Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.
DEFINITION
Notation of a musical work.
RELATED TERMS
condensed score; part; piano-vocal score; reduction; short score
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Scores can be printed, handwritten, or duplicated by a photocopying or chemical process. The content, not the format, makes music a score!
Scores for ensembles that present all music heard at the same time are "full scores." Unique musical voices are vertically aligned on separate lines ("staves").
Scroll through the gallery below for examples of scores!
DEFINITION
A blank book that displays memorabilia.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
In Music Division collections, you will find scrapbooks with many types of items and themes, including:
Scrapbooks can commemorate date ranges, themes like specific musical productions, or special venues in which an artist performed.
Examples of special collections that contain scrapbooks include the Alma Gluck Scrapbooks and Other Materials, Rudolph and Joseph Schildkraut scrapbooks, Miriam Cole papers, John Alden Carpenter Collection, and George Crumb Papers.
Even more collections with scrapbooks have digitized items in the gallery below!
DEFINITION
A full score reduced to a few lines.
RELATED TERMS
Condensed score; conductor's score
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Special collections of performers, conductors, and composers often contain short scores. These scores may be in manuscript, published, and photocopied formats. The annotations within these short scores also have research value as primary sources.
For an example of "condensed score" in a composer's collection, jump to Box 24 of the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Papers finding aid and view the gallery below.
DEFINITION
Draft forms of musical, lyrical, or design ideas.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Sketches of music or lyrics in Music Division Collections appear on paper in many colors of pencil and inks. Some sketches illustrate overall structures, while others are more complete drafts of final ideas.
Special collections with lyrical sketches are those of musical theater and popular song creators, such as the George and Ira Gershwin Collection, Cole Porter Collection, and Jonathan Larson Papers.
Bound books of sketches are called "sketchbooks," such as in the Fritz Kreisler Collection, Halsey Stevens Papers, and Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers.
The gallery below contains examples of both musical and lyrical sketches.
DEFINITION
A group of non-circulating research materials united by a subject, theme, creator, or source.
RELATED TERMS
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Special collections cannot be checked out of libraries because they contain rare or unique materials. Special collections are donated, bought, and curated. Contents of a special collection vary widely and often depend upon the institution that stewards them.
In the Library of Congress Music Division, contents of special collections include correspondence, holograph scores, photographs, scrapbooks, musical instruments, choreographic notes, costume and set designs, programs, awards, publicity materials, and more!
DEFINITION
Musical work adapted to a different medium than the original.
RELATED TERM
Note: while these terms are often used in similar ways, transcriptions are more faithful to the original musical work than arrangements.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Vocal music may transcribed for instruments. For example, violinist Fritz Kreisler transcribed vocal works, such as Ave Maria, for violin and piano.
DEFINITION
Translucent paper with musical notation.
[plural: transparencies]
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Transparencies are delicate paper that are partially see-through, and can become brittle over time. The musical notation can be ink or pencil.
Score transparencies may be found in many Music Division collections, including the George Crumb Papers, Vernon Duke Collection, Jerome Kern Collection, and Arne Oldberg Collection.
The image at left is a transparency score with musical notation in ink by Elliott Carter. The transparency paper appears opaque in the digitized image because it rests on a dark, solid background.
DEFINITION
Positive image on clear film visible with transmitted light.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Slides and film transparencies all require light to pass through the clear film in order for the positive images printed on them to be visible.
An example at left is a color film transparency from the William P. Gottlieb Collection.
DEFINITION
A typed document.
NOTES & EXAMPLES
Typescripts belong to the broader category of manuscripts. In Music Division Collections, typescripts appear as scripts for plays and musicals, lyric sheets for songs, text for speeches, and correspondence. Typescripts may be final copies or drafts with annotations.
Explore typescripts in the gallery below!
