The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Collections > Circulating Collections

Music Collection:

The Robert W. Wilson Music Circulating Collection Reading Room

Telephone:
(212) 870-1625

Location:
1st Floor: Miniature Scores, Librettos, Biographies.
2nd Floor: Reference Desk, Books, Scores, Periodicals, Song Index, Clippings.

Catalog:
LEO is the catalog of the Circulating Music Collection and the Branch Libraries.

The Score Collection:
Despite its large size, the circulating music collection contains only a fraction of the available music in print. Selection of titles and types of music are based primarily on the interest of our public as they have developed over the past eighty years ever since the Circulating Music Collection was established in 1924 as part of the 58th St. Branch.
The strengths and weaknesses are intentional and reflect the interests of our public.

The collection is strong in the following:
Opera
Musical Comedy
Oratorios, Christmas carols, and other sacred music
Songs (in collections, not individual sheet music), both classical and popular
Orchestral scores, especially miniature scores. Orchestral parts are available through membership in the Orchestra Collection
Solo music for common and uncommon western instruments
Selective method books for learning to play musical instruments
Chamber music score and parts for strings, winds and brasses in both usual and unusual combinations

The score collection is weak in the following:
Choral music (esp. short works written and arranged for chorus)
School musicals, operettas, and other classroom material
Jazz ensembles, e.g., we have no Big Band charts (jazz transcriptions for solo instruments and jazz songbooks are available)

The Book Collection:
Circulating and Reference books are available on musicians and all musical topics, classical and popular, primarily in the English language. Also included is a large collection of opera librettos.

Some supplementary subject areas include:
Music and record business
Recording and sound system equipment
Acoustics
Ballads (only as related to sung ballads)
Festivals
Folklore (only titles with musical references)
Popular culture

The Song Index:
As a general rule, we do not collect individual song sheets. Most of our songs are in published songbooks. Unlike recordings, the contents of songbooks are not always listed in the LEO Catalog. This makes searches for individual songs (title keyword search) in the catalog, at best, incomplete. To remedy this situation, we have a representative Reference Collection of popular songs (roughly 40,000 titles) accessible on selected PCs in the Music Reading Room. Patrons may search the Song Index by titles, first lines and source (Show, Film,Television). This index is kept current and is heavily used by the public. We also provide a large reference collection of musical comedy full piano-vocal scores and vocal selections.

Periodicals:
Periodicals and their indexes are for reference use only. Our holdings can be found in the LEO Catalog. We also have specialized music databases which are only available for use at the Library for the Performing Arts.

Wedding Music Collection:
Over 100 compilations of wedding music are available for reference use. The contents are indexed in William D. Goodfellow's Wedding music: an index to collections.

Clipping Files:
Extensive clipping files for materials about musicians and for musical subjects not easily found in books are maintained by the staff and are for reference use only.

Finding Aids: