Music Searching Tutorial: Part 3: Name Search

Searching for music scores, sound recordings, and even articles and books is complicated by the complex and international nature of music, specifically the foreign languages and spellings involved in music names and titles. Parts 3 through 5 of the guide examines these complexities.

Lily Strickland is a composer/musician/writer born in Anderson, SC and active in the first half of the 20th century.

Name Search Example: Lily Strickland

The search on the name Lily Strickland was simple and straightforward. There are 30 results which include books, scores, audio and video.

Reviewing individual records you would look for her name in various fields: Subject, Author, Includes, Contents, and Summary. Her name might not appear in every field but those are the fields to review. 

• The Subject, Author, and Includes field will use the 'official' library spelling used in the catalog.
• The Contents and Summary Field may use a different spelling.

The Includes field lists the composers and their composition(s) which are contained in the sound recording or score

Detailed Record View Example for Lily Strickland

Many composers/musicians have multiple spelling so findings the 'official' library spelling is important

For example, doing a search for Sergey Rachmaninov reveals the possible spellings.

Name Search Example: Sergey Rachmaninov

• The results list reveals 2 spellings: Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sergey Rachmaninov 
• Choose a specific record to view more information about how the spelling(s) used in our catalog.

Name Search Title List Example (sound recording): Sergey Rachmaninov

• Scroll down to the 'Details' section of the record.
• For a score or sound recording record the 'official' spelling used in the catalog would be the Author field and/or the Includes field(s). 

Name Search Title List Example (book): Sergey Rachmaninov​​​

• In a book record, the library spelling can be found by scrolling to 'Details' and looking at the 'Subject' field.
• Other fields (Title, Contents, and Summary) may contain name information as spelled on the book, score, CD, etc. and can have different spellings for both the first and last names.

Name Search Title List Example (book): Sergey Rachmaninov

• For more complete results for items with a name with alternate spellings, such as Rachmaninoff, you can do a search with both spellings. Typing OR in caps between the two spellings. (Note: With some names the last name is unique enough that the first name is not essential for the search.)

Name Search Example Variant Spellings: Rachmaninoff OR Rachmaninov

The majority of items have the official spelling, Sergei Rachmaninov, in the Author, Includes, or Subject fields, but there is still a substantial portion which have alternate spellings listing in the Contents or Summary fields. Be attentive when looking at the detailed records and adjust your search as needed.

For many composers/musicians searching by name can bring up thousands of results in the catalog. For example if you were to search for mozart in the catalog you would see over 20,000 results. With so many results it is a good idea to use the Advanced Search.

• The names of composers and musicians may have alternate spellings so do a simple keyword search. Use this strategy for any online resource.
• The official spelling used in the catalog may not be the spelling used in other online resources.
• Some databases will have an ‘official’ spelling which will appear in an author or subject field. 
• You may need to search different spellings within the same database. You can do an advanced search for both spellings by entering one spelling and typing OR (in caps) and entering the second spelling. 

1. What is the 'official' library spelling used in the catalog for composer/musician Karl Davidov?

2. For the over-achievers out there, did you notice any other spellings?

Click for Answers for Name Search Exercise