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Television Music: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress houses thousands of scores for television productions and other relevant primary and secondary sources dating back to the 1930s. This guide highlights how to find them.

Introduction

Photographer unknown. Woman looking at two television sets, showing the Official World's Fair Color Television Communications Center. 1964. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

The Performing Arts Reading Room provides access to the Music Division's broad range resources for research on music in television. These resources include a significant collection of music scores for television productions, such as instrumental music for scripted dramas and comedies, scores for television musicals and televised productions of classical music, theme songs, piano-vocal sheet music, and even scores for daytime soap operas.

Find these materials by searching the Library of Congress Online Catalog, browsing our list of Special Collections, searching within the Finding Aids Tool, combing Copyright Registration records, or searching within the many Databases and Electronic Resources to which the Library subscribes. The sections of this research guide provide additional information and strategies for navigating the Library's resources.

This guide does not cover music for commercials or advertising, which will be covered in a separate research guide.

These materials do not include audio or visual recordings. Contact the Recorded Sound Research Center or the Moving Image Research Center for information on those resources.

About the Performing Arts Reading Room

The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Numbering approximately 20.5 million items and spanning more than 1000 years of Western music history and practice, these holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, iconography, microforms, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance.

Other Library of Congress Research Centers

Find television-related resources—including reels, photographs, posters, and other related production materials—in many locations in the Library's collections.