In this guide you'll find links to a number of reference books, databases, and other online music resources. Please feel free to get in touch with the music librarian, Cara Barker, if you need more assistance. You can also use the "Ask Us" chat box in the lower right corner to talk with a reference library right now.
Reference information (Dictionary/Encyclopedia)
Scores and Streaming Music
Article Databases
Streaming Film
Music 418 Naxos Playlists:
Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music
This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on major types of music, composers, key religious figures, specialized positions, genres of composition, technical terms, instruments, fundamental documents and sources, significant places, and important musical compositions.
Queering the Pitch by
When the first edition of Queering the Pitch was published in early 1994, it was immediately hailed as a landmark and defining work in the new field of Gay Musicology. In light of the explosion of Gay Musicology since 1994, a new edition of Queering the Pitch is timely and needed. In this new work, the editors are including a landmark essay by Philip Brett on Gay Musicology, its history and scope. The essay itself has become a cause celebre, and this will be its first full appearance in print. Along with this new historical essay, the editors are contributing a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred over the last decade as Gay Musicology has grown.
Women Composers of Classical Music by
As early as the 1500s, a surprising number of women have composed classical music. Many were successful, finding venues for both publishing and performing their music; others found the social barriers for women impossible to overcome. This book provides access to these composers, both well known and obscure. Arranged chronologically by era, the profiles are further divided into countries. For each female composer within a country, a brief biographical sketch is provided, as well as a description of her body of work. This text also includes an extensive timeline of operatic works by female composers.
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments by
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd edition, is the largest, most comprehensive reference publication on worldwide musical instruments. Thirty years ago, the three volumes of the first edition of the dictionary were produced to wide acclaim in the musical community. This secondedition reflects the last three decades' tremendous growth in scope and sophistication of the field of organology. At five volumes, it provides greatly expanded coverage, particularly of electronic and experimental instruments, history and techniques of instrument design and manufacture, issues ofpractical concern, the human body as instrument, and people whose work has shaped the modern understanding of instruments.The Dictionary aims to present basic information about the most important instruments worldwide and a broad, representative selection of lesser-known ones of particular significance. Along with instruments and their makers, it discusses subjects of related interest in order to provide a fullerpicture of the cultural role of instruments throughout. By addressing salient issues of contemporary organology (the systematic study of the history, design and technology, and functions of musical instruments of all times and places), the dictionary seeks also to map the directions in which thisfield is growing in the 21st century, and to encourage further investigation.The dictionary's articles are supplemented by over 600 images and 190 musical examples. An index, abbreviations lists, and list of contributors make navigation easy. With well-researched, informative articles by over 500 authors, including most of the top scholars in the field, The Grove Dictionaryof American Music will be accessible to scholars, academic specialists, and the general public.
The Grove Dictionary of American Music is a great reference source, but searching on their site isn't very straightforward. Below you'll find a screenshot of the main page of the dictionary to show where to search inside this specific book.
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