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The Music Division is home to millions of scores ranging from manuscript to published scores, sheet music selections to full scores and orchestrations, and everything in between. The following categories of scores, generally identified by call number, should help clarify the types of scores you can encounter and search for in the Music Division's collections.
M1500 materials include full scores and orchestrations for operas, operettas, and musicals, first organized by the last name of the composer and then alphabetically by show title. Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog to locate full scores.
The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information for published scores in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Louisiana Purchase by In addition to published full scores cataloged under the call number M1500, researchers will find manuscript full scores and annotated orchestrations as well. Be sure to read as many details as the online catalog record provides you about the item. The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
M1503 materials include piano-vocal scores, first organized by the last name of the composer and then alphabetically by show title. Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog to locate piano-vocal scores.
The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
The Theatre guild presents Oklahoma! A musical play based on the play "Green grow the lilacs" by Lynn Riggs by Godspell: A Musical Based Upon the Gospel According to St. Matthew. by M1508 materials include individual selections (piano-vocal sheet music) from dramatic works including stage and film musicals and musical revues. Selections in the M1508 call number are organized by title of show (for example, all selections from The King and I are located in the same folder).
The Library's It's Showtime! Sheet Music from Stage and Screen database allows researchers to search our M1508 holdings by show title, song title, composer, and lyricist. The database does not provide access to digitized scores.
Researchers can also search the Library of Congress Online Catalog to locate sheet music selections from musicals and musical revues.
The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information for published scores in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee by 
Shrek the Musical by Many music scores submitted for copyright deposit were never cataloged and were instead filed by copyright registration number. They are housed off-site and may be requested and delivered to the Performing Arts Reading Room by using the item’s copyright deposit record. Requests for materials may be made through Ask a Librarian.
Items submitted for deposit after 1978 may be found in the Copyright Online Catalog.
Records for items submitted prior to 1978 may be found through several methods:
To request an item for retrieval, you need the following information:
Requests for copyright deposits should be directed to the Music Division through Ask a Librarian.
The ML96 classification number identifies manuscript scores and music sketches either written or annotated in the hand of the composer.
The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Leonore S. Gershwin established the Gershwin Fund in 1992 to perpetuate the name and works of Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), librettist and lyricist, and George Gershwin (1898-1937), American composer, pianist, and conductor, and to provide support for worthy related music and literary projects. Mrs. Gershwin contributed to musical theater collections and programs at the Library of Congress, including the purchase of music manuscripts not just by George Gershwin, but also by Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, Jerome Kern, Frederick Loewe, Rudolf Friml, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, Kurt Weill, and others.
There are two call numbers for music manuscripts in the Gershwin Fund collection:
ML30.27a -- music not commissioned by the Gershwin Fund
ML30.27b -- music commissioned by the Gershwin Fund
