The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Collections > Music Division

About the Music Division

About the Music DivisionThe Music Division of The New York Public Library is one of the world's preeminent music collections. Documenting the art of music in all its diversity - opera, spirituals, ragtime, jazz, musical theater, film, world, orchestral, rock, and pop music - its vast collection illuminates an art form that is as diverse as humanity. While the Division contains many scores and manuscripts from centuries past, its curatorial mandate is an activist one, placing major emphasis on capturing the creative output of contemporary composers. An acquisitions program that spans the globe brings the Division the latest published music from many nations. The breadth and scope of this material fosters a dynamic dialogue across cultures and galvanize an extraordinary range of musical scholarship and performance activity.

Particularly noteworthy is the American Music Collection, with its own curator. From the first edition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to Native American songs to extensive manuscript collections of American composers such as Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Henry Cowell, John Cage and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the Division has made the documentation of American classical and popular music a major priority. Collection efforts bring to the Division a copy of almost every piece of classical and popular music published in the United States each year. Through special arrangements with leading American music publishers, the Division also acquires numerous rental scores--documents that would otherwise be inaccessible for study.

The Music Division traces its origins to 1888, when the Lenox Library (which combined with the Astor Library and the Tilden Trust in 1895 to form The New York Public Library) acquired the extraordinary music library of financier Joseph Drexel--a collection of 6,000 volumes, containing rare 15th through 19th-century music. Throughout the 20th century the Division has built on this core material, at the same time developing a comprehensive collection of basic bibliographies, historical editions, and complete works that supports general research in the field.

A vital center for music scholars and students, the Music Division also serves the needs of a broad professional constituency: singers and instrumentalists in search of unusual music, writers preparing program notes for concerts and recordings, lawyers searching copyrights, television producers and book publishers in need of illustrative material, and sociologists studying popular culture. Resources--available for study free of charge--include:

Printed Books, Scores and Periodicals

Extensive biographical, historical, and interpretive material is provided through theoretical treatises, contemporary reference works, and subscriptions to over 800 English and foreign-language periodicals. The Division houses numerous rare editions of books and scores, as well as modern editions of music from countries throughout the world.

Clippings and Programs

Articles culled from American and foreign newspapers and arranged under easily accessible personal names and subject headings create clipping files that substantially simplify the process of research. Extensive program files provide details about repertory, performers, and producing organizations.

Iconography

Visual materials, including over 100,000 photographs, 5,000 set and costume designs for opera, and the Joseph Muller Collection of 6,000 fine prints of musicians portraits from the 15th through the mid-20th centuries, provide rich documentation for all aspects of music, past and present.

Archival Collections

Individual and corporate archival collections document all aspects of the art, from the compositional process to the dynamics of the music business. Among the musicians and organizations represented are Marcella Sembrich, Arturo Toscanini, Town Hall, the New Music Society, and Composers Forum.

Autograph Music Manuscripts

Autograph music manuscripts help illuminate artistic intent and the creative process. The Music Division holds thousands of composers’ autographs from the 18th through the 20th centuries. This collection is supplemented by the Toscanini Memorial Archives, which contains microfilm copies of autograph music manuscripts housed in libraries throughout the world. Prominently represented in both collections are works of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Haydn, Liszt, Mahler, Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, and Britten.

Sheet Music

Close to 500,000 pieces of sheet music, including an extensive collection of American popular songs, demonstrates trends in popular taste as well as the social, political, cultural and historical issues of the time.

Electronic Resources

The Library provides access to many music-specific online databases, including Grove Music Online, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, and the Index to Printed Music. The Library also subscribes to a growing number of electronic journals. Some of these databases and ejournals may be accessed from outside the Library by Research Libraries and Branch Libraries cardholders, while others are available onsite only.