Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.
This page describes how to locate scores for silent film music in the Library's collections.
The Music Division's collection of music for silent film can be divided into four different categories, the vast majority of which can be found under four different call numbers. The four categories are:
Music scores in all of these categories can be found under multiple call numbers, but by far the most common are:
The Silent Film Scores and Arrangements digital collection includes nearly all silent film items from the M1527, M176, and M1357 call numbers. Scans of items that are still protected by U.S. copyright law may only be accessed through the Library's Stacks platform online in the Performing Arts Reading Room.
None of the scores under the M1350 call number are currently digitized, and many of them have no record in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.
The following section provides examples of significant scores, cue sheets, photoplay albums, and other stock music arrangements in the Music Division's collections.
Scores for specific films can be newly composed or consist of arrangements. The scores may be for keyboard or a set of orchestra parts. The following titles offer a representative sample and link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Cue sheets for silent films were not widely used until the 1920s. The composer Ernst Luz was a prolific compiler of music for cue sheets, and many of the cue sheets in the Library's collections bear his handiwork. Many of the cue sheets in the Music Division's collections also include annotations from performances, giving some information as to how they may have actually been used in accompanying silent films.
You can also browse silent film music cue sheets using the "Cue sheets (Music)" subject heading.
The following titles offer a representative sample and link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Photoplay albums were published through a variety of methods. Some were published individually, as quasi-serialized runs that may or may not have been numbered sequentially. Items published individually within a series publication have been cataloged individually. Other photoplay series were published in single albums of a few or over 600 short pieces, and their cataloging provides the titles of individual pieces when the number of pieces is not prohibitive.
The following titles offer a representative sample and link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
A great deal of published music, although not published specifically for silent film accompaniment, was used by performers and conductors for that very use. One of the largest genres frequently employed is often referred to as "salon orchestra music." These scores are primarily compositions and arrangements for reduced orchestra, most often found under the M1350 classification. The Library holds thousands of these works, which span from the 19th and well into the 20th centuries.
Publisher series such as G. Schirmer's Galaxy Series or Jungnickel's Artist's Orchestra Repertoire, which were often used for silent film accompaniment, can be found under M1350. But only a relatively small portion of these scores are fully cataloged in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. The vast majority are organized by the composer's - and occasionally arranger's - last name.
Scores from the M1350 class are not included in the Silent Film Scores and Arrangements digital collection. Researchers with more questions about locating pieces under this call number should contact the Music Division using Ask A Librarian.
The following titles offer a representative sample and link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.