Searching Tips
Search Primo (the USC Libraries' catalog) for printed music at USC. Most scores are located in the Music Library, some are in remote storage at Grand Library.
Enter the composer's name, work title, and/or thematic catalog number as keywords, then limit Material Type to Scores. For example:
- brahms symphony 4
- copland clarinet concerto
- rebecca clarke viola sonata
- duke ellington a-train
- taylor swift shake off
For scores not owned by USC, search in WorldCat then request using Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (IDD).
Scores can be difficult to find, due to generic titles like "symphony" or "concerto"; to assist your searching, librarians catalog music with preferred (or uniform) titles, which collect all versions of the same piece under one name. For example, the preferred title for Mozart's 13th symphony is: Symphonies, K.112, F major. To learn more about uniform titles, see Indiana University's Preferred Title guide.
Scores Databases
- Classical Scores LibrarySpanning from the Renaissance to the 21st century and including publishers such as Schirmer, A-R Editions, Breitkopf and Härtel, Boosey and Hawkes, and Novello (among 11,000+ others). Full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions.
- Orchestral Music OnlineThe online version of David Daniels' classic repertoire reference work used by conductors, orchestras, musicians, and musicologists. Access to information on more than 12,600 works by more than 1,900 composers.
- LibraryMusicSourceLibraryMusicSource is an online database of musical scores. It includes the full catalog of CD Sheet Music and Orchestra Musicians' CD Rom Library. Between these two sources, over 300,000 pages of music are available for download.
Collected Works
The Reference Scores section of the Music Library is where collected works and critical editions of composers are shelved, as well as monuments, sets, and other series. Since many of these collections have multiple volumes, the individual pieces contained within them are often not included in Primo records.
- Index to Printed MusicFind individual pieces of music printed in the complete works of composers, anthologies containing pieces from disparate historical periods, and other scholarly editions.
- Oxford Music OnlineMany composer entries in Grove Music Online include works lists, which indicate where a composition exists in their collected works.
- Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA) OnlineThe Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum offers open access to NMA scores.
Useful Websites
- International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) / Petrucci Music LibraryGathers all public domain music scores, in addition to those of contemporary composers (or their estates) who wish to release to the public free of charge.
- ChoralWiki / Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL)Free choral/vocal scores, texts, translations, and other useful information.
- ThemefinderSearch across databases of musical themes or incipits for Classical Instrumental Music, European Folksongs, and Latin Motets from the sixteenth century.
