‘Tis the season for reflecting on the past year’s work and accomplishments, and there are countless ways to measure the Music Division’s impact: in researchers served, collections processed, displays curated, etc. One of the resources our reference staff enjoy creating is topic-specific Performing Arts Research Guides. With over 28 million items in the Music Division’s collections, it’s not always a straightforward answer when a researcher requests to see “everything in our collections related to Darius Milhaud,” or “how to find music by Jewish composers.” Researching a single topic in the Music Division may require you to look at scores from a variety of call numbers in the M Classification Schedule, or one may need to study a single work from numerous creative perspectives by consulting multiple special collections. This is where curated guides are beneficial: they can help researchers see, in a single gateway, where various parts of the Library’s collections intersect to study a particular topic.
Music Division reference staff published the following research guides in 2024:
Jewish Composers: Resources in the Library of Congress Music Division
A guide to searching for published music and literature, as well as music manuscripts and archival material, all related to Jewish composers. The guide highlights select examples of print scores and music manuscripts by Jewish composers that are held in the Library’s collections. Additionally, an ‘Online Content’ page connects researchers with fully accessible digital collections, concert and interview videos and relevant blog posts, as well as additional research guides about individual Jewish composers.
Victor Herbert: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress
The Music Division received the materials that now make up the Victor Herbert Collection as a series of gifts beginning in the 1920s up until the late 1950s, marking the Music Division’s first efforts to collect archival collections related to Musical Theater. This research guide marries the finding aid to the Victor Herbert Collection to Herbert-related materials found in various other areas of the Music Division’s collections. Access digitized sheet music from Herbert shows as well as an online exhibit featuring manuscripts, photographs and more.
Felix Mendelssohn: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress
The Music Division holds a significant amount of unique material by and related to the composer Felix Mendelssohn: over 40 music manuscripts and sketches, over 300 letters, many first and early edition scores, artwork, portraits, critical editions, scholarly literature, and more. With so much material to locate in various parts of the Music Division’s vast collections, this research guide proves an essential companion for anyone interested in discovering Mendelssohn resources at the Library of Congress.
Darius Milhaud: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress
Though the Library of Congress does not feature a singular “Darius Milhaud Collection,” the Music Division does boast over 30 music manuscripts in the hand of the great 20th-century modernist composer. In addition to his music manuscripts, researchers will find other unique Milhaud materials such as the manuscript copy of the composer’s autobiography, correspondence with American music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and letters to his publisher Leonard Feist as well as the French conductor Pierre Monteux. Explore this helpful research guide to learn more about these resources and how to access them, and to connect with digitized content related to Milhaud.
We now offer over 50 research guides to the Music Division’s collections, all designed to help researchers understand and connect with our tremendous collections in music, theater, and dance. Whether you’re planning a research visit to the Performing Arts Reading Room or interested in finding digitized content, dive into these guides to connect with our material. And stay tuned for more research guides coming in 2025 – we have some fantastic additions in the pipeline!