Our collections
The DMgA has collected around 36,500 microfilms and microfiches from more than 500 libraries and archives around the world containing sources (music and theoretical writings), primarily on German music history from the late 15th to the early 19th century.
The archive also has a rich collection of original photographs of interest to music and cultural history.
The overview of acquisitions in recent years gives an impression of the diversity of the collection:
- 1996/1997: approx. 200 microfilms of manuscripts and prints from the 16th to 18th centuries from the holdings of the former Prussian State Library in Berlin, now held in the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow. These include numerous handwritten organ and lute tablatures as well as part-book sets with sacred vocal music from the 16th and 17th centuries. The music of the Oettingen-Wallerstein family
- 1998: Concertos, piano and vocal music of the 18th century
- 1999: over 1100 titles from the fields of sacred music, solo chamber music (especially string instruments) and ensemble music from the late 17th to late 18th century
- 2000: German and Italian vocal polyphony of the 16th and 17th centuries
- 2001: approx. 400 instructional works from the 16th to 19th centuries for voice and a wide variety of instruments. Approx. 500 manuscript sources of the works of G. Ph. Telemann
- 2002: German, Italian and French keyboard music and solo sonatas of the 17th and 18th centuries, lute tablatures, printed collections of the 16th century, treatises
- 2003: German, Italian and French keyboard music and trio sonatas of the Baroque period, piano works for 4 hands, violin sonatas, piano trios and string quartets between ca. 1760 and 1820
- 2004: Sacred music from the collection of the Berlin Singakademie; chamber music for strings and piano
- 2005: Operas and Singspiele from the 17th and 18th centuries, theoretical writings (including on dance), collections from the 16th century
- 2006: Piano music from the 16th to the early 19th century; printed collections from the 18th century; operas and oratorios from the 17th and 18th centuries
- 2007: Opera of the 17th and 18th centuries; collected manuscripts from the Bohn Collection
- 2008/2009: Piano music of the 17th century (hardly any new acquisitions due to relocation
- 2010: Solo concertos, orchestral works and chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries
- 2011: String and wind chamber music, piano and organ music of the 17th and 18th centuries, lute works
- 2012: String and wind chamber music of the 17th to 19th centuries
- 2013: Chamber music for violins and flutes from the 17th to 19th centuries
- 2014: Vocal music of the 17th and 18th centuries, piano music
- 2015: Vocal music of the 17th and 18th centuries