Guides: Music: Introduction (original) (raw)

The British Library holds the national reference collections of music manuscripts and printed music.

The collection of manuscript music amounts to some 12,000 volumes, containing over 100,000 single items. Some of these were acquired with the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753, and these have been supplemented since by many gifts and bequests, and by numerous purchases.

The Library holds around 1.5 million separate items of printed music. Since the late eighteenth century, music published in Great Britain has been deposited under the terms of successive copyright acts. Music received via legal deposit encompasses classical, popular and educational publications. This archive of British publications is complemented by modern scholarly editions purchased from abroad, and by the continued acquisition of antiquarian music.

If you are planning to use recorded music as part of your research, please refer to our Sound & Vision guide.

Most our printed music, music manuscripts, and music archives are available for consultation in our Rare Books & Music Reading Room on Floor 1. Check our opening times.

You can search for and request printed music using our main catalogue of books and other printed material.

Music Manuscripts, Music Archives, and related papers, are described in our archives and manuscripts catalogue.

See ‘Requesting items’ for more details on how to access this part of our collection.