Research Guides: Music Research Guide: Find Books, Scores and Recordings

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Purpose

This guide contains references to print, electronic, and Internet resources found in and via the Newton Gresham Library. This information is intended to provide you with a starting point as you begin your research in music.

This guide is not comprehensive; it does not list all of the resources in Music and its many subdisciplines owned by the Library or available on the Internet. This guide will show you some of the resources with which you can begin reseasrch.

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window Includes the full-text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Updated regularly. Only a limited number of people may use this database at one time. If you cannot connect, try again later. Please be sure to log out when finished.
Encyclopedia of Popular Music This link opens in a new window Authoritative biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists covers popular music from 1900 to the present, including folk, blues, world music, rock, heavy metal, techno, reggae, and hip hop. Only a limited number of people may use this database at one time. If you cannot connect, please try again later. Please be sure to logout when you have finished.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music This link opens in a new window A comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. Provides essays, images, and audio examples, including entries by expert contributors from all over the world.

The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians
ML100 .H36 1999
"...Offers definitions of musical terms; succinct characterizations of the various forms of musical compositions; entries that identify individual operas, oratorios, symphonic poems, and other works; illustrated descriptions of instruments; and capsule summaries of the lives and careers of composers, performers, and theorists."

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
ML100 .N48 2001 29 volumes 2001
A multi-volume dictionary that contains articles on many aspects of music, including biographies, world music, notation, composers, genre, etc.

The New Oxford Companion to Music
ML100 .S37 2 volumes 1983

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
ML102. J3 N48 3 volumes 2001
This 3 volume set contains entries on all aspect of jazz, including biographies, and world jazz music and musicians.

The Grove Book of Operas
ML102. O6 N48 2009
A multi-volume set containing entries in all aspects of opera, including biographies.

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
ML105 .B16 2001
Includes biographies of musicians in many genres. Enteries deal primarily with classical musicians, though many other genre are represented, including: jazz, rock, blues, and more.

Musical Terminology: A practical compendium in four languages
ML108 .B55 1999
A dictionary of common musical terms in English, French, German and Spanish.

Indexes

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
ML118 .R4 1967-1995
International bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines, in 202 languages, classified by topic, and including original-language titles; title translations in English; full bibliographic information; abstracts in English; author, journal, and subject indexes; and a thesaurus.

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Library Databases

Library Music Source This link opens in a new window The complete or nearly complete published works of the world's great composers for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, organ, voice, chorus, strings, winds, percussion and guitar. Hundreds of thousands of sheet music pages, including the entire piano works of Chopin, all the songs of Schubert, all the organ music of J. S. Bach, and all the orchestra parts and scores of Beethoven, to cite only a few examples.
SingersBabel This link opens in a new window
SingersBabel helps musicians gain an awareness of the synergy of words and music by integrating traditional teaching tools with established technology. Developed through work with diction specialists, SingersBabel includes tools to teach and refine pronunciation, enhance comprehension, understand changes in language, improve diction, and understand and evaluate diverse viewpoints.

IMSLP: International Music Score Library Project IMSLP is a source for more than 200,000 musical scores. Additionally, IMSLP scores can be downloaded directly into piaScore, a free iPad app for viewing and annotating scores.

Classical Music in Video This link opens in a new window Will contain 1,000 hours of classical music performances and masterclasses captured on videoapproximately 1,500 performances in all.
Opera in Video This link opens in a new window 500 hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the worlds best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a works importance to the operatic canon.
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window (number of simultaneous users is limited) Naxos Music Library provides online access to well over one million tracks in classical, jazz, world, classic rock, and nostalgia music. Also includes music notes, instrumentation, CD cover artwork, synopses and libretti for 700+ operas, more than 40,000 composer and artist biographies, and more.
A free Naxos app is available from both iTunes and Google Play. (Watch this video for help setting up the app.)
Naxos Music Library: Jazz This link opens in a new window (number of simultaneous users is limited) Tracks from more than 6,000 CDs of both jazz legends and contemporary jazz, including famous names and independent labels.

Subject Headings / Browse Collection

One way to look for information is to use subject heading searching with terms such as the following:

Music-20th century-history and criticism

Music appreciation

Music-United States

These terms can also be used in a keyword search. For instance: "music theory and choral." Keyword searching is also useful when you are looking for an encyclopedia of a subcategory. For instance, the search "American music and encyclopedia" will provide you with a list of encyclopedias about American music.

Music Research Guide