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The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library houses one of the
oldest and most distinguished collections of scores, sheet music,
audio, and books relating to music in North America. For over 100
years, the librarians have carefully acquired materials with an
eye to serving the needs of the performing and listening community
of Greater Buffalo and Erie County, encompassing all genres of
musical styles.
The current holdings comprise the collections of two libraries, one from
the Grosvenor Library Music Department, established in 1898, the other from
the Buffalo Public Library Music Department, established in 1922.
The collection contains materials that cover over 2,000 years of musical
history. Included are anthologies, scores, complete collected works of many
composers, over 300,000 song titles from the late 18th century to the present,
a vast collection of recordings including compact discs, cassettes, vinyl
LPs, and 78’s, reference materials, journals and periodicals, several
thousand books on music encompassing subjects such as biography, music history
and theory, instruction manuals and the business of music. The library also
houses a small collection of local historical documents in the form of scrapbooks,
programs and ledgers of the major musical cultural institutions.
Collections Books and Teaching Materials
A sampling of the broad range of
books includes: arts management, biography, general music history,
jazz, harmony, business, opera, history of rock, discography
and vocal techniques, and "how-to" methods for playing
various instruments. Circulating materials are housed in the
Humanities
and Social Sciences Department.
Printed Music (Scores)
Includes complete works of composers and anthologies as
well as performance editions of the following: score anthologies;
orchestral, full and study scores; chamber music; solo instruments - piano, woodwind, brass, strings, percussion; vocal music and instructional
Popular Songs
Approximately 300,000 titles, from the late 18th century to the present
have been indexed by title and include: Popular (novelty, folk, show tunes, children's
songs, advertising, protest, hymnals, gospel); Classical (art songs); Buffalo
(songs about Buffalo and the Niagara Frontier, Buffalo imprints, local composers,
(Jack Yellen and Harold Arlen); Presidential Campaign; World War I; Songsters
(Civil War, novelty), first edition Stephen Foster
Orchestrations
The library owns six distinct collections of scores and
parts of 3,000 chamber and symphonic works, the largest purchased
from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC Symphony Orchestra,
under the conductors Leopold and Walter Damrosch and Arturo Toscanini),
the remaining five acquired from local institutions.
Composers’ Manuscripts
The manuscripts comprise
approximately 1000 scores by 30 local composers. Additional composers’ musical
manuscripts can be found in the Rare Book Room including Lukas
Foss, Leo Smit and
David Diamond.
Local History
Programs 1850-1965,
photographs, scrapbooks, archives of Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra,
Buffalo Chamber Music Society, American Guild of Organists, Music
at the Pan-American Exposition
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