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The Music Division holds over 50 music manuscripts in Brahms's hand. These unique holdings include: Brahms's holograph manuscripts and arrangements of his own works, others' holograph manuscript arrangements of Brahms's music, Brahms's holograph manuscript cadenzas to other composers' works, and others' holograph manuscript cadenzas to Brahms's concertos.
Brahms 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:
Many of the Music Division's holograph manuscripts have been scanned and are freely available to view and download through the Music Treasures Consortium Digital Collection. Request and view items that have not been digitized in the Performing Arts Reading Room. Links to scans are provided when available. Titles identified as "catalog record," will link to fuller bibliographic information about the item in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Some of the most significant Brahms manuscripts in the Music Division's collections include:
Several of the Music Division's Brahms manuscripts are the composer's own arrangements of his compositions for either piano four hands or two pianos. View and download many of them through the Music Treasures Consortium Digital Collection. Some of these arrangements are:
Other music manuscripts and arrangements in the Music Division's collections specific to Brahms are listed here. Titles identified as "catalog record," will link to fuller bibliographic information about the item in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.
The Music Division holds several holograph manuscripts of concerto cadenzas written by Brahms or by others for his concertos. Titles identified as "catalog record," will link to fuller bibliographic information about the item in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. These manuscripts are:
