Research Librarian
Find Scores, Sheet Music & Librettos Online
- Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new windowClassical music scores; includes 24,000+ titles.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) (1780-1925) This link opens in a new windowFull-text, searchable content from a broad range of 19th-century sources in literature, politics, theater, music, religion, maps, science, and childhood, including librettos and scores.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) (1701-1800) This link opens in a new windowPage images and full-text searching for more than 136,000 key English- and foreign-language titles printed in Great Britain during the 18th century, including librettos.
- IMSLP Petrucci Music LibraryFree public domain sheet music.
- Music & Performing Arts This link opens in a new windowCross-searches audio, video, scores, and full-text reference content from all Alexander Street Press music & dance databases.
- African American Sheet MusicDigital items from the Sheet Music Collection at the John Hay Library at Brown University. Sheet music ates from the 18th century to the present .
- Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music, Digital Score RepositoryGrowing collection of public domain scores from the collections of the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.
- Sheet Music ConsortiumContains tens of thousands of images of sheet music from collections throughout the United States. Browsable by title, and searchable by composer, subject, publisher, and date. A project of "a group of libraries working toward the goal of building an open collection of digitized sheet music." Hosted by the University of California, Los Angeles.
- Choral Public Domain Library and ChoralWikiFree choral sheet music and ChoralWiki.
- VARIATIONS PrototypeOnline music scores
- Music Manuscripts OnlineThe goal of the Music Manuscripts Online project has been to create and to provide online access to high-quality images and descriptions of music manuscripts owned by The Morgan Library & Museum.
- IPA SourceOnline Library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art songs.
- Internet Archive librettosDigitized librettos in the Public Domain
Finding Books and Scores Beyond Amherst
- Hathi Trust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowPreservation repository of full-text books & journals that allows comprehensive searching, downloading of public-domain books, and specialized services for text-mining projects. Choose Amherst College from the list of institutions to log in and get access to additional features and tools.
Finding Books, Scores & Librettos at Amherst and in the Five Colleges
Use the Books & Media tab on the Library homepage to search for books, or use the search bar below:
You can search across all of the Five Colleges, or narrow to only what's here at Amherst.
If you are working remotely, you may want to check the "Full Text (Digital)" box on the left side menu to limit your search results to electronic/digital materials only. See the Doing Research Remotely guide o learn more about off-campus access to library materials.
- Have a call number? Use our guide to Find it in Frost
- Don't know what a call number is? See our guide on Using Call Numbers.
- Looking for a book not held in the Five Colleges? Use our Request Service.
Five College libraries use the Library of Congress Classification System. Musical scores and books about music have call numbers beginning with:
- M for scores
- ML for music literature and librettos
- MT for instruction and study.
These are arranged by subject within each call number range. Browsing the book stacks may turn up relevant books you don't find in your catalog searches.