Music/Dance Library - Collected Editions
What are collected editions? Collected editions are sets of musical works, usually published in a number of volumes. In general, there are two types of collected edition: (1) the complete works of an individual composer, and (2) works of various composers, usually brought together by time period, geographical region or genre.
Why would I need to use collected editions? You will find that the Library does not have individual scores of some of the works that you need to study. However, these works are likely to be contained within a collected edition — either in the complete works of the composer in question, or in a series such as Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst. In other words, the only place you will be able to find some works is within a collected edition.
Where are they kept in the Library? Most of the collected editions in the Library are kept in the Graduate Reading Area. Most have a call number beginning with M2.
Can I use the OSU Library Catalog to find specific works within collected editions? Not always. Some collected editions do have a catalog entry for each volume within them (e.g. Recent researches in the music of the Baroque era). However, some do not — sometimes you will be able to look up the overall title of the collected edition to see if we have it in the Library, but you will not find information about individual volumes. So you will be able to find the general call number for, say, the collected works of Bach, but the catalog will not tell you what is in each volume.
So how do I find specific works within collected editions? First, check the OSU Library Catalog in the usual way. For some collected editions there are entries in the catalog for the individual volumes within them. If you cannot find the work in the catalog there are two books you can use to try and establish which collected edition a work is contained within:
Volume 1 consists of a list of composers names. Listed for each composer is the title of the collected editions of their works, followed by the contents of each volume. Note that for some composers there is more than one edition of their complete works. So if you looked up Mozart, you could find out which volume of his collected works contains the Symphony no.15 by browsing through the list. Some pieces may not be listed specifically, but more generally: e.g., Heyer may just say that Volume 7 of a particular collected edition contains cantatas (without listing the individual titles of the cantatas). Volume 1 does list the contents of collected editions such as Musica Britannica, but it would take a long time to browse through this. If you think a piece is likely to be in a collected edition such as Musica Britannica or Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österrich, you should use Volume 2.
Volume 2 is also a list of composers' names. This time each of their works or types of works is listed alongside an indication of which collected edition you will find that work in. Use Volume 2 if you are not sure which collected edition to look in for a work. Volume 2 is generally more useful for less well-known composers, as you can quickly match a specific piece to a specific collected edition.
You can also use Grove Dictionary/Oxford Online to locate works within collected editions. To do this, look up the composer by surname. For most composers there is a works list at the end of the dictionary entry. If the complete works of a composer have been published, the entry will often give the details of the collected edition followed by a list of the works. Alongside each work (at the end of the line) is a section saying which volume of the collected edition the work is in. In some cases there will be more than one set of complete works, so each set is given an abbreviation (e.g., in the case of Schubert, NS and NAS — if the entry was 2 ; iv 3 this would mean that in the NS edition the work was in vol. 2 and in the NAS edition it was in vol. iv.3.
If the complete works of a composer have not been published, Grove usually indicates which collected editions a composer's works can be found in. Again, collected editions are given an abbreviation and the volume numbers are indicated. If the composer is not prolific or well known, there may be no work list in Grove. In this case you will have to use Heyer.
In the case of the collected works of a specific composer, you will often find that there is an index at the front of each volume which gives a general indication of what types of work are in which volume. You can then find the work you want without looking up either of the books mentioned above. However, it's a good idea to use these books, as otherwise it may take you much longer to find what you are looking for!
Updated 4 August 2008
Return to Music/Dance FAQs
Music/Dance Library Home