MAA Library Template

• Classical Music Reference Library
  Broad array of reference materials, including Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians and Women Composers: Music Through the Ages. Can browse composers by gender.
• Hathi Trust Digital Library
  Digital repository with searchable catalogues from multiple institutions and full-text access to many scores and books.
• Index to Printed Music
  Online index of sources for printed music published in standard editions.
• Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO)
  Annotated bibliography and high-level encyclopedia identifying the best scholarship across a wide variety of subjects including music.
  Includes topical bibliographies such as Women in Music, Gender & Sexuality in Music, and specific composers including Clara Schumann and Hildegard von Bingen.
• Oxford Handbooks Online
  Specially commissioned essays from leading scholars and practitioners, providing critical examinations of issues and new perspectives. Merged with Oxford Academic.
• Oxford Music Online (Grove Music Online)
  Foremost English-language scholarly encyclopedia of music and musicians. Holds extensive articles and bibliographies written by subject experts and comprehensive lists of works for select composers. Biographies of many women composers, articles on “Women in Music” and “Gender and Music,” and a list of women composers.
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text
  Comprehensive bibliography of publications about music, including citations, abstracts, indexes, and some full text sources. Alternate title: Répertoire internationale de littérature musicale.

Library of Congress (LC) subject headings offer a focused pathway into the holdings of UBC Library. Use the Books and Media Catalogue search engine to explore LC subject headings and linked resources. Listed below is a sampling of LC subject heading relevant for topic research.

• African American women composers
• African American women musicians
• Femininity in music
• Feminism and music
• Feminist music
• Gender identity in music
• Lesbian musicians
• Music by African American women composers
• Music by women composers
• Music by women composers–discography
• Music–Social aspects
• Women composers
• Women composers, Black
• Women composers–Biography
• Women composers–Canada
• Women composers–United States
• Women hymn writers
• Women in Music
• Women in the music trade
• Women librettists
• Women lyricists
• Women musicians
• Women musicians–Canada
• Women musicians–United States
• Women’s music

Library of Congress Classification does not distinguish works by women composers from those by others, so be sure to browse through the scores by instrumentation or by looking for specific composers!

Scores

• M1977.W64 - Secular vocal music–Women (secular songs about women)

General Literature on Music

• ML82 - Women and music

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias

• ML102.G46 - Gender in music

Bibliography

• ML128.W7 - Women in music

• ML156.4.G4 - Women’s music (discography)

• ML156.4.W6 - Women musicians (discography)

Keyboard

Strings

Voice

Choir

Woodwinds

Be sure to check out our guide to finding digital scores!

• GEMS: Gender, Education, Music, and Society

• IAWM Journal (International Alliance for Women in Music)

• Kapralova Society Journal

• Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

• Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture

• Chamber Music by Women Composers
  Music by (Wieck) Schumann, Beach, Tailleferre, Lili Boulanger, Mendelssohn Hensel, Carreño, and Chaminade. Compact disc.
  AV2 4201 S393 34799
• Deferred Voices: Organ Music by Women
  Christa Rakich, organ. Program notes including notes on the organ with specifications inserted in container. Compact disc.
  AV1.2.H447 P7 1993
• The Ice Age and Beyond: Songs by Canadian Women Composers
  Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano; Midori Koga, piano; with additional musicians. Compact disc.
  AV1.2.D66 A5 2009
• In Praise of Woman: 150 Years of English Women Composers
  Program and biographical notes by Sophie Fuller and texts inserted in container. Compact disc.
  AV1.2.L15 M95 1994
• New Music for Electronic & Recorded Media: Women in Electronic Music, 1977
  Program notes by Charles Amirkhanian with selected discography and bibliography inserted in container. Music by Beyer, Lockwood, Oliveros, Spiegel, Roberts, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson. Compact disc.
  AV1.2.B49 S8 M8 2006
• Piano Works by Women Composers
  Four centuries of solo piano music by women composers. Rosario Marciano, piano. LP.
  AV2 4015 H526 23924
• Rees & Stoyanoff, Duo Pianists: Music by American Women Composers
  Music by Postnikoff, Smith, Ballou, Beach, Bolz, Butler. Compact disc.
  AV2 4115 P8586 34382
• Sacred Women: Women as Composers and Performers of Medieval Chant
  Fadia El-Hage, vocalist; Belinda Sykes, vocalist, Shawm; Marianne Kirch, vocalist, dulcimer; Vladimir Ivanoff, frame drums, ud. Compact disc.
  CBC EMCD 287
• Susana Marín, Piano
  Recorded Aug. 1990, Madrid. Music by Lili Boulanger, de la Cruz, Escribano, Ozaita, Catalán, Diez, and Bacewicz. Compact disc.
  AV1.2.B678 D8 1991
• Three Concerti: Music by Violet Archer, Larysa Kuzmenko, and Alexina Louie
  Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano ; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Alex Pauk, conductor (1st work) ; CBC Vancouver Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor (2nd work) ; Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor (3rd work). Compact disc.
  AV1.2.L6795 C6 2010
• Women Write Music: Orchestral Music by 20th Century Women Composers
  Foundation Philharmonic Orchestra; David Snell, conductor. Program notes in English and French (23 pages) inserted in container. Compact disc.
  CBC COCD 1636

Remember to check out our guide to audiovisual resources!

• Association of Canadian Women Composers
  Advocates for women composers in Canada, provides funding for projects, publishes lists of repertoire by women composers, and holds a collection of archival material related to women composers in Canada.
• Canadian Music Centre
  Hub for Canadian music resources. Publishes works of many composers, operates a score lending service across the country, and streams archival recordings of Canadian music online. Check out the Composer Showcase for featured composers and more.
• Donne Women in Music
  Publishes a list of over 5000 women composers, funds concerts and commissions, and publishes a daily blog featuring women composers. Based in the United Kingdom.
• Hathi Trust Women Composers Collection
  A digital catalog of works by women held in the University of Michigan’s Special Collections. Some works available online.
• IMSLP
  Online library with thousands of public domain scores. Has a list of women composers with works available.
• Inclusive Early Music
  Hosts an extensive bibliography on underrepresented voices in Early Music on Zotero.
• International Alliance for Women in Music
  Advocates for women in music internationally, provides awards and grants for projects, and publishes a quarterly journal on women in music.
• Institute for Composer Diversity
  Hosts a set of searchable databases of underrepresented composers and repertoire (choral, wind band, orchestral, and art song) by underrepresented composers. Also has a bibliography of selected resources.
• Kassia Database
  Maintains a searchable database of art songs by women composers.
• Kapralova Society
  Maintains an online bibliography of resources related to women composers
• Many Many Women
  An online list of over 1000 women composers, also divisible by genre.
• The Philomel Project
  Maintains a database of chamber and solo works by women composers.
• Sakira Ventura Map of Women Composers
  An interactive map of women composers from around the globe created and maintained by musicologist Sakira Ventura.
• Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy
  Collects statistics on performances of works by women composers by American orchestras, publishes lists of repertoire and active composers and conductors, and publishes a blog called Feminist in the Concert Hall.

The Canadian Women Composers Collection was introduced by UBC Library through an endowment from Anne Kaplan for the purpose of documenting the compositional practices of Canadian women composers active at home or abroad. The collection serves to build and sustain a body of primary resources and unique related materials that will serve future musicologists, music theorists, and performers interested in music analyses, as well as expand participating composers’ audiences. Materials were created and assembled by the respective composers during the course of their activities.

The collection is housed in UBC Archives at Rare Books and Special Collections at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Acquisition of materials from their creators began in 2018. New additions to the collection are expected annually.

Canadian Women Composers Collection UBC Library Archival Fonds