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Transcripts of Dramatic Musical Works in Full Score

How to Use this Guide

Peter Winter, composer. Kora und Alonso. Transcript title page. 1778 [Copied 1922]. The original score from which this transcript was copied - held by the Städtisches Reiss-Museum [Theater-Archiv], D-MHrm, in Mannheim, Germany - is no longer extant. Library of Congress Music Division.

The geographic organization of this guide was modeled after the format used by Oscar Sonneck when he began this project. Sonneck adopted this arrangement based on the scholarship of historian and collector Albert Schatz, whose preferred method of data management was ordering materials by country, city, and holding institution.

Descriptions for each musical entry in this guide comprise twelve bibliographic components:

  1. Country of the holding library
  2. City of the holding library
  3. Holding library – including that institution’s sigla
  4. Name of composer/s (in compliance with Grove2 spellings)
  5. Title
  6. Library of Congress shelflist number
  7. Library of Congress microfilm number
  8. Date of the original manuscript/imprint, ascertained (in order of priority) from
    • The date written on the Library's transcript
    • The date recorded in Sonneck’s personal card file of opera scores
    • The date published in Grove2
  9. Year [in brackets] of the transcript’s completion
  10. Name of librettist, when ascertained
  11. Name of the copyist, when ascertained
  12. RISM ID number and link
Peter Winter, composer. Kora und Alonso. Transcript final page with copyist signature. 1778 [Copied 1922]. Library of Congress Music Division.

It should be noted that the transcripts of dramatic musical works not cataloged under the M1500 classification as well as the transcripts of instrumental works for viola da gamba copied primarily in 1911-1912 are arranged in shelf-list order rather than by geographic location.

Additional Notes:

  • 1925 reproductions may either be handwritten transcriptions or photostat copies
  • 1935 reproductions are negative Photostats
  • 1938 reproductions are negative photographic reproductions
  • 1939 reproductions are photographic reproductions.

The Music Division’s collection of transcripts of dramatic musical works in full score is available for use in the Library of Congress’s Performing Arts Reading Room. Reproductions of these scores may be generated from microfilm surrogates also available in the Reading Room. Reference inquiries about these materials may be directed to the Music Division via our Ask-a-Librarian service.

Resources Used to Compile Data

In addition to in-house files dedicated to operas in full score at the Library of Congress compiled by Music Division chief Oscar Sonneck between 1903-1917, the following external resources were used to compile the data in this bibliography.