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The Society Library has in the main been assembled in two ways: gifts or bequests from individual members and performing material which the Society has commissioned for specific concerts or recordings in the past. The first category consists mainly of single copies of printed (or in some cases manuscript) songs, piano solo or duet arrangements of operatic selections, and a not quite complete set of first edition operatic vocal scores.

There are also some photocopied vocal scores of less accessible works, made deliberately to fill the gaps in the collection. The second category consists almost entirely of complete orchestral parts of choral and instrumental works - the majority of these have been edited and copied over the years from original or autograph sources.

These by their very nature form a unique archive of performing material, most of it unavailable from any other public or private library or collection.

This archive includes complete parts for The Sapphire Necklace overture, L’Île Enchantée, Thespis ballet, King Arthur, Victoria and Merrie England; Kenilworth; The Martyr of Antioch.

We hold also a substantial collection of sets of chorus or vocal scores of cantatas, anthems and part songs; a single archive copy of most of Sullivan’s hymns; military band arrangements of six selections drawn from all over his output, some of the pieces represented being most extraordinary; complete parts for Sir Michael Costa’s arrangement of the National Anthem.


Robin Gordon-Powell, who holds all this material, is happy to give more information about the library.