Did you know that for many composers the CFALibrary has their “complete works” in print? Most of the big-league composers (and a few minor leaguers too!) have such sets, though there are many such publications that are yet to be finished (so it may be more of a “soon to be completed” edition, if you will). In some cases there may be more than one edition of a composer’s complete works (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, to name a few). Most of these editions sit in the M3 call number section of the CFAL and are arranged alphabetically by composer’s last name. You can find out if there is such an edition in our catalog by searching for the composer as author and then use the “locate in results” box and enter the term “works.”
So earlier today I needed to find something in the complete works of Handel. The best way to figure out where a specific piece is in the complete works is by using the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians or it’s online version Grove Music Online (available through Oxford Music Online) . Grove tells me the pieces I’m looking for are only in the Chrysander edition (read: older edition of the collected works), lo and behold, we only have the NEW edition (ok, well we have the Chrysander edition on microfilm, but sweet fancy moses, that’s almost as bad as having to transcribe the score from a recording or something!) HOWEVER, i just realized that the entire Chrysander edition is available ONLINE, thanks to Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (the Munich Digitisation Centre) of the Digital Library Department of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library). Don’t try to say that three times quickly, you’ll hurt yourself. Check it out at –>Chrysander edition of Handel’s complete works. Special thanks to Antoinette and the Mudd Library at Lawrence, for letting me know about this!
