Collections
Material held in the Music Department:
- Books on Music
- Early Printed Music (pre-1850)
- Printed Music
- Sound Recordings
- University Library composer archives
Music and music-related materials held elsewhere in the University Library:
- Ebooks at Cambridge University
- Cambridge theses and musical exercises
- Manuscript Music
- Microforms
- Periodicals
Collection policies
Material held in the Music Department:
Because of receipt under legal deposit and a long tradition of buying extensively from abroad the collection of books about music is both large and comprehensive. They are catalogued in the main book catalogues - in the Pre-1978 General Catalogue (the green volumes in the Catalogue Room) and the Newton (online catalogue). You can also use LibrarySearch to find holdings of books from most Faculty and College libraries.
Early Printed Music (pre-1850)
The Library's extensive holdings of early editions include several musical incunabula (pre-1501) and fine collections of 16th and early 17th-century part-books, and have been much enhanced by generous benefactions. Two important collections are the F.T. Arnold Bequest of 18th-century instrumental music and treatises relating to the history of the thorough-bass, and the Marion Scott Bequest of early editions of Haydn. These research collections continue to grow by gift and purchase.
The collection of printed music is one of the largest in the country. Under the provisions of the various Copyright Acts since 1709 the Library has a right to receive all music published in the British Isles. However it was not until the 1780's that music publishers first began with some consistency to enter their editions at the Stationers' Hall, the mechanism through which copyright was registered and deposit with the copyright libraries organised. During the nineteenth century more and more music was received and by 1850 a large quantity of both popular and serious music was held.
In 1853 a separate music section was established. Music regarded as of primary importance was bound and given the shelf class number `Mus', the secondary material (including popular songs, music for teaching, sets of parts for orchestra and wind band) was kept unbound in boxes numbered by year of receipt.
The music section was further expanded to include music literature in 1934 with the introduction of the present open access classification (M200-M834). At this time books on music which had been placed in other classes were transferred to the music department.
The acquisition of foreign-published music has been carried out systematically only since the 1970's, since when much has been done to fill lacunae in many areas.
The Library does not have an extensive collection of sound recordings, and does not receive them under the Copyright Act. There are, however, small collections of 78, 45 and 33rpm discs and CDs acquired by bequest and donation. There is a larger collection of cassettes of music transcribed from disc of a broad range of classical repertoire, and the Booth Collection includes over 300 CDs of twentieth century music.
There are also many cassettes acquired in association with published books on non-musical subjects. These are not available for loan but may be fetched and listened to in the Anderson Room.
University Library composer archives
The library has a number of archives of British twentieth century composers. The following pages give further information about the specific collections:
- William Alwyn
- Arthur Bliss
- Roberto Gerhard
- Timothy Moore (in preparation)
- Peter Tranchell
Music and music-related materials held elsewhere in the University Library:
Cambridge theses and musical exercises
All unpublished theses and musical exercises for Cambridge degrees should be asked for in the Manuscripts Reading Room, where catalogues of this material are kept. Post-1970, these are in the online catalogue.More information on the Manuscripts Department page
Ebooks at Cambridge University
Ebooks have a dedicated page at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ebooks/, where you can search for specific titles or search by keywords; you can also browse specific ebook collections. There are not that many titles in music yet, but the number has been growing in the last few years.
The collection of music manuscripts is not extensive but contains a number of significant items. Among the many medieval liturgical manuscripts are important sources for English plainsong (for example the Sarum Antiphoner). From the early 17th century there are several volumes of lute and broken consort music. There are also collections of autograph music by James Hook, Alan Gray, C.B. Rootham, Peter Warlock and Peter Tranchell, The Library also holds, by bequest or gift, the manuscripts and papers of William Alwyn, Sir Arthur Bliss, Roberto Gerhard, Timothy Moore, Robin Orr, and Peter Tranchell. There are also scholarly transcriptions by E.J. Dent and J.B. Trend and the papers of Hans Keller. In recent years autograph manuscripts by many twentieth-century British composers have been acquired. The musical manuscripts of Ely Cathedral and several colleges are held on deposit. The musical manuscripts are catalogued together with the printed music in the main section of the online catalogue, however they are read in the Manuscripts Reading Room. The documentation of the papers is in progress, and will be available through Janus or on enquiry in the Manuscript Reading Room.
Most microfilms, microfiches and microprints of works relating to music should be asked for in the Microfilm Reading Room. There are a large number of British musical publications in the series of microfilms Early English books 1475-1640, Early English books 1641-1700 and The Eighteenth century; indexes of these series are available in the Rare Books Reading Room. Microforms of manuscripts should be ordered in the Manuscripts Reading Room.
Several important bibliographies on microfiche are kept in the Anderson Room, such as the BBC Popular Song Index and the catalogue of music in the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris). There is a microfilm reader in the Anderson Room for readers who wish to read their own films there.
The Library acquires a very large number of music periodicals, which may be found by title through 'journal title' in Basic Search on the online catalogue. The open access bound volumes are classified at P409, while closed access items are at L409, Q409 and T409 and fetched to the Periodicals Desk in the West Room. Current unbound parts are shelved in the West Room under the letter `O'.