Music Catalogs

OMI's database contains more than 8,000 publications perusable via specific catalogs organized by subject or publisher.  28 subject catalogs—with complete bibliographic citations and descriptions—list all currently available titles including rare and out-of-print items, in this order:

    • facsimiles (main section, by composer)
    • facsimiles (composite & miscellaneous sources)
    • selection of modern editions
    • selection of monographs, proceedings & journals

The publishers' catalogs are organized in a parallel fashion.  Publishers not listed separately are integrated in the genre catalogs. Catalogs are frequently updated; date of last revision shown at top.


Subject Catalogs


Publishers' Catalogs

 
"There is probably no more pleasant and productive way to deepen and enrich one's understanding of a piece of music than a thorough and careful study of the composer's autograph... Among the features of an autograph that a musician might find especially enlightening are the expressive character of the composer's hand, his departures from conventions of notation, and traces of his mistakes, second thoughts, and corrections. Handwriting is an expressive gesture, akin to speech, singing, or playing an instrument. Compared to the composer's autograph, even the most beautiful printed score is like a waxwork figure compared to a living, breathing person."

Carl Schachter, Review of Mozart - The Five Violin Concertos: A Facsimile Edition of the Autographs. The Strad, June, 1987, 446-51.