Selected Resources for Music Theatre

You should know...

The Music Library collects music theatre scores comprehensively

We have a thorough collection of CDs, LPs, and video recordings (DVDs and Laser Discs). Sound and video recordings must generally be used in the library's listening room but may be taken to a class or lesson within the building if it is returned the same day before closing.

Most of our music theatre scores are kept behind the Circulation Desk and are due back at the end of the day. But the library has many other resources available to you if you just ASK!

We have up-to-date books and web resources that can tell you the plot of a show or who your character is, as well as a lot of other information about performers, shows, composers, etc.

Photocopying music owned by the library instead of buying it might be illegal. Please ask a full-time staff member about copyright laws. Making copies of sound recordings for learning purposes can be legal if certain conditions apply.

Our collection is for reference and for you to try out pieces you think you'd like to perform. If you decide to perform a piece, you should purchase your own copy so that you will have a legal score that you can use the next time you need it.

Overdue fines for Desk Reference material are 1¢ per minute, to a maximum of $25. Fees for a lost item can be a total of $97 ($57 item replacement, $30 processing fee, $10 overdue fee), but please see a member of the full-time staff (Maurice or Rachel) if you think you have lost an item.

We often find scores that people have marked in. Please remember that these items belong to the library and keep them clean for other people to use. We charge fees for excessive markings.

Kept at the Circulation Desk... must be charged to your ID

Bloom: American Song (Musical Theatre) ML 128 .M78 B6 1996 Indexes many musicals and films. Contains name index for composers, cast members, producers, choreographers, etc. Very useful for finding more information about a song if you only know the song's title.

Bloom: American Song (Tin Pan Alley) ML 128 .P63 B62 2001 Volume I lists composers and gives chronological lists of their works; Volume II contains general song index, song index by year (helpful for choosing repertoire), and a list of collaborators.

DeVenney: Broadway Song Companion. ML 102 .M88 H59 1995 Very useful for picking repertoire for recitals or auditions: details musicals by title and gives range and style (character ballad, uptempo, slow, funny, etc.) for each song. Also contains lists of songs by style and voice type.

Lynch: Musicals! ML 19 .L9 1994 "The Black Book." Tells what has been published from each show; also annotated as to what CUA owns: libretti/books/scripts (ML48 or ML50), vocal score (M1503), vocal selections (M1508), videos, and sound recordings.

Suskin: Show Tunes. ML 128 .M78 S86 2000 Summarizes and discusses the works of 36 major musical theatre composers. Contains song title index, list of collaborators, and chronological list of productions. Also lists songs that are unpublished, cut, or published for later versions and films.

Kept in the Reference Alcove (Reading Room)

Hischak: American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia. ML 102 .M88 H59 1995 Most useful for giving song summaries (which character sings it, where it comes in the musical, etc.).

Norton: A Chronology of American Musical Theater. ML 1711.8 .N3 N67 2002, vols. 1-3. "The gorgeous illustrations in this season-by-season chronology of every musical comedy, operetta, comic opera, burlesque, and revue performed on a major New York City stage from 1851 through May 2001 might be enticement enough to acquire this set. Entries for more than 3,000 plays include details such as the full cast, crew, production staff, venues, number of performances, creative personnel, and songs... Three indexes cover song titles, show names, and names of principal players and famous chorus members. Leaving appraisal and plot summaries to other classic references, these volumes are the most in-depth documentary source on the New York musical stage available, with a chapter that carries the timeline for selected plays back to 1750"--"The Best of the Best Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2003.

Stubblebine: Cinema Sheet Music. ML 128 .M7 S88 1991 Contains song index and film index for songs published from 1914 to 1989.

Lax & Smith: Great Song Thesaurus. ML 128 .S3 L4 1989 Most useful because it contains a "keyword" index: look up "money" and you get "Are You Making Any Money," "I've Got Five Dollars," "The Money Tree," "We're In The Money," etc. Helpful if you don't know the exact title.

Rosenblatt: Movie Song Catalog. ML 128 .M7 B46 1993 Has indices of songs, composers, performers, and films.

Luchinsky: Song Index of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. ML 128 .S3 L82 1998 Indexes song collections (popular and classical). Search by composer or song title. Annotated with what is available at CUA.

Recordings of interest

These Smithsonian historical recordings are excellent for studying styles of singing and older repertoire. They are not searchable by keyword, so check them out and see what's there!

American Musical Theater
Call Number: Smith 036, etc. (multiple vols.)
Booklet (desk reference): ML 1711 A55 1989

American Popular Song
Call Number: Smith 031
Booklet (desk reference): ML 3551 A56 1984

Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
Call Number: Smith A19477
Booklet (desk reference): ML 3561 J3 W54 1997

Ask about

OUR GIANT BLUE BINDER OF MUSICAL THEAtrE CONTENTS LISTINGS! We have photocopied the table of contents of every anthology and song collection we have and arranged it by composer. If you need a song by Irving Berlin, ask for the contents listing instead of guessing which one it's in!

THE BLACK BOOK! Nothing beats searching the computer for the availability of the item you want. But the annotated Black Book of Musicals might be a shortcut

OUR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OF VOCAL MUSIC! We now have a searchable online database indexing our special collections of popular sheet music and anthologies which are SEPARATE from the regular library catalog.

Basic Keyword Searching

Connect to ALADIN (online catalog at libraries.cua.edu) and choose to search by Keyword

Each word must be separated by AND
To limit to Catholic, type dcu?
To limit to CDs, type sound
To limit to score (sheet music), type score. This will find vocal selections and full scores.
Author, title, keyword, publisher, performer (on a CD), lyricist all may be used as keywords (Ex.: rodgers and hammerstein and oklahoma and sound and dcu?)
Put word phrases in quotation marks: "sound of music" and score and dcu?
Truncation: a question mark (?) provides a "wild card" in the keyword search mechanism; for example, song? will catch song or songs. For video recordings, the record might say "videodisc," "videotape," or "videorecording"; typing video? will catch any and all of these.

Some examples:

I want to find all the recordings CUA has of "You'll Never Walk Alone." I can do a keyword search and type walk and alone and sound and dcu? – this should bring up all recordings.

I need the CD and the sheet music for A Little Night Music. I can type sondheim and little and night and dcu? – this will bring up both the score and the CDs, as well as a libretto (book) and a video recording if we have it.

I'm looking for the sheet music for the song "On My Own," and I can't remember what musical it's from. I can type "on my own" and score and dcu? and that should tell me where it is.

Guided Keyword Searching

Click on Advanced Search (under the search field at libraries.cua.edu); you can search by phrase, keyword, etc.

Other Electronic Resources

Renew online and see what you have checked out with MyALADIN!* It also gives you 24/7 access to all of the databases that CUA Libraries subscribes to. That includes

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Naxos Music Library (streaming audio)

Int'l Index to Music Periodicals (has a lot of full text articles about music theatre)

Oxford Reference (has Companion to American Theatre, etc.)

and more!

*Desk Reference materials – Music Theatre scores and recordings – cannot be renewed online.

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/musicoll/theatre.html

Send questions and comments

MODIFIED: October-6-2006