Music performance sets for orchestras, bands and choirs

Series: Discover State Library’s Music Collections.

This blog series showcases some of the wonderful music collections held by State Library of Queensland. Among these are music scores, song books, digitised sheet music, hymn books and online databases. Discover our music collections via our online catalogue One Search and onsite.

Music performance sets.

Orchestras, bands and choirs can access over 4000 music performance sets held at State Library.  These include large sets, with performing parts for concert bands, stage bands, full orchestras, string orchestras and multiple copies for choirs.

Choral, band and orchestral sets can be borrowed for free with your State Library membership. Loans to interstate clients can be arranged via the Inter-Library-Loan service. Loans are for 3 months with possible renewal to 9 months. That’s plenty of time to distribute parts, rehearse, perform, and collect parts from group members.

How to find music performance sets in the catalogue.

To find music performance sets in State Library's online catalogue One Search, use the 'resource type' facet on the right side of the screen to refine your search to band sets, orchestral sets or choral sets. You can also just add one of the following keywords to your search depending on the type of set you are interested in.

• SCRB – Band set
• SCRC – Choral set
• SCRO – Orchestral set

For choral sets you can decide if the set will be useful in terms of the size of your choir by checking the total amount of parts listed in the catalogue record details.

For orchestral and band sets you can decide if the set will be useful (e.g. size of group and/or instrumentation) by checking the parts sheet, located towards the bottom of the catalogue record as a link called ‘View instrumentation’.

Here are some search links to get you started browsing our various performance sets.

• Browse band sets
• Browse choral sets
• Browse orchestral sets

You can also add additional keywords to the above searches, e.g. composer, title and/or work number. You can also use the refining option on the right side of the screen to limit the results, e.g. operas, waltzes, musicals, symphonies, string orchestra, popular music, and others.

Having trouble finding music?

Our Librarians can help you find music resources and offer guidance with searching. There are several ways you can Ask Us for assistance. We can help during your visit onsite, over the phone, via our online chat service or through our online enquiry form.

World Piano Day
Join us on Monday 29 March 2021 as we celebrate Piano Day with a free public performance by State Library’s volunteer pianists on the beautiful Queensland Terrace. Booking are required.

Read other blogs in the #MusicCollections series.