Browsing the music scores
The Agnes Robertson Music Scores Room in the Arts Library is a treasure trove of printed music, from complete editions of major composers such as Bach, Mozart, Handel,Verdi and Wagner, to albums of popular songs and vocal scores of contemporary musicals.
The recently completed edition of the works of French composer Hector Berlioz saw the publication of the first critical edition of his monumental opera Les Troyens, as well as the rediscovered Messe Solennelle of 1824. All 35 volumes of the Berlioz Edition are available on the browsing shelves in the Music Scores Room. If you haven’t experienced Berlioz in full flight, you can watch a startlingly great performance of Les Troyens on DVD, filmed in Paris in 2002 at the beautiful Theatre du Chatelet.
Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz
Opus Arte, 2005If your taste edges towards something lighter (and shorter!) you can find vocal scores for a large number of operettas and musicals on these browsing shelves as well. Works by iconic Broadway figures such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman and a host of others are all there, with classics such as The King and I, My Fair Lady, Into the Woods and Hello Dolly all sitting on the shelf, ready to enhance the sing-along experience!
Rodgers & Hammerstein: the illustrated songbook
Hal Leonard, 1998You can also find many of the shows that have been (or will be) wowing the crowds in Melbourne lately such as Hairspray , West Side Story, Jersey Boys, Wicked and the current audience favourite, Mary Poppins.
Wicked: a new musical by Stephen Scwartz
Hal Leonard, 2003We also have a large number of song albums from some of the musical theatre’s best and brightest, which are a great way to sample a composer’s work, or build up a repertoire of audition pieces if the stage beckons!
Here are just a few……
The Stephen Schwartz Songbook
Williamson Music, 2008
Alan Menken songbook
Hal Leonard
