Music
Welcome to the music collections pages. The National Library of Scotland acquires music through its legal deposit privilege, as well as through bequests, donations and purchases. The music collections now include extensive British holdings, especially Scottish music. There is a wide selection of foreign music editions, special collections of early editions of Handel, Berlioz and Verdi, special collections of Scottish music collectors, and music sound recordings. Music manuscripts are administered by Manuscript Collections.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The online edition includes the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition) and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. At present access is restricted to computers on Library premises. (See our licensed digital collections page for more information.)
Music in Quarto
From time to time, an article about the music collections and the work of Music Collections staff appears in Quarto, the Library's quarterly newsletter. The most recent articles have been in issues 12 and 9, which you can view in PDF format.
