The Fondren Library music collection supports the faculty, students and staff of the Rice University Shepherd School of Music and contribute to the cultural by collecting printed music, both editions for performance and for study; books about various aspects of music and music-making, sound and video recordings, periodicals, facsimiles and other materials that concern the western classical music tradition, as comprehensively as possible. Educational materials include etudes, orchestral excerpts and method books. Rare materials include those relating to composers Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) and Igor Stravinsky (1883-1971), carefully kept in Fondren’s Woodson Research Center.
We also collect printed and recorded music and books about music of many other cultures and genres, with a special focus on music of Asia--and we collect music that reflects musical life outside of the curriculum, such as musical theater.
How do I find a recording or notated music?
Search by keywords to find the musical work, and then use another limiter, usually material type, depending on whether you want a notated score or a sound recording. The music librarian collects scores + parts for musical works having up to approximately 12 players. Large works such as those for orchestra are represented by full scores and sometimes piano reductions.
Basic search
Type your keywords of choice in the search box at library.rice.edu. You can search for a composer, song title, performer, genre, and more. For example:
dvorak cello concerto wedding music renee fleming take the a train
If you have a Rice netid, sign in with it and your password to see whether your eventual choices are available and to save records for future reference.
Limit your results by using the categories in the column at the left to narrow your search. Limiting by material type is usually the most helpful when searching for music in any format. Choose ‘scores’, ‘audio’, or ‘video’....or ‘books’, ‘articles’, ‘reference entries’, etc., if you are looking for information about a piece of music. You can also limit by publication date or language, among other things.
Add keywords to your search if you want something more specific. Your search will find your keywords in any field of a onesearch record by keyword. Some more examples:
Edition/publisher: beethoven AND henle
Performer: verdi AND pavarotti or fitzgerald AND tasket
Country: india AND music or
Poet: shakespeare AND songs
When you use Onesearch, you’ll also find Fondren’s books, articles and other music-related materials.
For more on Fondren music resources and related materials, explore this Music research guide.