Music & Music Research

Bruce Gustafson, Chambonnières: A Thematic Catalogue, JSCM Instrumenta 1 (created 2007, last revised February 2017), accessed August 1, 2019. https://sscm-jscm.org/instrumenta/instrumenta-volumes/instrumenta-volume-1/

A thematic catalog is a guide to a composer's works. Works can be arranged by genre, dates, or other device and information about each work can include:

• Name of work in original language
• Popular titles
• Opus number, serial number, work number (e.g., K. 626, BWV 1060, D 328)
• Type of composition
• Key
• Instrumentation
• Incipits of individual movements or sections of musical works
• Dates and places of composition, premier, revisions
• Holding institution of holograph, working copies, first prints
• Spurious and doubtful works
• Bibliography of research about a work

Thematic catalogs can be found in Reference at REF ML134. They are arranged alphabetically by composer's last name.

Thematic catalogs can be found in Reference at REF ML134.

They are arranged alphabetically by composer's last name; for example:

REF ML134 .B09 A2 1989 = CPE Bach Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

REF ML134.B155 A35 1990 = JS Bach Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann sebastian Bach : Bach-Werek-Verzeichnis (BWV)

REF ML134.B175 A3 2012 = Samuel Barber Samuel Barber : A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works

REF ML134.B4 A18 2014 = Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven : thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis

and so on...

Not every composer has a thematic catalog and some have more than one! If you need help locating a thematic catalog please ask us for assistance.

Please note that some of these sites are ongoing projects and older digitized books or publisher's catalogs may not be the latest edition.

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

• Thematisches Verzeichnis der Kirchenkompositionen / Andreas Weissenbäck (1914)

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 

• Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke / Alfred Wotquenne (1905)

Johann Sebastian Bach

• Joh. Seb. Bach's Kirchencantaten : thematisches Verzeichnis der Kirchencantaten, no.1-120 / Alfred Dörffel

Ludwig van Beethoven 

• Chronologisches Verzeichnis der Werke Ludwig van Beethovens / Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1865)
• Thematisches Verzeichniss der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Ludwig van Beethoven / Gustav Nottebohm (1868)
• Thematisches Verzeichniss der Instrumentalwerke von Joh. Seb. Bach / Alfred Dörffel (1882)

Georges Bizet 

• The Bizet Catalogue / Hugh Macdonald (updated April 3, 2018) )

Johannes Brahms 

• Thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher im Druck erschienenen Werke 
  • Simrock, 1897
  • Simrock, 1903
  • Simrock, 1904

Benjamin Britten 

• Britten Thematic Catalogue / Britten-Pears Foundation (updated August 17, 2018)

Anton Bruckner

• Catalog raisonné Anton Bruckner (WAB) / Austrian Academy of Science (updated 2015)

Jacques Champion de Chambonnières 

• Chambonnières: A Thematic Catalogue / Bruce Gustafson (updated February 2017) JSCM Instrumenta, vol. 1

Friedrich Chopin 

• Thematisches Verzeichniss der im Druck erschienenen Compositionen
  • ​Breitkopf & Härtel, 1852

Girolamo Frescobaldi 

• Frescobaldi Thematic Catalogue Online (FTCO)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

• Gluck-Gesamtausgabe. Werkverzeichnis (GluckWV-online)

Christoph Graupner 

• GWV: Graupner-Werke-Verzeichnis

Edvard Grieg 

• Verzeichnis seiner Werke (1910)

Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann 

• J.P.E. Hartmann: Thematic-Bibliographic Catalogue of His Works / Royal Danish Library (updated August 17, 2018)

Jean-Baptiste Lully

• A Thematic Locator for the Works of Jean-Baptiste Lully / Bruce Gustafson, Matthew Leshinskie (Performers' Editions, 1989; Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, 2017 (JSCM Instrumenta, v.4))

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 

• Thematisches Verzeichniss im Druck erschienener Compositionen
  • Breitkopf & Härtel, 1843?
  • Breitkopf & Härtel, 1846?
  • Breitkopf & Härtel, 1882

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

• Mozart's Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke Mozart's personal catalog, which he kept from 1784 until his death.
• Thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlilcher Kompositionen von W.A. Mozart (1805)
• W.A. Mozart's thematischer Catalog / A. Andre (1828)

Carl Nielsen 

• CNS: Catalogue of Carl Nielsen's Works / Royal Danish Library (updated August 17, 2018)

Marc' Antonio Pasqualini

• Thematic Catalogue of Chamber Cantatas by Marc' Antonio Pasqualini / Margaret Murata (Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, 2016 (JSCM Instrumenta, v.3))

Max Reger 

• Thematisches Verzeichnis der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Max Reger / Fritz Stein (1953)

Camille Saint-Saëns 

• Catalogue général et thématique des oeuvres de C. Saint-Saëns (1908)

Johann Adolph Scheibe 

• SchW: Johann Adolph Scheibe: A Catalogue of His Works / Royal Danish Library (updated August 17, 2018)

Arnold Schoenberg 

• "Compositions by Arnold Schönberg : Overview" from the Arnold Schönberg Center

Franz Schubert 

• Thematisches Verzeichniss der im Druck erschienenen Werke / Gustav Nottebohm (1874)
• Franz Schubert Thematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke in chronologischer Folge / Otto Erich Deutsch (Bärenreiter, 1978)

Robert Schumann 

• Thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher im Druck erschienenen Werke
  • J. Schuberth, 187-?

Ludwig Senfl

• Ludwig Senfl (c.1490-1543): A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works and Sources. Volume 1: Catalogue of the Works / Birgit Lodes, et al. (Brepols Open Access, 2019)

Richard Strauss 

• Vollständiges Verzeichnis der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Richard Strauss / Richard Specht

Pauline Viardot

• Pauline Viardot. Systematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis (VWV) / Christin Heitmann

Carl Maria von Weber 

• [C]hronologisch-thematisches Verzeichniss seiner sämmtlichen Compositionen ... / Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns (1871)

Not every composer has a thematic catalog for their works. The Library of Congress uses hundreds of existing composers' thematic catalogs to identify works when creating bibliographic records. The Music Library Association's Cataloging and Metadata Committee maintains a list of these on its website.