That's it!
Now that you've got a basic understanding of how the catalog is organized, try doing a composer search. Scroll down the list of titles; you'll find it all suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Three tips:
- Always begin looking up a composition by the composer's name, not by the title or keyword.
- Avoid the temptation to limit the resulting list of titles (for reasons currently beyond our control, it makes the list look a mess.)
- Make good use of the "Jump to a title or line number" at the bottom of each page of titles. It makes for fast and easy navigating.
Songs
- To do a thorough search for individual songs or arias, many of which are buried in anthologies and collections, several separate searches may be necessary:A composer search as described above, scrolling down to the title you want.
- A composer search as described above; then click the "limit" button and add words from the song title in the "words in song title or contents note" option. As a general rule, add the fewest, most distinctive words possible.
- A keyword search. Experiment with a variety of combinations. For instance, start with the fewest and most distinctive words from the song title. If you get too many false hits, either limit the search to the composer's name; or re-do the search adding more words or the composer's name to the keywords.
Remember, the librarians are always happy to answer any questions you may have.
Happy hunting!
