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The Library of Congress Music Division is the nation's music library of record for American creativity. Jewish American composers of Western concert music comprise a significant portion of this music collection, as well as Jewish immigrants and international composers of the Jewish diaspora from the European Renaissance to the present. This research guide features resources and search methods to find music by these Jewish composers in the Library of Congress Music Division and highlights noteworthy collection items.
Patrons in the Performing Arts Reading Room may use primary sources such as music manuscripts, special collections, and manuscript correspondence created by Jewish composers. Compositions by Jewish composers enrich the Music Division's general collections through individual compositions, collected works editions, and anthologies. Reference resources such as biographies, autobiographies, biographical dictionaries, bibliographies, and musicological studies are also available. The Music Division's scores, reference resources, special collections, and rare materials are only served in the Performing Arts Reading Room.
Online resources, such as videos and digitized musical scores, are also highlighted in this guide. Free online resources about Jewish composers are also available for patrons who are not on-site at the Library.
Because concert music is the focus of this research guide, topics such as Jewish liturgical music, popular music in Hebrew, Yiddish popular song, and Yiddish musical theater are not addressed. Please contact our reference specialists through Ask a Librarian for assistance with these genres.
This online research guide does not attempt to address the various definitions of cultural and religious Jewish identities. Composers who converted to other religions are out of the scope of this guide, but reference resources are available to explore this topic.
The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Numbering approximately 20.5 million items and spanning more than 1000 years of Western music history and practice, these holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, iconography, microforms, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance.
