Bibliographies of printed music are frequently separate from bibliographies of books and articles about music. Occasionally the two are combined as in bibliographies of works by and about an individual composer or performer. So- called repertory lists are available for the standard Western musical instruments and for voices. These sources usually contain only very brief title and publisher information rather than full bibliographic information. They are located in the reference section under call number ML128 followed by the first letter of the name of the instrument or vocal range (e.g., ML128.G8 for guitar music).
Music-In-Print Series
. Philadelphia: Musicdata, 1973-1999. Ref ML118.M83 This is a series of publications listing printed music. The set is divided into the following formats: sacred and secular choral music, organ, classical vocal music, orchestra, strings, woodwind, and classical guitar. The arrangement varies depending upon the format, but generally the listings provide the composer's name, title, publisher, instrumentation, and price.
Popular Music: An Annotated Guide to American Popular Songs, Including Introductory Essay, Lyricists and Composers Index, Important Performances Index, Chronological Index, and List of Publishers. Bruce Pollock, ed. and others. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1960- . Ref ML120.U5 S5 This is a listing of popular American sheet music from 1900 to the present. Songs are listed by title and the composers, lyricists, and publication information is given for each.
Popular Song Index. Patricia Pate Havlice. 4 v. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1975-1989. Ref ML128.S3 H4 This is not a bibliography but an index to the contents of song books published beginning in 1940. The index contains a bibliography of all of the books indexed; entries for the titles, first lines, and the first lines of the chorus; and an index to the names of composers and lyricists. Supplements are issued at irregular intervals to bring the work up to date.
Song Index. Minnie Earl Sears and Phyllis Crawford, eds. 2 v. in 1. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1926-1934. Ref ML128.S3 H4 The Sears index also indexes songbooks and covers publications before 1934.
Répertoire international des sources musicales (International Inventory of Musical Sources). ML113.I6, CD-ROM. RISM -- the Répertoire international des sources musicales (International Inventory of Musical Sources) -- represents a worldwide effort to identify and describe sources of music and writings about music from the earliest times through ca. 1825. It is divided into three series, A-C. Series A is further divided into two parts: I) music printed from 1600-1800 (ML113.I6 Ser. A1) and II) music manuscripts from 1600-1800 (ML113.I6 Ser. A2 in CD-ROM).
WorldCat(Available to current Middlebury College ID holders only.) Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 1972- . - This is the database of the Online Computer Library Center which contains citations to materials in thousands of libraries throughout the world. It has one of the largest databases of citations to printed music. Although the database was established in the 1970s, it contains information on much older materials as well. At the beginning of a search be sure to limit by type to "scores." This will give more accurate results.