How do I cite measures from a musical score?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

Measure numbers can point readers to the pertinent section of a source more precisely than page numbers:

Mozart supplies a gently rocking melody for Figaro and Susanna’s private reconciliation (measures 275-93).

Work Cited

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro). Dover Publications, 1979.

If you cite measures repeatedly in your work, identify them using the abbreviation “mm” listed in Merriam-Webster:

Mozart supplies a gently rocking melody for Figaro and Susanna’s private reconciliation (mm. 275-93) but sets the Count’s public repentance and his wife’s sublime forgiveness more grandly (mm. 420-30).