Collection Development Policy: Music
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Ned Quist (Orwig Music Library)
    Rosemary Cullen (Special Collections)

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    David Josephson

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Department of Music at Brown University offers a foundation in the theory, history, and practice of music, together with imaginative approaches to the classical and contemporary traditions of the western and non-western worlds

    In addition to introductory and intermediate courses in its general undergraduate curriculum, the Department offers advanced courses supporting concentration programs in computer music and electronic media, theory and composition, musicology, and ethnomusicology. The graduate programs enhance the undergraduate offerings by providing qualified students opportunities for more advanced studies.

    The Department of Music currently offers the Ph.D. in Music in two areas of study:

    • Electronic Music and Multimedia: Brown's newest graduate program calls itself meme@brown (Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments), and promotes original research into the theoretical, technical, cultural and aesthetic aspects of music and multimedia production. Students explore a broad range of digital media culture while creating works of music and sound in combination with text, image, sculpture, movement.

    • Ethnomusicology: At Brown, students are free to explore the meanings of music and sound through broad and deep acquaintance with musical cultures throughout the world. Ethnomusicologists document, analyze, and interpret music both as design or structure, and as performance situated in its historical, aesthetic, and social contexts.

    The Department also presents an extensive schedule of concerts including orchestra, chorus, chamber choir, wind symphony, jazz band, marching band, chamber music ensemble, Ghanaian drumming ensemble, Old-Time string band, Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, Middle Eastern Music ensemble, and Javanese Gamelan.




  • Overview of the Collection
    The Orwig Music Library, located in the Orwig Music Building alongside the Music Department, houses the general music collection on campus. The general music collection consists of all formats of material pertinent to the study of music: books, serials, scores, facsimiles of manuscripts, recordings, videos, DVD’s, electronic material; over 97,000 items are housed in the general collection at the Music Library.

    As of July 2008:









    FormatEthnoGeneralReservesAnnexTotal
    Books20414305743728156
    Scores 22115500027115
    Compact Discs625126885540 33676
    LPs57481432619 20093
    Audio Cassettes820337 1844741815
    Video cassettes643 475401158
    DVDs13171023864
    CD-ROMs22 209 231
    Microfilm (titles)99 99
    Microfiche (titles)39 39
    Computer files 1212
    TOTALS13615 85621111112911113258



    The music collection supports the curriculum of the music department as well as courses in American civilization, African studies, Modern Culture and Media, and Theater, Speech and Dance, as well as courses in other fields to support the wide-ranging study and research interests of faculty and students at Brown University. The Orwig Music Library also houses the spoken word recording collection (approx. 500 items) containing primarily poetry, prose and drama readings; speeches; and sound effects. We acquire spoken word recordings requested by students and faculty or those which clearly support existing curricular needs.


  • General Collecting Guidelines
    Music materials are collected to support undergraduate and graduate instruction, and graduate and faculty research to the Masters and PhD level in the Music Department, as well as instruction and research in music being done in other subject disciplines, i.e., American Civilization. All formats of music material are purchased; all geographical locations are purchased; music material in any language could be purchased.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: As much as possible, material is collected in the English language. However, when needed for research, material in any language could be purchased.
    • Chronological Span: Medieval period to present.
    • Imprint Date: Current imprints. Occasional purchase of retrospective materials in support of research needs. Retrospective materials are acquired routinely in Special Collections to support the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays.
    • Geographical Range: All; there are no exclusions by geography.
    • Types of Material Included: All formats of material are purchased.



    Current Acquisitions in Special Collections


    Sheet Music Collection. Sheet music is acquired primarily by gift; each year brings several collections, typically personal collections by the carton load. Since the Collection is so extensive, and since some of it (primarily 19th century piano and piano-vocal music) is unsorted, it is not considered necessary to acquire by purchase, except in unusual cases. Specific instances in which music is purchased include: Wolfe period music; Confederate imprints; 18th centuy American music; African-American related music; Yiddish-language music; Rhode Island music. Over the past five years, by estimate we have spent 0 per year on sheet music, primarily for purchases of groups of material.


    Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays. Contemporary vocal scores are acquired primarily through a wide-ranging approval arrangement. Play libretti, similarly, are acquired through standing order and approval plans. These arrangements are supplemented by firm orders as necessary. Each year, approximately 00 is expended on the Library's standing order arrangement for vocal scores; in addition, approximately 00 is expended for play libretti, reference works, serials, hymnals, songsters, and other music related materials.


    Other Collections. Music materials are acquired, as appropriate, for other Special Collections as well. Examples are temperance songsters acquired for the Kirk Collection, and military music acquired for the Anne S. K. Brown Collection, and Lincoln funeral music acquired for the McLellan Lincoln Collection.


    Continuing commitment:


    As one of the Library's most notable collections of record, the Harris Collection is maintained at a comprehensive level, through a combination of endowed funds and Library appropriation. Similarly, the Sheet Music Collection, owing to its size and national prominence, is a focus of continuing support. For the same reasons, it continues to attract regular, substantial donations of material.

  • Areas of Distinction
    The in-depth reference collection of the Orwig Music Library supports the research done by students and faculty at Brown University.

    The sound recording collection which supports the PhD program in ethnomusicology is especially strong in the American vernacular style! s, the music of Ireland and the Irish diaspora, Indonesia, Africa and the African diaspora, India and China. The James Koetting Archive of Ethnomusicology contains original field recordings of West African music and Appalachian fiddle music; and live performances of blue grass and old time music.

    The sound recording collections for classical music, jazz and electronic music are also strong. The goal of the Walter Neiman Archive of Sound Recordings, established in 1984 in memory of a distinguished alumnus of the class of 1946, is to document the history of sound recording, performance practice, and musical life in the 20th century.

  • Special Collections
    As of February, 2008:

    Harris scores15,810
    Harris plays36,623
    Harris songsters1,814
    Harris hymnals4,887
    Slip ballads1,085
    Other special collectionsCataloged1,674
    Sheet musicCataloged5,526
    Sheet musicUncataloged175,000
    Sheet musicUnsorted320,000
    TOTALS562,419


    Sheet Music Collection. One of the half-dozen largest collections of American music in the country, with 500,000 items, of which 150,000 are popular piano-vocal music, dating from the 18th century to the present day. Holdings also include 18th century titles, over a third of the Wolfe-period titles (1800-1825), and a fine collection of Confederate imprints. The Collection includes approximately 45,000 titles related to the American popular musical stage. Other notable sections include African-American related music, silent film music, a very large collection of band arrangements of popular music, music of the Yiddish-language stage in America, color lithographs, World War I and II related music, musical settings of American poetry, and Rhode Island related music. Instrumental music is largely for piano, but there are interesting sections of music for other instruments, particularly guitar, banjo, mandolin, and accordion. See the Center for Digital Initiatives.

    They are:



    Other Library web sites with information about the Library’s Sheet Music Collection are:



    Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays

    It is the goal of the Harris Collection to acquire all American poetry, drama, and vocal music, from all periods, in all formats and languages. Harris is perhaps the largest collection of its kind in existence, with over 250,000 items.

    Music Resources
    Music is one ofthe Harris Collection’s great strengths. In all, nearly 34,000 titles in the Harris Collection are either music or music-related, and include:

    • Scores, vocal selections, and librettos of musical plays and operettas, dating from the mid-19th century to the present day.

    • Collections of popular and folk music, dating from the 18th century, and including a great many currently published folios of the songs of popular composers and performers, often related to recordings

    • Hymnals, both with and without musical notation, dating from the 17th century, and including many examples of Pennsylvania German imprints as well as an interesting selection of hymnals issued in the 20th century by small fundamentalist denominations in the West, South, and Midwest.

    • Songsters, dating from the 18th century, held in particular strength, and including 40 pre-1820 exemplars otherwise unrecorded.

    • Manuscripts of scores and libretti from the turn-of-the-century Yiddish musical stage in New York, many never published.

    • Broadsides holdings include slip ballads (song sheets) from the 19th century, and many thousands of texts of popular and religious music, many with tunes cited.






  • Related Collections
    Music in Other Collections:

    There are nearly 8,200 cataloged titles of music in Special Collections, as listed in Josiah (exclusive of the Harris and Sheet Music Collections). For an extensive listing of holdings in Special Collections that have a music component, see Performing Arts Collections
    Collections with particularly noteworthy sections of music include:

    • McLellan Lincoln Collection. The Lincoln Collection includes extensive holdings of civil war music and music related to Lincoln, the assassination, and the abolitionist movement. Included are sheet music, songsters, broadsides, and vocal collections.

    • Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. Music in the Anne S. K. Brown Collection is largely made up of 19th century illustrated covers depicting military scenes, units, and individuals.

    • Brown University Archives. Music in the Archives consists of many songs and instrumental music related to the University, records and memorabilia of musical societies and musical events, and departmental records relating to the study and teaching of music. There are also theses, dissertations, and honors papers on music. See the web database of Brown theses and dissertations.
    • General Rare Book Collections. Sections of musical materials are found in most of the subject collections in Special Collections. Collections with sections of music included the Kirk Alcohol Collection (temperance and drinking songs), John Hay Collection (settings of Hay's poetry to music), Wandering Jew, Napoleon, and Morse Whaling Collections.

    • Other Formats: Recordings. The Harris Collection includes several hundred older 33 rpm recordings, primarily of American folk music and theatre music. There are general collections of 78 recordings, primarily jazz and popular music. There are also recordings in the University Archives.

    • Piano Rolls. The Music Department's collection of piano rolls was consolidated with that of Special Collections some years ago; holdings consist of approximately 200 items, which, depending upon condition, are playable on a machine owned by the University.



      • Other subject collections routinely acquire music as appropriate, with endowed funds and Library appropriation support. Most of the music acquired for these collections is antiquarian in nature.



      Image: Igor Stravinsky. Rag-Time. Cover illustration by Pablo Picasso. Paris: Editions de La Sirene, 1919. S. Foster Damon Collection of Sheet Music, John Hay Library

    • Selected List of Key Internet Resources

    Image: Igor Stravinsky. Rag-Time. Cover illustration by Pablo Picasso. Paris: Editions de La Sirene, 1919. S. Foster Damon Collection of Sheet Music, John Hay Library