Find music

Use uniform titles

Because the exact wording of a composition title may vary on different covers of published scores, musical recordings, and musical videotapes, it can be helpful to use a uniform title when searching. There are three types of uniform titles:

  • Distinctive titles – the original, unique title in the composer’s native language (e.g The Magic Flute’s uniform title is Die Zauberflote)
  • Form or genre titles – the work’s musical form is the title (e.g. Concertos, Piano, Orchestra, No. 5, Op. 73, Eb Major)
  • Collective titles – “works” will retrieve all of a composer’s work; it’s also possible to retrieve only works within a category (e.g. piano works).

The best way to employ a uniform title is to conduct an advanced search (look for the link in the lower right hand corner of the library search box)

  1. Select “author/creator” instead of “any field” from the drop-down menu, and enter the composer’s name.
  2. Move to the second line and enter the uniform title for “any field”.
  3. If desired, choose “audio visual” or “scores” from the Material Type drop-down menu to further narrow the search.

Browse streaming audio

Naxos Music Library
Find streaming audio in classical, jazz, rock, opera, and folk. Includes cover artwork, tracklists, music notes, instrumentation, composers and performers.

Music Online
Find streaming audio and video from and about recording artists and music.

Classical Music Library
Access nearly a million streaming audio tracks for online listening. These tracks include time periods ranging from as early as Medieval to as current as the 21st century.

See all music-related databases.

Search for sheet music & scores

Our sheet music collections include nearly 140,000 tunes dating back to the mid-1800s. You can browse an index of available sheet music at the Ask Us desk in the Fine Arts Library.

Most of our collection is non-circulating because the items are fragile and irreplaceable. You are however able to view and copy materials; you will need to present a picture ID.

The Hill Collection was donated to the University of Arizona by Grant Hill and contains sheet music of nearly 135,000 tunes, dating back to the mid-1800's. You can download a spreadsheet to search for titles and composers. Once you identify the song you want, take the location number to the Ask Us desk in the Fine Arts Library.

The Phillips Collection, originally the University of Arizona collection of popular music, was renamed after Elsie Phillips, the first University of Arizona Music Librarian. The collection contains 5,000 tunes. Items in the Phillips Collection are indexed by either song title or composer in a notebook at the Ask Us desk in the Fine Arts Library. 

See also our music subject guide to find scores and songs online.

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