Searching for music

Finding music in the catalogue

Use the catalogue to search for music held at the National Library of Australia. 

You can begin your search by entering your search terms into the "Search our collections" text box and clicking Search. This will show results from our catalogue, our eResources and our finding aids. From there, click the "View catalogue results" button.

Once you are looking at the catalogue results, click the "Format" filter (on the right-hand side of the screen) and select Music.

You can further narrow your results by using the other filters. For example, to limit to digitised content only, select National Library (digitised item) under the "Access" filter.

How do I search for:  

Music titles

Type the title into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter and select Music.

For example: results for My Island Home.

Composers

Type the composer's name into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music, and then select the composer's name from the "Author" filter.

For example: results for composer Dulcie Holland.

Musical forms, genres & types

Type a musical form, genre, or type into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

You can also select the name of the form, genre or type from the "Subject" filter. Instruments can generally be included in the search alongside the form.  

For example: results for Sonatas (piano), Toccatas and Concertos (violin). 

Instruments

Type the name of the instrument into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

If you need to narrow the results further, select the name of the instrument from the "Subject" filter. It may also be useful on occasions also to include the word 'music' as one of the search terms. 

For example: results for Bagpipe music, Didjeridu music and Guitar music. 

Groups of instruments

Type the name of the group of instruments into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

If you need to narrow the results further, select the name of the group of instruments from the "Subject" filter. 

For example: results for Brass, String quartets and "Big band music". 

Music for a single voice with sacred lyrics

Type your search terms into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

If you need to narrow your results further, use the "Subject" filter.

For example: results for "sacred songs (low voice) with piano" and "sacred songs with organ". 

Music for a single voice with non-sacred lyrics

Type your search terms into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

If you need to narrow your results further, use the "Subject" filter.

For example: results for "songs with guitar", "songs (low voice) with piano" and "songs "high voice"". 

Music for multiple voices

Type your search terms into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter then select Music.

If you need to narrow your results further, use the "Subject" filter.

For example: results for "choruses, sacred (mixed voices)". 

Vocal works for ten (or more) single voices in combination are found under the subject headings “Vocal ensembles” and “Sacred vocal ensembles”. 

For example: results for "vocal ensembles, unaccompanied" and "vocal ensembles with orchestra". 

Finding music manuscripts

Manuscript music may also be found in the personal papers of Australian musicians, which are held in the National Library's Manuscripts collection. For example, we hold the manuscript papers of composer Liza Lim, conductor Patrick Thomas and music critics Curt and Marea Prerauer. Some of our manuscript collections have Finding Aids linked to the catalogue records; these documents can be used to identify items of interest (such as drafts, unpublished scores, etc.) within a manuscript collection. 

To find musician’s manuscript collections, type the musician’s name into the "Search our collections" text box, then navigate to the catalogue results. Click the "Format" filter and select Manuscript.

Manuscript music is also found in music collections held by the Library, such as Symphony Australia and the Australian Music Centre.  

Music eResources

You can also find music content using the National Library’s eResources portal.  

The portal contains subscribed databases, most of which are accessible from home using your Library login. There are a few databases related to music, including: 

• Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990 – contains biographical references for artists active from 1990-2003. 

• Contemporary Musicians – biographical information on important figures across most genres of modern music. 

• Oxford Music Online – contains Grove Music Online, Encyclopedia of Modern Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music. 

To access these databases, visit the eResources portal and login using the yellow bar at the top of the page. Once you are signed into the portal, click the Browse eResources tab and filter the subject area to Music (found under the Arts & Humanities subject filter).