Simple Search

Here you can search information on instrumentation on composers' name and/or work Title. Just type in the search boxes and click search.
If you have trouble finding the composers or works you you're looking for you could try the Advanced search.

Quick guidelines

For generic titles (Symphony, Concerto, etc.) we have adopted the uniform title system of American libraries. It is most efficient to enter the smallest and most distinctive portion of a title, including nicknames; thus faune, or eroica, or jupiter. Avoid generic titles, which tend to produce too long a list of hits: thus wachet auf rather than Cantata no.140; london, rather than Symphony No.104. For opus numbers or thematic index rubrics, use quotation marks: "op.125", "K.417". Do not put a space between "op." and the number. You can also enter composer and title in Keywords. Example: stravinsky rite.

COMPOSER

If you have trouble finding the name you want, try Advanced Search on the main navigation bar.
This database uses Tch as the transliteration of the Cyrillic letter tse (ц).
For many late 19th- and early 20th-century Russian composers, birth/death dates are given in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. In such cases it is the Julian date that comes first.

WORK TITLE

Avoid generic titles, which tend to produce too many hits (e.g. “wachet auf” rather than “Cantata no.140”).
Enter the smallest and most distinctive portion of a title, including nicknames (e.g. faune, eroica, or jupiter).
For opus numbers or thematic index rubrics, use quotation marks without a space between "op." and the number (e.g. "op.125", "K.417").
Generic titles (“Symphony”, “Concerto”, etc.) are given using the uniform title system of American libraries.
Non-generic titles are rendered in their original form, if it is in one of the languages with which most musicians have a passing acquaintance (English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Latin).
Titles in other languages are generally given first in English with the original following in parentheses, unless common sense dictates otherwise (e.g. Stravinsky's Les noces).

Helpful information
Simple Search is intended to be fast and easy; it will match whatever you type against composer or title.

Add quotation marks to search for the exact words in the exact order you typed.
You may need to turn off your browser's spell-check, if it is stubbornly "correcting" your typing in unintended ways.
Avoid generic titles, which tend to produce too many hits (e.g., "wachet auf" rather than "cantata no.140"). Enter the smallest and most distinctive portion of a title, including nicknames (e.g., faune, eroica, or jupiter).
In many cases it may actually be easier to go to Advanced Search.