Thematic Catalogues in Music: An Annotated Bibliography (1972 edition; expanded 1997 second edition with Richard J. Viano) was one of Barry S. Brook’s most ambitious contributions to the documentation of musical scholarship. Conceived as a comprehensive guide to thematic catalogues from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, the project sought not only to assemble a bibliography of these resources but also to define their history, functions, and significance within musicological research.

A thematic catalogue identifies musical works through musical incipits together with bibliographic, historical, and source information. Such catalogues have long served as essential tools for identifying, dating, authenticating, and studying musical works. Famous examples include the Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s compositions, the Hoboken catalogue of Haydn’s works, and numerous catalogues devoted to individual composers, libraries, publishers, manuscript collections, and musical repertories. By bringing together these resources in a single annotated reference work, Brook created a guide to one of the fundamental infrastructures of music scholarship.

The project extended far beyond bibliography. Its extensive introductory study examined the definitions, history, functions, historiography, and future of thematic cataloguing. Tracing the practice from early mnemonic indexes and library inventories to modern scholarly catalogues, Brook demonstrated how thematic catalogues have served performers, librarians, publishers, collectors, and researchers for centuries. The work also explored emerging methods of machine-readable notation and computerized data processing, anticipating many of the digital approaches that would later transform musicological research.

The bibliography documented catalogues of individual composers, manuscript collections, libraries, publishers, genres, repertories, and archival holdings from around the world. By organizing and annotating this vast body of material, the project provided scholars with a roadmap to the documentary foundations of music history. It became both a reference tool and a historiographical study of how musical knowledge is preserved, organized, and transmitted.

Today, the project remains a testament to Barry Brook’s commitment to scholarly documentation and international collaboration. By preserving both the finished publication and the records of its creation, the Barry S. Brook Collection offers researchers a unique opportunity to study not only the history of thematic cataloguing but also the intellectual foundations of modern musicological research itself. 

Contact information:

Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 817-1991

cmrd@gc.cuny.edu