an existing special collection.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Accruals occur when special collections come to the Library in phases over time. The administrative portion of a finding aid will indicate if additional materials are expected. Accruals are sent to the Library by collection creators, creators' families and heirs, legal representatives, or other individuals associated with the materials.
DEFINITION
Notes or commentary added to a finished document.
RELATED TERM
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, annotations may be written in multiple kinds of documents:
Explore a variety of annotated documents in the gallery below.
DEFINITION
The organization of a collection of archival materials.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division finding aids, you will find categories of materials such as Correspondence, Music, and Subject Files. Explore the arrangement of the Elinor Remick Warren Papers or the arrangement of the Jacobo Ficher Collection as examples.
Series External and Subseries External are the formal names for categories found within a collection's arrangement.
DEFINITION
Music written for a medium different than the original.
RELATED TERMS
Note: While the terms "arrangement" and "transcription" are often used in similar ways, arrangements are often less faithful to the original music than transcriptions.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Arrangements are often for different combinations of instruments and voices than the original version. Arrangements can also change key signatures and time signatures.
In jazz and popular music, "arrangement" refers to a specific version of melody, harmonies, and orchestration. An entire special collection of arrangements for jazz, popular music, television, and film is the Billy May arrangements. The Ella Fitzgerald Collection contains arrangements written for her to perform in the Music series.
A classical example from the Andre Kostelanetz Collection is a 1945 arrangement by Joe Glover of "Claire de lune" for orchestra. The original version of "Claire de lune" by Claude Debussy was for solo piano, as the third movement of Suite bergamasque (1905).
DEFINITION
A format of musical score reproduced by the diazo chemical printing process with black images or text on a white or neutral background.
(alternate spelling: Blackline)
RELATED TERMS
blueline score; blue-line negative; Ozalid score
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, black-line scores often appear as copies or proofs exchanged between parties for annotation or distribution.
The Victor Herbert Collection and Aaron Copland Collection contain scores in the black-line print format.
Blue-line and black-line prints are different colored forms of the trademarked Ozalid process; collectively, they may be referred to as Ozalids.
DEFINITION
A format of musical score reproduced by the diazo chemical printing process with blue/violet images or text on a white or neutral background.
(alternate spellings: blue-line; blue line)
RELATED TERMS
black-line score; blueline negative; Ozalid score
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, blueline scores often appear as copies or proofs exchanged between parties for annotation or distribution.
A blueline negative is a print with a blue background and white or neutral text/images.
The Erich Wolfgang Korngold Collection, Franziska Boas Collection, and Victor Herbert Collection contain many blueline scores. Copyright deposits in the form of blueline scores, such as the sheet music in the gallery below, are also cataloged in the Music Division's general collections.
Blue-line and black-line prints are different colored forms of the trademarked Ozalid process. The trademarked name has since become a generic umbrella term.
DEFINITION
Notation of bodily movement created by a choreographer.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, choreographic notes are found in notebooks, written directly in musical scores, and loose papers. Some choreographers use personal notation systems, while others used established notation methods.
Among many examples of Music Division special collections with choreographic notes are the Franziska Boas Collection, Harriet Hoctor Collection, Lester Horton Dance Theater Collection, and Pearl Lang Papers.
Scroll through the gallery below to explore a variety of choreographic notes!
DEFINITION
Articles or images cut out from newspapers or magazines.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Many Music Division special collections contain clippings. Some clippings were incorporated into scrapbooks, while other clippings are loose within folders. Because newsprint is an unstable material and becomes brittle over time, many original clippings get photocopied as access copies and the originals discarded.
Clippings may be an entire category within a special collection ("series" or "subseries"). Clippings are also found within subject files or included with the original correspondence with which they were enclosed.
Explore individual clippings in the gallery below!
DEFINITION
A set of thematically related materials from a variety of sources.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
The word collection often appears in the titles of Music Division special collections; this implies that the materials have mixed or unknown provenance. Such collections are also referred to as "artificial collections." Collection also means that an individual, group, or collecting institution brought materials together.
For example, the Library of Congress Music Division created the Samuel Barber Collection with items purchased from separate individuals. Serge Rips assembled the Serge Rips Collection of King Bhumibol Adulyadej Music Manuscripts, which is why his name is part of the collection title.
DEFINITION
Person who writes music notation by hand while working from an original in order to reproduce or create scores and parts.
RELATED TERM
NOTES & EXAMPLES
One way to authenticate historic music manuscripts also is to study copyists known for their affiliation with specific composers. In 20th-century big bands, arrangers frequently served as the copyists for ensembles.
DEFINITION
Handwritten score or part created as a reproduction by a person who is not the composer.
RELATED TERM
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Copyist manuscripts can be full scores for ensembles, individual parts copied from scores, or piano-vocal scores. Many composers and 20th-century big bands used copyist manuscript parts created from original scores.
In Music Division collections, copyist manuscripts appear as individually cataloged items and within special collections such as the Ferde Grofé Collection, Carrie Jacobs-Bond Collection, Erich Wolfgang Korngold Collection, and more.
The research guide Transcripts of Dramatic Musical Works in Full Score is a bibliography of over 600 transcripts of dramatic musical works in full score copied from original music manuscripts and early imprints for the Library of Congress’s Music Division between 1903 and 1939.
Scroll through the gallery below for examples of individually cataloged copyist manuscripts!
DEFINITION
Written communication.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, you will find many kinds of correspondence: postcards, telegrams, letters, and greeting cards.
Letters can be handwritten and signed, known as "autograph letters." Letters can also be typed and signed, known as "typescript letters." In collections of born-digital material, emails and text messages are also forms of correspondence.
Scroll through the gallery below to explore examples!
