Biographies of composers, or books discussing a composer’s compositions from a historical or biographical perspective, are assigned a call number in the ML 410 class. The 1998 edition of the Library of Congress classification schedule has gone to the trouble of giving major composers their own Cutter number (in some cases, their own range of Cutter numbers). Please use these. Here are examples of Cutter numbers used at the CMU Library.
Thus, books about Johann Sebastian Bach:
For the obscenely prolific Richard Wagner, who wrote prose as well as music compositions, LC has gone even further to assign a second Cutter number for his many and various writings. Thus, his 1870 work on Beethoven is classified as
For less renowned composers, you may have to create one yourself. But before doing so, check the OPAC — your composer may already have his/her own Cutter in your catalogue. If so, use that Cutter number. If not, be sure that the Cutter you create is unique to that composer and that it will place the book on the shelf in alphabetical order relative to other composer biographies. You may be required to apply your considerable creative talents to accomplish this feat.
Upon checking the library’s OPAC, you may find composer biographies classified in a manner that deviates from the instructions given here. These works may need to be re-classified. Consult with a librarian before doing so.
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