Contents:
Pamela Bristah
Music Librarian, x2076
Offcampus Access Databases A-Z Research Guides by Subject | by Course Reference Books Online Library Catalog
A few tips:
- Starting a paper? Check out Starting your Research,
a guide to finding information, evaluating and citing information, a
term paper timetable to help you schedule your work, and additional
help.
- Citing your sources: for how to cite books, print articles, online articles, and other publications, see Research Guide: Citing Sources. For citing music scores, CDs, CD liner notes, and other music sources in Turabian style, see Citing Music Sources in Your Essay and Bibliography, from the University of Western Ontario.
| Find library books, scores, sound recordings, videos |
Also find scores and parts, vocal scores, compact discs, vinyl/LPs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and periodicals.
- Wellesley College Library catalog, text version
- The text version of the Wellesley catalog, accessed via telnet software, works best for music searching. Login as library. A highly recommended search strategy is to enter A to search by composer ("author" on the search screen), then type J to jump to the title of the musical work you want. Type in the first few words of the title, or just the first few letters, and press the <enter> key.
- If you don't have telnet software installed on your computer, use the Encore version of the Library catalog.
WorldCat/OCLC- Use this database to find books, journals, videos, compact discs, and etc. in 54,000+ libraries worldwide. Useful for discovering materials that are not at Wellesley but can be ordered via Interlibrary Loan. If it's ever been published or recorded, you will probably find it in WorldCat.
Catalogs for Other Libraries in the Boston Area- Links to the library catalogs of Brandeis University, Boston University, Boston Public Library, University of Massachusetts, and New England Conservatory of Music, among others.
| Find scores, sound recordings and videos online |
- Classical Music Library
- Classical music, major labels and artists, approximately 56,000 tracks. Includes the option to create your own playlists.
Naxos Music Library- Primarily classical music, plus smaller collections of world music and jazz. Over 25,000 CDs and 360,000 tracks by over 7,000 composers. Faculty can have playlists created for courses technical requirements
Naxos Music Library Jazz- 20,000+ jazz, blues, and R&B tracks from over 2,000 CDs, featuring more than 500 jazz artists. Labels include Fantasy Jazz, Riverside, Prestige (including its subsidiaries New Jazz, Bluesville, Folklore, Swingville, Tru-Sound, and Moodsville), Milestone, Stax Records (and affiliated labels Volt, Enterprise, and Gospel Truth), Contemporary/Good Time Jazz, Specialty, Takoma, and Kicking Mule. In addition to Ellington, Coltrane, Monk, and Miles, jazz artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Stan Getz, Abbey Lincoln, and Art Blakey. Faculty can have playlists created for courses technical requirements
- Contemporary World Music
- Music from all regions of the world, including reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, African film music, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, Indian classical music, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more. Includes the option to create your own playlists.
- Smithsonian Global Sound
- World music, "a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions," approximately 35,000 tracks. Includes the option to create your own playlists.Available via the Boston Public Library; first-time users must register online with the BPL for an eCard, which is good for two years.
- African American Song
- Gospel, blues, jazz, and other forms, documenting "the history of African American music in sound," approximately 50,000 tracks. Includes the option to create your own playlists. Available via the Boston Public Library; first-time users must register online with the BPL for an eCard, which is good for two years.
- Opera in Video
- Online video of complete, staged operas in performance; also documentaries and interviews. You can create your own playlists and video clips.
- IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: the Public Domain Music Library
- A virtual library of over 16,000 public domain scores. The great majority of scores are formatted for printing.
- Free, Printable Music on the Web
- Links to sites with online scores for sheet music, operas, songs, orchestral works, chamber music, piano music, choral music, and more. Web site maintained by Martin Jenkins, Wright State University Libraries.
| Find background information |
General
Grove Music Online
The most comprehensive and authoritative encyclopedia on music overall, covering classical music, jazz, world music, and popular music. Incorporates the New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, the New Grove dictionary of opera, and the New Grove dictionary of jazz. Definitive articles on all musical subjects; excellent bibliographies for further reading; complete lists of works by major and minor composers. Also pictures, maps, portraits of composers and musicians, sound clips of music, and links to other definitive Web sites on music.Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
A comprehensive encyclopedia devoted to music of all the world's peoples. More than 9,000 pages of material, with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, make this the most complete body of work focused on world music. For each region of the world, it features an overview of the region, a survey of its musical heritage, traditions and themes, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances; also photographs, maps, and musical examples. Available via the Boston Public Library; first-time users must register online with the BPL for an eCard, which is good for two years.Encyclopedia of Popular Music
On popular music of all genres and periods, updated quarterly. Available via the Boston Public Library; first-time users must register online with the BPL for an eCard, which is good for two years.The Oxford Companion to Music
Short articles on musical terms, composers, works, librettists, performers. Published by Oxford University Press.
Composers & Works
Composer Pages
Links to Web sites on composers. Page maintained by the Indiana University Music Library.Art of the States
Online recordings of contemporary American art music, recorded in full, and available 24/7 from WGBH. Includes composers and performer biographies, extensive notes on each work, and links to related sites on composers and works.
Women & Music
Women and Music
Women's music studies page, maintained by the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.International Alliance for Women in Music
The IAWM "builds awareness of women's contributions to musical life through its publications, website, international competitions, conferences, concert promotion, and presentations."Ladyslipper
Catalog of recordings of music by women composers.
Jazz
All Music Guide: Jazz
Basic information on a wide range of jazz artists and styles..The Red Hot Jazz Archive: a History of Jazz Before 1930
For pre-1930 jazz, articles on musicians and bands, including discographies that link to online recordings, and filmographies.Downbeat.com
Online excerpts from the jazz magazine, Downbeat. Go to their Archive page to search for selected full-text articles.All About Jazz
An online jazz magazine "produced by jazz fans for jazz fans," covering jazz world-wide, and featuring full-text interviews and profiles of hundreds of jazz musicians, all searchable.Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz, by William P. Gottlieb
Over 1,600 photographs of jazz greats in New York and Washington DC, 1938-1948.
World Music
All Music Guide: World Music
Basic information on a wide range of world music artists and genres.Ethnomusicology, Folk Music, and World Music
A research-oriented site, with links to Web sites for world music organizations, institutions, archives, and research centers; world music bibliography, periodicals & online publications; world music recording labels and distributors; and world music sites by geographical region. Web page maintained by the University of Washington.
Vocal Music
Opera Glass
Opera synopses, libretti, performance histories, discographies, pictures, and pointers to many other opera sites. Page by Rick Bogart.The Grove Book of Opera; A Dictionary of Opera Characters; The New Grove Book of Opera Singers
Three essential reference works on opera; all three can be searched simultaneously. Published by Oxford University Press.Lied and Song Text Page
Texts and translations for Lieder and art songs in Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish. Page by Emily Ezust.The Aria Database
Texts, word-by-word translations, and some MIDI files of operatic arias, duets, ensembles and choruses. Page maintained by Robert Glaubitz.IPA Source
Texts of arias and art songs, spelled out in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and translated word-for-word.
Instruments & Instrumental Music
Instrument Encyclopedia
Short articles, with photographs and sound clips, for musical instruments world-wide. From the University of Michigan.
Local Concerts
Wellesley College Concert Series
Concerts sponsored by the Music Department.
Music events in and around Boston
Listings, articles, and reviews for concerts in the Boston area.
| Find articles, essays & reviews |
- Academic Search Complete
- Full text articles: the world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text article database. Dates of coverage vary by title. Can be searched simultaneously with RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and Music Index (see below).
- JSTOR
- Full text articles, up to ca. 2003. Use to find full-text articles published prior to the last five years from scholarly periodicals in the humanities, including 32 core music periodicals.
Project Muse- Selected
full text articles, ca. 2003 to date
Use to find full-text articles from the last 4 years, from academic journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Includes a growing collection of music periodicals, and many music-related articles from non-music periodicals.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature- Citations and summaries, 1967 to date
Along with Grove Music Online, RILM is one of the most essential tools for music research. It cites and summarizes significant writings on music published from 1967 to date, chiefly scholarly articles within periodicals and books (article anthologies, conference proceedings, and Festschrifts), as well as providing citations for and summaries of books and dissertation themselves.Can be searched simultaneously with Academic Search Premier and Music Index (see above and below).
- RoJaRo
- Citations for articles on rock music, 1992 to date
A free music magazine index covering rock, jazz, roots music, blues, country, rap, soul, folk Latin, gospel, metal, psychedelic, reggae, punk, world music, salsa, afropop, pop, film music progressive, dance, techno, electronica, avant garde, ska, r&b, exotica, house, etc. Also includes music magazine, fanzine, and record label information.
- Music Index Online
- Article citations, 1973 to date
Differs from RILM in indexing periodical articles only, and in indexing general, non-scholarly, performance-oriented, and consumer music magazines. Can be searched simultaneously with Academic Search Premier and RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (see above).
Expanded Academic ASAP- Use this to find full-text articles on music, as well as concert and record reviews, from a limited number of journals.
New York Times- Search for full-text articles on music, and for concert reviews.
You can also consult a list of full text music journals at Wellesley.- Other online resources may be useful to you, depending on your specific topic and approach. Please visit the Library's Databases A-Z List, or our Reference Books Online, or email Pamela Bristah, Music Librarian, for customized suggestions.
| Key Web sites |
- Music Resources
- Well-organized links to sites, with a good balance between musicology and music performance.Page maintained by Indiana University Music Library.
Web Sites of Interest to Musicologists- Comprehensive links to sites on musicology, ethnomusicology, jazz, opera, orchestral music, women and music, "funny music stuff," and much much more. Page maintained by the American Musicological Society.
Wellesley College Library • WCIS • Pamela Bristah • last modified: July 23, 2009