This guide provides links to the most useful resources for researching Music. Use the tabs to navigate through the pages of this guide or quickly jump to one of these sections: Research Resources: sources to help you in your research Journal Articles: resources for searching articles Audio Resources: audiostreaming databases and melody recognition tools Digital Scores: list of sites that offer downloadable music scores and parts Vocal Resources: sources for all vocalists, solo and group Associations & Suppliers: list of music libraries, associations and suppliers
Related Guides Research Guides | Ethnomusicology Research Guides | Songs & Vocal Resources Research Guides | MUSC 323: History of Popular Music Research Guides | Vancouver Cultural Events
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Grove Music Online Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Classical Music Reference Library Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
Indexes Index to Printed Music (IPM) Find individual pieces of music printed in standard scholarly editions. This resource updates Anna Harriet Heyer's Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music: A Guide to Their Contents (1980) Music-in-Print Series (emusicquest) This database updates the print Music-In-Print volumes on Sacred Choral, Secular Choral, Classical Vocal, Orchestral, String, Classical Guitar, Woodwind, Organ and Piano Music. RISM - Series A/II: Music Manuscripts after 1600 (RISM-OPAC) Comprehensive annotated index to music manuscripts produced after 1600. Contains 700,000+ bibliographic records of music manuscripts by 25,000+ composers, and includes graphical images of searchable musical incipits. Links to digitized music manuscripts when available. RISM - Series A/II: Music Manuscripts after 1600 (EBSCO) Hofmeister XIX The online, searchable version of the Hofmeister Monatsberichte (also known as Deutsche Musikbibliographie), the most extensive resource for establishing what was published where and when for the years 1829-1900.
Directories Directory of Music Collections in Canada International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
Theses/Dissertations UBC Theses ProQuest Digital Dissertations Theses Canada Portal Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology
Theory & Analysis UTK Analysis Index provides access to program notes and descriptions or analyses of musical compositions in books owned by the UTK Music Library. Traites francais sur la musique (TFM) contains relevant manuscript and printed materials written in French from the Middle Ages through the 19th century.
Melody Recognition Music Ngram Viewer (beta) Search by melody: enter notes on the keyboard and this tool will try to determine the work, as well as link to YouTube videos and IMSLP scores of the piece (testing phase) ThemeFinder Identify common themes in Western classical music, folksongs, and 16th century Latin motets by entering in pitches. Musipedia : the open music encyclopedia Search on melody (i. e., pitch and rhythm), melodic contour, or just rhythm. Electronic Dictionary of Musical Themes Collection of musical themes which can be searched by composer, category of music or by note (solfeggio).
Music-Specific Article Indexes RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a comprehensive music bibliography covering traditional, popular and classical music. Topics include musicology, ethnomusicology, pedagogy, psychology, anthropology, sociology and others disciplines. Music Index covers all styles and genres of music and cites book reviews, obituaries, news periodicals, and news and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry. International Index to Music Periodicals, Full Text is an Index of articles covering all aspects of music, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition. Includes some full text. Canadian Music Periodical Index is an index of articles published in Canadian music periodicals and focused on various aspects of musical activity in Canada. It is a free service provided by the National Library of Canada. Entries are from Canadian journals, newsletters and magazines dating from the late 19th century to present day. RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals 1800-1950 indexes 18th, 19th and 20th-century periodical literature dealing with music. International Index to the Performing Arts is a full text database covering a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry, including drama, theatre, film, opera, broadcast arts, stagecraft, musical theatre, dance, television, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more.
Interdisciplinary Article Indexes CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature) includes coverage of music therapy, and music and healing. ERIC contains general music education, general music in the classroom, teaching musical instruments (including band and orchestra), choral music in the schools, and music appreciation. LexisNexis Academic provides reviews of performances and recordings, music in the news, and legal and copyright issues. LLBA (Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts) indexes literature on developments in disciplines related to the nature and use of language (includes singing, voice production, articulation and vocal problems). MEDLINE is a bibliographic database containing references related to music and brain function, hazards for musicians, medical care at musical events, music for pain relief, and music therapy for miscellaneous conditions. Philosophers Index includes philosophy of music, music and ethics, and music and the brain. PsycInfo contains information on psychology of music, including musical "ear", music ability, psychological insight into musicians, composers, performers, music therapy, and the effects of music on mood, emotions, and behavior.
E-Journal Collections JSTOR Collection The Journal STORage database contains backfiles of 100+ journals from a variety of academic disciplines. Use for access to full text of the first issue (vol. 1) of a journal to within six months to five years from the present.
Audio Streaming Naxos Music Library provides access to 653,000+ classical music tracks (46,000+ CDs), emphasizing the complete Naxos and Marco Polo CD collections. Other labels representing jazz, world music, classic pop, rock music, and Chinese orchestral music are also included. Classical Music Library is a collection of 60,000+ classical music tracks. Coverage includes music from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera. D R A M is a database of music that is hard to find through the commercial marketplace. Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries is a virtual encyclopedia of musical and aural traditions. It includes published recordings owned by Smithsonian Folkways, archival collections from various legendary labels, as well as music recorded in Africa and South Asia. CentreStreams is the audiostreaming database of the Canadian Music Centre where you can search for recordings by Canadian Composers. The Virtual Gramophone is a project of Library and Archives Canada and provides access to Canadian historical sound recordings of various genres. National Jukebox is a project of the Library of Congress and provides access to American historical sound recordings of various genres.
Video Resources Opera in Video contains important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Ethnographic Video Online contains raw footage and documentaries focused on the study of human culture and behavior and will be of interest to ethnomusicology researchers. Films on Demand contains music appreciation, music history and world music.
PlaylistsYou can create playlists in Naxos Music Library, Classical Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound, Opera in Video, and Ethnographic Video Online. See this guide on how to create playlists.
This is a list of digital collections and websites offering free downloads of scores and sheet music. High-Quality Digital Score & Sheet Music Collections LibraryMusicSource Extensive collection of public domain editions of Western Classical sheet music, including both scores and parts. Classical Scores Library Classical music scores, manuscripts, and some previously unpublished material. Users can access full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions. International Music Score Library Project: Petrucci Music Library Public domain music, as well as music from composers who are willing to share their work free of charge. Sheet Music Consortium Digitized sheet music from the Library of Congress, the National Library of Australia, Duke University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, UCLA, and the University of Maine. Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Public domain music scores and books digitized by Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music. Harvard College Library Digital Scores & Libretti First and early editions and manuscript copies from 18th - early 19th c. by J.S. Bach and Bach family members, Mozart, Schubert and more; multiple versions of 19th c. opera scores; seminal works of musical modernism; and music of the Second Viennese School. Music Treasures Consortium Access to digitized primary sources held at renowned music archives in the US and UK. Seminal composers such as J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, Georges Bizet, Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky, among others, are represented through their original handwritten manuscripts and first editions. Early Music Online Rare or unique 16th-century music editions from the British Library, digitised from microfilm; 300+ anthologies as of Oct 2011. Click on the "British Library Catalogue" link to search and browse scores. IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana Sheet music from the Indiana University Lilly Library, the Indiana State Library, the Indiana State Museum, and the Indiana Historical Society. Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library 29,000+ pieces of American popular music spanning the years 1780 to 1980. Historic American Sheet Music, Duke University 3,000+ pieces of music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920. Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, Library of Congress Historical sheet music registered for copyright: 15,000+ registered during 1820-1860 and 47,000+ registered during 1870-1885. Canadian-Specific Collections British Columbia Sheet Music (can only be viewed in Internet Explorer) Sheet music about British Columbia, its cities, geographical features, people and other features. Sheet Music from Canada's Past This site is a source of sheet music published in Canada before 1921, selected from Library and Archives Canada's historical collection. Other Sources of Free Scores and Sheet Music ScorSer Search engine for downloadable PDF scores. VARIATIONS Online score prototype project from Indiana University, last updated in 2005 but contains selected digitized public domain scores. Werner Icking Music Archive : Sheet Music Vocal and instrumental pieces by about 200 composers, both well-known and obscure. Mutopia Project Public domain scores typeset using LilyPond. Finale Showcase ("Finale Notepad" required to view scores from this site) SibeliusMusic ("Scorch" software required to view scores from this site)
Composers' Works Arriaga J.S. Bach Beethoven Chopin Early Editions Chopin (CBN Polona) Chopin Variorum Edition Handel Liszt Lully Mendelssohn Mozart Nielsen Schubert Schumann
Opera IPA Source is the web's largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. Grove Book of Operas is a collection of synopses and descriptions of over 250 operas, including a cast list, a note on the singers in the original production, and information on the origins of the work and its literary and social background. Dictionary of Opera Characters gives synopses and provides extensive coverage of all the characters for over 200 operas and operettas. Grove Book of Opera Singers is a collection of over 1500 biographies of singers from the birth of opera to present day. Aria Database includes translations and texts of most arias. The database also has a collection of MIDI files of operatic arias and ensembles. Opera scores and vocal scores online from Indiana University Operabase allows searches for festivals, artists, managers, opera houses and opera performances since 2009. OperaGlass includes detailed information for many operas, like libretti, source texts, performance histories, synopses and discographies. Televised Opera and Musical Comedy Database
Song Indexes Anoka County Library Songbook Index primarily contains popular song anthologies (150 000 songs in 560 songbooks). California Library Systems Cooperative Song Index provides the contents of books, magazines, and other collections of sheet music for a particular song title. Contains 180,000 song titles (mostly popular music) from over 2,000 sheet music collections. Folk Song Index (Oberlin College Libraries) contains 62 000+ entries from 2 500+ anthologies to traditional folks songs of the world, with emphasis on English-language songs. Each entry includes the song title, first line of chorus, first line of verse, and full bibliographic information on the source. UTK Song Index provides access to 50,000 songs in more than 1,500 published song anthologies owned by the George F. DeVine Music Library at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.
Choral ChoralWiki - Choral Public Domain Library American Choral Music, 1870-1923 ChoralNet Musica International - Virtual Choral Library
Hymns The Hymn Tune Index is a database of English hymns dating 1535 to 1820. NetHymnal includes lyrics, sheet music, audio, history, & more, covering many denominations.
Music Associations American Musicological Society British Columbia Music Educators' Association Canadian University Music Society Coalition for Music Education in British Columbia Society for Ethnomusicology Society for Music Theory
Music Library Associations Canadian Association of Music Libraries (CAML) International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC) International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) Music Library Association (MLA) Pacific Northwest Chapter Music Library Association
Music Suppliers Educational Music Service J.W. Pepper Harrassowitz Theodore Front Rare, Antiquarian, & Out-of-Print Materials : AbeBooks.com MPA Directory of Music Publishers
CD Suppliers Allrecordlabels.com Berkshire Record Outlet Inc. Rheinbeck Records Tower Records Web Resources for Out-of-Print Sound Recordings
Film Music Indexes Classics from the Silver Screen is an index of classical and opera music used in feature films. Classical Music in Movies and Television
Media History Media History Digital Library provides online access to the histories of cinema, broadcasting, and recorded sound
