Composer biographies are a major source for the study of music history:

• Search in SearchWorks for a particular composer
• Search in Grove Music Online (entries for most composers also include detailed lists of compositions)
• Browse the stacks, at ML 410

Along with performing editions of printed music arranged by instrument or performing group, there are numerous significant sets of printed music, edited by scholars, that represent the works of an individual composer (a collected edition, or "Gesamtausgabe") or various historical series ("Denkmäler) arranged geographically, by form/genre, or by time period.

These carefully prepared sets often take many years to complete, and some remain ongong endeavors. New research into a composer's body of work has in some cases prompted the initiation of an entirely new series.

A good, concise overview of these resources may be found in Gottlieb's Music Library and Research Skills (p. 200-08).  For an extensive bibliographical listing of published sets, see the Grove Music Online article, "Editions, historical."

To locate works within these sets, you may:

See notations in Grove, in the works lists at the end of composer biographies;

Use the online Index to Printed Music (IPM);

Consult Heyer's Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music (note that this covers only pre-1980 publications)