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Tips on Searching the Database
Please read through carefully if you are unfamiliar with our database.
The sections are:
Getting Started
From the Home Page, click on Search the Collection.
- You may search a particular work by any of the following categories:
- title
- composer, lyricist, or arranger
- instrumentation
- form of composition
- first line of song
- first line of chorus
- dedicatee
- engraver, lithographer, artist
- subject
- plate number
- advertisement
- performer
- location of publisher
- publisher
- box number
- item number
- Please note that, although you may search multiple headings
at the same time (e.g., title and composer and publisher), you may
not search more than one of the same category (e.g., more
than one title, or more than one composer at the same time).
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Searching by Composer's name
- To search for songs written by the composer Gus Edwards, type the
name in the left column on the Search page and select "composer,
lyricist, arranger" from the drop down menu on the right. Your
search will yield 41 documents containing the name "Gus Edwards" in
the "Composer, Lyricist, Arranger" field.
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Searching by Subject Heading
- You can also search by subject heading. To find music about baseball
type that heading in the left-hand column and choose “Subject” from
the drop down menu in the right-hand column. Your search will yield
81 documents containing "baseball" as a subject heading.
- To refine the search to music written about baseball between the
years 1890 and 1910, go back to the Search screen, and at the bottom,
you will note a heading entitled "Date Range." Leaving "baseball" as
a subject heading, type "1890" to "1910," and click
on "Search." This will narrow your search to only 28 items.
If you only want to look at baseball music from the year 1910, type "1910” to “1910," and
your search will pull up items only from that year.
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Searching by Title
- To find the song In My Merry Oldsmobile enter the title
in the box labeled "Search for". In the box "Within," choose “Title” from
the drop-down menu. Click on "Search" at the bottom of the
screen. Your search for In My Merry Oldsmobile will yield
one document.
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Viewing the Images
- To view a larger image of the cover or music to a particular item,
click on the small image that appears with your search results. If
you wish to view the first page of music, scroll down to the bottom
of the full-size cover page and click on "Page 1." Or, return
to the search results and click on the thumbnail prints of the music.
- Reminder: If the music was published after 1923, it is not
in the public domain, and therefore there will be no images.
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Where's the music?
- There are two reasons why, although you have pulled up a text record
for a particular title, you may have trouble finding the music that
accompanies it.
- The music was published after 1923, and therefore is not in
the public domain. We do not include images for music published
after that date.
- The music is duplicated elsewhere. If there is a field in the
text record with the heading "Duplication," it will direct
you to the location of the music (e.g., "music same as Box
2, Item 3"-look in Box 2, Item 3 to locate the music). This
may also occur when the cover is a duplicate.
IMPORTANT: MUSIC PUBLISHED AFTER 1923 IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
YOU WILL NOT FIND IMAGES FOR MUSIC PUBLISHED AFTER THAT DATE ON THIS
SITE. THERE IS A TEXT RECORD FOR EACH SONG.
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