Collections
Print E-mail


Music Reading Room

 

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday: 9.30am - 6.00pm
Item requests up to 5pm.

Saturday - Closed


Additional services:
Digital piano available


Contacts
Tel.  21 7982072/56
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Music


The BNP’s Music Collection is one of the most important in Portugal and is especially useful for historical and musicological research. It contains more than 200,000 items ranging from the 13th to the 21th centuries, most of which were produced in Portugal. In addition to printed and manuscript scores, it offers books and periodicals on musical subjects, librettos, programmes, posters, photographs, a variety of personal and institutional archives and other material linked to the production of music and musical recordings.


The LibrarPiano2y established it as a separate collection in 1991, and it is divided into two main groups:


General Collections, which are formed from printed and manuscript documentation taken from some of the BNP’s other collections, together with the publications of and about music that come to the Library under the Legal Deposit system.


Special Collections, which contain collections and archives from other institutions and personal collections pertaining to musicians and composers. These are the most interesting part of the overall collection, thanks to their rarity and the variety of items they include, which range from manuscript and printed scores to posters, photographs, programmes, private and official correspondence, and administrative documentation.


Access
The Music Reading Room is located on Level 2. It has seating for 12 and a collection of reference works that can be consulted on a self-service basis.

 

Any Reader’s Card holder can access this collection. For the general terms and conditions governing access, see Regulations.