Research Guides: Music: Find Background Info

Use Dictionaries and Encyclopedias for Background Research

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 11
Oxford Music Online offers users the ability to access and cross-search several works, including: Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford Companion to Music, and Oxford Dictionary of Music (Second Edition Revised). Sources can be searched independently or together.
MGG Online This link opens in a new window
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart is a general encyclopedia of music. It provides articles on different aspects of music as well as many related areas such as literature, philosophy, and visual arts. MGG Online contains the second print edition of MGG, published from 1994 to 2008, as well as current, continuous online updates and additions.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music This link opens in a new window
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music contains pages of material, the full text volume print encyclopedia and articles with links to associated audio examples, musical illustrations, photographs, song texts, scores and maps of world regions.

The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture by Janet L. Sturman (Editor)
ISBN: 9781483317755
Publication Date: 2019-03-28
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture presents key concepts in the study of music in its cultural context and provides an introduction to the discipline of ethnomusicology.
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Part 1 Media, Industry, Society by Dave Laing (Editor); Paul Oliver (Editor); Peter Wicke (Editor); John Shepherd (Editor); David Horn (Editor)
ISBN: 9780826463210
Publication Date: 2003-01-30
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 1 provides an overview of media, industry, and technology and its relationship to popular music.
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Part 2 Performance and Production by Dave Laing (Editor); Paul Oliver (Editor); Peter Wicke (Editor); John Shepherd (Editor); David Horn (Editor)
ISBN: 9780826463227
Publication Date: 2003-07-08
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 2 covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels.

Cambridge Companions [via Cambridge Collections Online] This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: unlimited
Cambridge Companions [via Cambridge Collections Online] contains full text books and chapter extracts. It includes Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics; the Cambridge Companions in Philosophy, Religion and Culture; and the Companions in Music.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Includes the Harvard Dictionary of Music, the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, the Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, and more.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Contains the International Encyclopedia of Dance, Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the Oxford Companion to the American Musical, the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, and more.

Use reference books for additional background

Music Library and Research Skills by Jane Gottlieb
ISBN: 9780190267940
Publication Date: 2016-10-17
**Winner of the Music Library Association's Vincent Duckles Award for the best bibliography or research tool in music** Music Library and Research Skills, Second Edition, introduces the prime concepts of music research, helping students develop a firm understanding of the tools that provide information about music: what types of sources exist, how they are arranged, and how they may best be used to do research. Covering a wide range of music reference sources for research in all genres of music, the text is thorough, lively, and informative.
Popular Music by Roman Iwaschkin
ISBN: 9781138649729
Publication Date: 2016-04-04
This is a comprehensive guide to popular music literature, first published in 1986 and focusing on American and British citations.
Popular Music: the Key Concepts by Roy Shuker
ISBN: 9781138680920
Publication Date: 2017-03-22
Now in an updated fourth edition, this popular A-Z student handbook provides a comprehensive survey of key ideas and concepts in popular music culture. With new and expanded entries on genres and subgenres, the text comprehensively examines the social and cultural aspects of popular music, taking into account the digital music revolution and changes in the way that music is manufactured, marketed and delivered.
Ethnomusicology by Jennifer Post
ISBN: 9780415879774
Publication Date: 2011-06-22
Ethnomusicology: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography to books, recordings, videos, and websites in the field of ethnomusicology.
Music Reference and Research Materials by Vincent H. Duckles; Michael A. Keller; Ida Reed
ISBN: 9780028708218
Publication Date: 1997-07-25
This text has been the standard guide to source literature of music and contains critically annotated listings of over 3,500 key sources. This comprehensive guide to reference sources is organized into chapters by category of source. The text's organization introduces students to a vast array of sources to include: Dictionaries and Encyclopedias; Histories and Chronologies; Sources of Systematic and Historical Musicology; Bibliographies of Music, Music Literature, and Music Business; Reference Works on Individual Composers and Their Music; Catalogs of Libraries and Musical Instrument Collections; Discographies; Yearbooks; Directories; Electronic Resources.

Music Reference and Research Materials: An Annotated Bibliography, 4th ed.
A digital copy of the Duckles reference work (see above), you will need to create a free account with the Internet Archive to check out this book.

Musical Autographs from Monteverdi to Hindemith by Winternitz, Emanuel
Publication Date: 1965
2-volume anthology of autograph score facsimiles.

Musical Autographs from Monteverdi to Hindemith
This is a digital copy of volume 1 of the 1955 edition of Musical Autographs (see above) from the Internet Archive. No log-in required or borrowing limit.
Musical Autographs from Monteverdi to Hindemith
This is a digital copy of volume 2 of the 1955 edition of Musical Autographs (see above) from the Internet Archive. No log-in required or borrowing limit.