How information is presented in the Index:
Information in the Alphabetical Index entries always follows the same pattern:
 
EITHER: a 'See' - a link to a reference elsewhere in the NCMI
 
OR:
 
1. ORIGIN:
Date and place of composition, if known. (This item is in brackets if supposed or inferred rather than known for a fact)
 
2. USE:
First Use (usually named show in italics) (sung by named performer(s) in brackets.
Also used In (named show(s) ) (performers)
 
3. SOURCE:
Published - as sheet music ('Sep.Publ.')
- in vocal score of relevant show ('VS')
- in album (identified by code - see Appendix 2a)
Unpublished Manuscript in archive ('Unpubl./MS')
+ any supporting source notes
 
4. NOTES:
General information on background and supporting notes for information given above;
Description of number and brief musical commentary
References to other titles and/or references to further information in other sections of the index (refs)
 
5. DISCOGRAPHY:
Selected discography listed by date order (refs)Noël Coward is always NC. Names of other people, once mentioned in a specific entry, are thereafter abbreviated to their initials.
 
How abbreviations are presented:
Capital letters in bold script (e.g. BD or NCSL) is a bibliographical source reference code (References, Sect. 3)
 
Titles of Musical Productions are in italic (References, Sect. 2)
 
Code letters (e.g. NCSB) for Source identify a particular musical publication (Appendix 2). Some combinations of abbreviations have specific meanings:
 
MS VS unpublished vocal score
pno.sel. published piano selection
sep.publ. item printed as separate sheet music.
 
Code letters OCR, NCR and ONR refer to entries in the full Discography
(Appendix 4).
 
Other abbreviations, including those for Show Titles, are used throughout this section of the index for the sake of brevity. For a full list of abbreviations used see References, Sect. 1.

Abbreviations that are used throughout the Index...
...but particularly in the Alphabetical Index, for the sake of brevity.   While the meaning of most of these should be fairly self-evident, the following lists may be useful: