Music Department
Parkway Central Library, including the Music Department, will be closed Wednesday, November 20th, for a special Author Event. For nearby library service contact Independence Library (215-685-1633, 18 S. 7th St.) and Philadelphia City Institute (215-685-6621, 1905 Locust St.) or call our help line: 1-833-825-5357.
| Sunday | Closed |
| Monday | 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. |
| Wednesday | Closed |
| Thursday | 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. |
| Friday | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
| Saturday | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
Upcoming Closures
- Thu., Nov. 28 : Closed Thanksgiving Day
- Fri., Nov. 29 : Closed Thanksgiving Friday
- Wed., Dec. 25 : Closed Christmas Day
Upcoming Events
Street Dance Classes: Beginner Hip-Hop
Back by popular demand! Urban Movement Arts returns to the Free Library of Philadelphia to offer a series of dance classes. These are all 1 hour long classes for adult beginners. In the Fall, we're having Waacking, House, and Hip-Hop classes. Our last class is Hip-Hop with Alexis! …
Free Monthly Saturday Drum & Percussion Workshops Featuring Karen Smith
Back by immense popular demand - the Free Library's Music Department presents a stellar fifth season of percussion and drum workshops one Saturday a month from October to December! The series opens Saturday, October 12th, continues Saturday, November 2nd, and concludes December…
About
The Music Department is your free conservatory-quality Music Library and the space the Free Library's carved out for Philly's musicians, music students, dancers, and music listeners. The Department lends piano vocal scores of operas, Broadway musicals, choral music, folk, jazz and popular music. Classical performance music is available for loan in scores and parts for chamber ensembles of up to 10 instruments in the Chamber Music Collection. Study scores of large works are available as well as scores for individual instruments and ensembles. The collection includes books on music and dance history and criticism; theory and performance technique; musical instruments; biographies of musicians and composers, dancers and choreographers.
Special Collections
The Music Department has curated a variety of special collections relating to music. Our collections are listed below, alphabetically.
Chamber Music
The Free Library’s Chamber Music Collection is the largest public library circulating collection of chamber music performance parts on the East Coast. Originally part of the Free Library’s Fleisher Collection of Orchestra Music, the Chamber Music Collection was transferred to the Music Department of the Free Library in 1934. Representing all periods of music from Baroque to Modern, the collection includes works for up to ten performers, including solo instruments and vocal-instrumental combinations. Contemporary works and new editions of standard titles are continually being added to the collection.
Not all of our Chamber Music is represented in our online catalog. You can browse our card catalog within the Department, or reach out to our librarians anytime via email at chambermusic@freelibrary.org for inquiries about a specific piece.
In-House Instruments
The Department offers a growing collection of instruments you can play in-house** - some of our collection is simply too cumbersome to take home on a bus:
** If you want to play a noise-making instrument, you may reserve one of the Heim Center’s soundproof rooms. Patrons use our area as a research and study space; for everyone’s comfort, we ask that you do not play instruments (other than the theremin or practice piano) in the Music Department.
Libretti Collection
Librettis are transcriptions and translations for Opera. Our Libretti Collection may be checked out for a period of 3 weeks.
Musical Instrument Collection (MIC)
The Musical Instrument Collection is an ever-expanding assortment of musical instruments you can check out from the Free Library of Philadelphia, just like you would a book or a movie. We launched the collection in September 2016, and we are one of only a few libraries in the U.S. and the world lending instruments. In 2017, Philadelphia magazine gave us the Best of Philly award for “Best Reason to Go to the Library”! Patrons like you have helped build the city’s collections through donations, and we’ve helped to power more than a few concerts.
The best way to browse the MIC is through our online catalog. All of our instruments have to fit on a SEPTA bus and do not have mouthpieces–we do not have any woodwinds, brass, or oversized instruments.
Program file
An extensive collection of programs of musical and dance performances dating back to the early 20th century. For use in the Library only.
Vertical file
Our vertical file is a collection of clippings librarians cut out of newspapers mostly during the last half of the 20th Century. Today, it serves as more of a time-capsule and research tool but you may find it interesting to explore 'history's first draft' dealing with every aspect of music.
We have more than 5000 files on musicians, organizations, orchestras, and various other aspects of music collected from newspapers since 1970, with special emphasis on Philadelphia. For use in the Library only.
Periodicals
The Music Department has a broad range of print magazine subscriptions available for anyone to view within the department. Current titles are listed below, according to frequency of publication.
Monthly
- Absolute Sound
- Bass Player
- Bluegrass Unlimited
- Dance Magazine
- DJ Times
- DownBeat
- Electronic Musician
- Guitar Player
- International Musician
- JazzTimes
- Let’s Dance!
- Modern Drummer
- Mojo
- Music Connection
- Opera News
- Recording: The magazine for the recording musician
- Rolling Stone
- Songlines
- Stereophile
- Vintage Guitar Magazine
- The Wire
Bimonthly
- Acoustic Guitar
- American Music Teacher
- Classical Singer
- Opera Now
- Strings
Quarterly
- Old-Time Herald
- Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion
Semiannual
- Confidential Artist Management Rosters
Irregular
- Billboard
- Fretboard Journal
- Gramophone
- Opera
Databases
A broad selection of databases are available to all Free Library patrons. The following have a close focus on music and dance and are listed alphabetically.
American Song: Listen to over 50,000 recordings from America's past; songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys; songs of Civil Rights, Prohibition, the Civil War, and more.
Classical Music Library: A comprehensive database of distinguished classical recordings offered in streaming format. The Classical Music Library also includes anthology playlists linked to the major music history and appreciation textbooks.
Contemporary World Music: This resource includes contemporary and traditional world music including tracks of reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres.
Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library): Explore over 500 nonfiction, fully searchable reference titles. Access accurate information on science, literature, history, business, and more.
Gale in Context | Elementary (formerly Kids InfoBits): Students in K-5th grade will find kid-friendly content covering topics such as animals, arts, geography, health, literature, people, social studies, technology, and more! Includes more than 16,600 images and over 600 high-quality educational videos.
Jazz Music Library: Jazz Music Library will be the largest and most comprehensive collection of jazz available online.
JSTOR: Digital archive to back issues of over 300 journals. *Chrome browser not supported.
LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com): Learn business, creative, and technology skills to achieve your personal and professional goals. When accessing this database via the mobile LinkedIn Learning app, enter freelibrary as the libraryID, then your library card number and PIN when prompted.
Music Online: Find and listen to music from a variety of genres
Oxford Music Online (Includes Grove Music Online): The world's premier authority on all aspects of music.(Formerly Grove Music Online, New Grove Dictionary of Music, and Musicians Online)
Popular Music Library: Find a wide range of popular music from around the world, including pop music, alternative, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and more.
Smithsonian Global Sounds for Libraries: With an extraordinary array of more than 35,000 individual tracks of streaming music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds, users can listen to performances by American folk icons such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger and many more.
Contact
Email erefmus@freelibrary.org or call us at 215-686-5316 for information and research requests. To enquire about Chamber Music, contact chambermusic@freelibrary.org.
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