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 and is not listed in the library catalog. You can browse title and composers available in the Hill Collection online.

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

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