Following Donald's death in 1978, she initiated the preparation of the definitive scholarly thematic catalogue of all the works of Johannes Brahms under the auspices of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts.
[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In 1985, the Federal Republic of Germany conferred on her the Order of Merit [Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande] in recognition of her great service to German music literature.
In 1989, McCorkle was invited to prepare the definitive scholarly thematic catalogue of all the works of Robert Schumann under the auspices of the Robert-Schumann-Forschungsstelle/Gesellschaft in Düsseldorf and Zwickau, to be supported by the Peter-Klöckner-Stiftung in Duisburg.
In 2003 this project culminated in joint publication of the Schumann catalogue by the publishers G. Henle Verlag and Schott Music International (Mainz).
It has more than once been noted that Margit L. McCorkle is to date the only musicologist/bibliographer to have prepared monumental catalogues for two major classical composers, that is, for Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann.