Music Performance and Research: Thematic catalogs

For a fuller list and sample pages, see Wingell and Herzog (cited in the Reference works tab of this guide) page 72ff.

Abkuerzungen:  abbreviations
Anmerkung: remarks/observations
Ausgaben:  editions
Autograph: manuscript
Bearbeitungen: arrangements
Begleitung: accompaniment
Besetzung: instrumentation
Faksimile: exact copy
Kritischer bericht=critical commentary
Partituren: scores
Sammtlicher=collected
Stimmen: voices/parts
Werke=works
Widmung: dedication (gewidmet= dedicated to)
Literatur: articles/studies about work
Thematish-Verzeichnis: catalog, inventory
Vergleiche (Vgl.): see also, compare

Thematic catalogues provide lists of composer's works in an organized fashion; many include incipits for the beginning of each work/movement. Often this is by opus number or chronology. Well-known examples are Otto Deutsch's Schubert thematic catalogue and Bach's BWV Bach Werke‐Verzeichnis (Index to Bach's Works). For a more detailed definition, see the entry in Grove. Thematic catalogs can also help you locate individual works in a composer's collected edition.

To find a thematic catalogue for a particular composer you can:

1. search in the library catalog for the composer's name and "catalog?", and/or
2. you can check in Barry S. Brook's Thematic Catalogues in Music: An Annotated Bibliography Music Ref ML113 .B86 1997
   
3. Check the Grove entry for the composer, which often lists the thematic catalog before the works list.
   

"Historical editions are subdivided here according to content. ‘Collected editions’ refer to those publications that present a complete repertory, either the complete works of a single composer (also known as a ‘complete edition’ or ‘Gesamtausgabe’) or those multi-volume series in which the majority of individual volumes present a unified musical repertory derived from the same or from closely related original sources (also known as ‘Denkmäler’ or ‘monuments’). ‘Anthologies’ refer to historical publications of selections and excerpts from a variety of musical sources; these are subdivided into ‘extended anthologies’ (containing five or more volumes published over a period of five or more years) and ‘small anthologies’."

Sydney Robinson Charles, et al. "Editions, historical." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 25 Aug. 2008 <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08552pg1> For a more complete definition, follow the link to Grove.

Use the works lists in Grove, Heyer, and Hill to locate individual items in a collected works set.

• A.H. Heyer: Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music: a Guide to their Contents (Chicago, 1980) Music Reference ML113 .H52 1980 v. 1-2 

• G.R. Hill and N.L. Stephens: Collected Editions, Historical Series, & Sets & Monuments of Music: a Bibliography (Berkeley, 1997) Music Reference  ML113 .H55 1997 

Locating collected editions and sets in the library

Collected editions are primarily classified in the M2s and M3s. Once you become familiar with the section you can scan it to find the set you are looking for, but otherwise you'll need to find the call number for the set you need. You can search the library catalog with the title you find in Grove, Heyer, or Hill, or, you can simply do a keyword search for [composer name] and works. This isn't precise, but will give you something to start with.