Notice that there are actually six Libraries.

Play-Along Library: each piece has “minus-one” style recordings so that you can play your part along with a recording of the other lines

Members’ Library Editions: publications that you receive with three of the four issues, annually, of American Recorder magazine

Play the Recorder Month: pieces commissioned and published each year by ARS to celebrate Play the Recorder Day/Month, starting in 2003

New Music for Recorder: pieces composed by contemporary composers specifically for recorder, with or without other instruments

Arrangements and Transcriptions: this is where you’ll find older music, whether Renaissance or Ragtime, in arrangements for recorders

Recorder Orchestra Library: music with five or more recorder parts, intended for 10 or more players

A piece may be in more than one library. For instance, April Is In My Mistress’ Face by Thomas Morley, with play-along files recorded by Anne Timberlake, is included in both Play-alongs and Arrangements and Transcriptions.

You can search across all six libraries on the main Library page, or you can click on an individual library to search within it. You can also display an index (for the entire library or individual libraries) and sort the results in a variety of ways, including displaying newest additions at the top.

According to one member, the library can be a great resource for concert planning. “I set myself the challenge of selecting all four pieces from the library for a recent concert,” she said. “I was able to find a good selection that fit well within our modest abilities.

Here’s how that member undertook her search. She says,

• Under the category “Difficulty” I specified that I wanted “moderate” pieces.
• Below that, under “Number of Recorder Parts,” I entered the number 4 in both the Min and the Max boxes.
• Then, since I knew I wanted at least one piece by Bach, I put “Bach” in the “Composer” box. I then hit “Search” and that gave me three Bach pieces to choose from.
• I chose that piece, then I went back to the beginning of “Search” and specified difficulty and number of recorders. That search yielded nine pages of suggestions.
• Next, I “shopped” through what was available. As I sorted through the selections offered, I first looked for familiar pieces, then for pieces by composers I was not familiar with. To help me decide, I’d take a look at scores to get a general idea of a piece, and then I’d listen to a few measures. As I found pieces I liked, I jotted down notes. Once I felt I had enough to choose from, I went back to recheck the ones I chose initially and narrowed down the possibilities until I had a great program of four pieces.

ARS members may download sheet music and listen to recordings. If you need to share music with your ensemble, you can download the score and/or parts, save them to your own computer, and send them to your consort. Or, you can send your members a unique link to each piece of music:  when looking at any composition, you can right-click on “Composition Share Link” text, and select “Copy Link” from your browser’s drop-down menu, then paste that link in an email message to your consort mates. Non-ARS members may read the description of each piece, view a preview image, and listen to short sound clips for many pieces but are not able to access the sheet music or full-length recordings. Please be sure to observe any copyright limitations that the composer may have indicated on the score.

Check it out and start playing some new music today!