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Latin American Composers: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress

Primary Sources

Primary sources are materials that contain firsthand accounts of events and were created at the time of the event or recalled later by an eyewitness. Materials may be in the form of newspapers and magazines, letters and diaries, photographs, video recordings, oral histories and transcripts, or government records.

Published musical scores are not primary sources. However, new performance editions issued by music publishers may be based upon primary sources such as holograph scores and copyist manuscripts.

You can also search across online finding aids for special collections and browse the Music Division's list of special collections.

Special Collections

Special collections are groups of primary and secondary source materials united by common subjects or creators. Finding aids are the documents researchers use to navigate through the categories of materials within a special collection. Finding aids provide not only box numbers within a category, but also valuable information about the acquisition history, anticipated additions of materials, related collections, and more.

The following list provides a selection of special collections that feature Latin American composers as collection creators or primary subjects. The collection titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online information, including collection findings aids, are included when available.

Additional Primary Sources

For an in-depth resource about primary sources for Latin American composers in the Library of Congress Music Division, visit this Research Guide:

To learn more about the project behind the above research guide, visit this blog post:

You can also search across online finding aids for special collections and browse the Music Division's list of special collections.