Located on the lower level of the Music Library, a left turn after the doors, is a room covered from wall to wall (and along the tables) with sheet music. This small, windowless room is the Performance Collection, and it contains over 6000 scores/parts for band, orchestra, choir, and jazz ensembles. While you may have never been inside, this special collection within the library plays a crucial role in providing music for the 12(!) large ensembles at the Faculty of Music. Nearly all the sheet music in your folders for ensemble have passed through the Performance Collection! After seeing the innerworkings of the Performance Collection this past year working with ensemble librarian Karen Wiseman, it is now time to share what I have learned. From ordering music to stamping and sorting – a lot happens before the music reaches your stand, or the stage!

Hallway towards open door of the Performance Collection

Interior of performance collection with moveable shelving on right side

Acquisition

The process for preparing your music begins long before the concert date – it can range from months to even a year in advance. The conductors often have an idea of what they may program in the future, which they send a list to Karen. While the library has a plethora of music, there is still plenty we do not own, especially if it was recently published. If we do not have it in our collection, it may be purchased by the library to own, borrowed from a local ensemble (such as Choirs Ontario and Orchestra Canada), or is rented (some composers only allow their music to be rented and not purchased). It can take a while for music to arrive, which is why it is necessary for it to be ordered early.

Processing

While Karen handles the acquisition of music, the bulk of what I do is process it when it arrives. New purchases for the library go through similar steps before being added to the collection. (Rentals or borrowed music go through a slightly different process, which I will only touch on briefly in this post.)

Stamping and numbering

I never quite grew out of loving stamps and stickers, so this part of working in the library is probably my favourite. Every score/part requires 2 stamps: an accession number (the unique number used to organize and find scores within the collection) and ownership stamp (to indicate that it belongs to the U of T Music Library). The accession number is used to find items in the Performance Collection instead of the LC call number system (which is used in the rest of the library, and UTL in general). If you search in the library catalogue for a piece and it is stored in the Performance Collection, it will begin with PECOLL. It is then followed by 2 letters that tell you what type of ensemble it is for: CC – choral, CB – concert band, OC – orchestra, JZ – jazz, and ME – music education. After that is the accession number. Other than the stamps, every part gets numbered in score order. This makes it easy to keep the parts in order and quickly see if any parts are missing.

Folders and dividers

Once all the music is stamped, numbered, and sorted, a folder or divider is made to keep it all organised within the compact shelving. Can you guess which image belongs to which ensemble type? (answers in the caption)

grid of six photographs of shelves with music

Were you able to get them all right? The first and last ones are tricky since they are not technically music for large ensembles. The Music Education shelf contains method books and easy band pieces used for music education classes, and a chunk of the library's vinyl collection is currently stored here while they wait to be processed and transferred (you can read more about vinyl here!)

Additional things

At this point, the parts are all more or less ready to get distributed. Some pieces have a few final steps before getting handed out, such as checking bowings for string parts or making individual packets for the choirs. Other pieces are sent as a digital file, in which case they need to be printed , folded, and stapled, before beginning the rest of the processing. Rentals and borrowed sets are not stamped or numbered, but a content sheet will be made to have a record of what we received. After everything is done, sign out sheets are created, and the music is either picked up in the Performance Collection by the student, or is picked up by your ensemble managers and handed out. Finally, rehearsals can begin!

Returns

When the concert is over and the music is no longer needed, all of it gets returned back to the Performance Collection. (Tip: if the Performance Collection is closed, you can still return music to the service desk.) We first double check that all the parts are there, erase markings, and fix any damaged parts if necessary. Then, rentals/borrowed music are shipped back, and the ones we own are shelved until the next time they are played.

Is the Performance Collection necessary?

Some of you may be thinking to yourself: Why do we need to keep physical copies of music? Why not download from the internet instead of purchasing? The most obvious answer to this question is copyright laws. We follow the Canadian Copyright Act, which states that, in general, copyright exists during the life of the author/composer and extends until 70 years after their death. For anything no longer under copyright (aka public domain), you can search sites like IMSLP, Choral Public Domain Library, and Band Music PDF Library. Everything else needs to be properly obtained through purchasing or rental licenses. Additionally, many pieces simply cannot be found online, such as works by underrepresented composers or recently published pieces. Instead of the individual conductors worrying about how to acquire music, the Performance Collections handles all of that, and catalogues/organises it for future use.

While copyright laws are interesting, let me try to convince you why else this collection is useful! While a big part of the Performance Collection’s job is to provide music for ensembles, the collection is open for students to browse and borrow. If you are interested in conducting or enjoy score study, we have many scores for you to look at (you may even be able to see markings from previous conductors!). If you are preparing for an audition, we may have a cleaner part or a different edition than what you can find online. Perhaps you want to learn a new instrument. The collection has a variety of method books you can borrow and use at home!

Personally, I think the collection is simply fun to browse. Maybe this is just my love for paper and ephemera, but I feel a strong sense of history looking at and holding all these scores and parts. In a way, the Performance Collection is just one giant record of the music played in this building. Walking through the shelving, I have stumbled across many composers and pieces I have never heard of, and sometimes I will peek inside. Other than the music itself, there may be a biography of the composer or words about the piece. Another interesting thing you can find is the dates for when something was last checked for the parts. Although not 100% foolproof, it is likely that the piece was played during the years they were date stamped!

I hope that through this post, you have gained more understanding and appreciation for this special collection within the music library. While small, it fits tons of music and contributes a lot to the ensembles and students in this school. While I will no longer be working in the Performance Collection, Karen and her new SLA are guaranteed to be sunny faces in that windowless room. So, on Mondays to Fridays 1:00-4:30pm, for any reason you may have, the Performance Collection is open for you to explore!

P.S. don’t forget to grab a gumball on your way out :)

Sara Ko is a Student Library Assistant at the Music Library, studying Music and Biology. After spending most of her degree in the basement of EJB (working in the library, making reeds, rehearsing, etc), she attempts to persuade others to also explore the depths of the building.

A Look inside the Performance Collection