Music Shelfmarks in the Library

You can find music filed by these numbers on the shelves in a room (CZ018) on the left as you enter the the ground floor of the Curzon Library. Check the BCU Library Search for specific titles and availability.

Sheet music in the Library is shelved in room C018   

Searching the catalogue for sheet music is not as straightforward for books. Often the same piece will have different titles depending upon the language (Symphony, Symphonie, Sinfonia; Quartet, Quartette, Quatuor, etc. or its nickname (e.g. pastoral, Moonlight, Emperor, etc.). When we catalogue an item we try to give it a standardised title to make it easier to find but please ask for advice if you need help.

• If you are looking for an particular song it may not have been catalogued individually.
• If you do not find what you want please ask for help. If we do not have it then e-mail Francis who may be able to order it for you or complete the request form. If you are a member of staff who wishes to recommend material to be purchased you may e-mail Francis or complete the request form. There is also a pink request form available.
• Some music may only be hired. Francis should be able to advise and help with this.

• You can access our print and eBook collections through the Library Catalogue or via Library Search.

• Scores: Full; Study; Facsimile Scores; Collected Works        

  Scores serve different functions and the Library tries to meet all of these needs.

• Full orchestral scores for study or use in conducting. These are shelved at Q780.84 (Extra large ones at QQ780.84).
• Miniature / study scores for study or to follow music to which you are listening. These are shelved at 780.84 and are in room C001 with CDs, LPs, DVDs.
• Facsimiles of composer's manuscripts or or first/early printed editions. These are shelved at 780.81
• Scores of the collected works or a composer. These are shelved at 780.81
• Scores of works by more than one composer (or series such as Musica Britannica). These are shelved at 780.82

The sets of parts for Orchestral, Vocal, Brass Band, Wind Orchestra and Jazz Band ensembles are primarily for official Conservatoire performances and are kept in locked rolling shelves. Ask about sets at the Curzon Library HelpDesk.

Individual parts not for performance may be used in the Library but not taken out of it. 

Some sets may be available for non-official performances but this is at the discretion of the Collection Management Librarian for Music, Francis Firth. If permission is granted a request card must be completed at least 48 hours before the music is required. The borrower is responsible for the safe return of all materials and agrees to pay for replacements.

If a set is not purchasable it may be possible to borrow it from another Library. There is a useful catalogue of orchestral and vocal sets called Encore

If if is not purchasable it may be possible to hire an orchestral (or, occasionally) vocal set. A useful source for discovering from whom orchestral sets may be hired is Zinfonia. which requires (free) registration.

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire pays for the hire of sets for official performances. If you are arranging your own performance then it may be possible to arrange a hire but you would have to pay for it. Contact your Librarian, Francis Firth, to discuss this.

Royal Birmingam Conservatoire Archival Material in Curzon Library

The Curzon Library contains in room C003 the archives of Birmingham City University which includes those of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

More information about the Records and Archive Centre: University Archive

There is a general outline of the collections in the guide to the Records and Archive Centre.

There is an list of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire archive holdings

Highlights of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire archive include:

Birmingham Composers Manuscript Collection

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire holds manuscripts by a number of Birmingham composers, notably Herbert Lumby.

There is a partial catalogue by Michael Jones of this collection

and here is an updated version

There is also a list of the Herbert Lumby manuscripts.

Sir Granville Bantock manuscripts and related material

The main collection of manuscripts by Sir Granville Bantock, Principal of the new School of Music in the Birmingham and Midland Institute 1900-1934, resides at University of Birmingham but the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire archive includes some manuscripts, related material donated by Lady Bantock and some of the books donated by Bantock to the Library of the School of Music. 

Birmingham Flute Society Collection

The Birmingham Flute Society was founded in 1856 as the Birmingham Flute Trio and Quartet Society. After the Society was disbanded in 1954 the collection was passed to the then Birmingham School of Music By John Slade in 1965 when the Birmingham Midland Institute Building in Paradise Street was closed and demolished.

A more detailed history by Roz Trübger may be found in:

Trübger, Roz (2013) : A historic predecessor to the BFS: The Birmingham Flute Society and its music. Pan: The journal of the British Flute Society, 32(2) 38-41

There is a print copy of the Birmingham Flute Society Catalogue of concerted music 1894 in the Curzon Library.

A PDF scan of that catalogue is available here Image of Birmingham Flute Society catalogue with link to Library catalogue You may also find a PDF of Birmingham Flute Society Catalogue of concerted music 1894

Royal College of Organists

The Curzon Library includes a key collection of music and books from the collection of the Royal College of Organists.

These materials may be borrowed by all members of Birmingham City University Library.

• Boosey and Hawkes    

  Some publishers are putting their scores online, Boosey and Hawkes, being just one.
• Chopin Online Variorum Edition 

  Chopin’s manuscripts and a range of impressions of the first editions of his music.
• Choral Public Domain Library 

  CPDL currently hosts free scores of at least 18190 choral and vocal works by at least 2399 composers.
• Discovering Music: early 20th century 

  Explore key works of early 20th-century classical music and discover the social, political and cultural contexts in which they were written. Featured composers include Berg, Britten, Delius, Elgar, Holst, Ravel, Schoenberg, Smyth, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams and Webern. Enjoy digitised treasures from our collections, sound recordings, and newly-commissioned articles.
• Early Music Online 

  Early Music Online has digitised over 320 volumes of 16th-century anthologies of printed music, from holdings at the British Library.
• Gallica 

  Gallica is the online digitised collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and includes digitised music manuscriptsand online recordings.
• IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project). 

  IMSLP currently has 80,085 works, 276,524 scores, 29,836 recordings, 11,117 composers, and 277 performers.
• Internet Culturale 

  Italian digitised music
• Music Treasures Consortium 

  The Music Treasures Consortium provides online access to the world's most valued music manuscripts and print materials, held at the most renowned music archives, in order to further research and scholarship.
• Schubertline 

  Schubertline has been publishing downloadable scores of songs, arias and lieder since 2001.
• Wikpedia List of online music databases