Last revised: August 2009
Basic Music Reference Tools
Scope: This guide provides a selective list of basic tools for music reference. See other music guides listed at Music. Refer also to Online Resources for the Study of the Performing Arts [http://www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/resources.html].
Contact librarian Steve Henry (shenry@umd.edu or 301.405.9256) for more information.
Table of Contents
Bibliographies of Music Literature
- Brook, Barry S., and Richard Viano. Thematic catalogues in music: an annotated bibliography, 2nd ed. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1997.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.B86 1997
A comprehensive guide to thematic catalogs, many of which are not included in Duckles. - Crabtree, Phillip D., and Donald H. Foster. Sourcebook for research in music. 2nd ed., revised and expanded by Allen Scott. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.C68 2005
Intended for use in a graduate class in music bibliography and research. Includes only the basic music reference sources, but also covers general non-reference literature. Provides useful glossaries of music bibliographical terminology in English, French, and German. - Diamond, Harold J. Music analyses: an annotated guide to the literature. New York: Schirmer, 1991.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.D5
Provides the researcher with a one volume source for identifying analyses of specific works. Covers all historical periods. - Duckles, Vincent, and Ida Reed. Music reference and research materials: an annotated bibliography, 5th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1997.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.D83 1997
The standard bibliography of reference resources in music. Even though it purports to be a selective guide to the literature, there are 3,801 citations. Classified by type of reference tool (dictionaries and encyclopedias, histories and chronologies, guides to musicology, bibliographies of music literature, bibliographies of music, etc.). Includes a comprehensive index. - Foreman, Lewis, ed. Information sources in music. München: Saur, 2003.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.I55 2003
Literature review essays for a number of topics. See Catalog record for a list of contents. Takes the Internet into account. - Marco, Guy A., et al. Information on music: a handbook of reference sources in European languages. Littleton: Libraries Unlimited, 1975-.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.M33
An attempt to survey comprehensively music reference works in a variety of formats. Six volumes were planned, but the project seems to have been halted at three volumes (3,700 citations). - Steib, Murray, ed. Reader's guide to music: history, theory, criticism. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.R34 1999
Essays describing and comparing books in English on many musical topics and persons. - Wenk, Arthur. Analyses of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music: 1940-1984. Boston: Music Library Association, 1987. (MLA index and bibliography series, 25)
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.W45 1987
Index to published musical analyses of musical works from Beethoven to the 1980s.
Indexes and Abstracts
America: History and Life
LOCATION: UM LIBRARIES Research Port (1964 - )
One of the major sources for research on history for the United States and Canada. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books and dissertations.
Historical Abstracts
LOCATION: UM LIBRARIES Research Port (1954 - )
One of the major sources for research on history outside the United States and Canada. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books and dissertations.
- Music Index
LOCATIONS: UM LIBRARIES Research Port (1975 - ); Print Version: PA LIB REF ML118.M84 (1949 - )
An index of more than 800 international music periodicals, encompassing nearly all aspects of classical, popular, folk, and world music. Includes citations for articles, dissertations, obituaries, and reviews. Music Index is being retrospectively converted to an electronic database. For dates before 1975 you must use the print version. - RILM Music / Répertoire internationale de la litterature musique
LOCATIONS: UM LIBRARIES Research Port (1967 - ); Print Version: PA LIB REF ML1.I83 (1967 - )
An international bibliography of nearly 500,000 scholarly writings on music and related disciplines in 140 languages. RILM indexes articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, reviews and more. - RIPM / Répertoire international de la presse musicale
LOCATIONS: UM LIBRARIES Research Port (1817 – 1917); Print Version: PA LIB REF ML128.P24 (1817 – 1917) Search the title " Répertoire international de la presse musicale" in the catalog for exact locations.
Provides access to more than 425,000 annotated citations from sixty-seven 19th and early 20th-century music periodicals published in thirteen European countries, Russia, and the United States. Indexes articles, commentary, illustrations, and reviews in their original language.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- Baker, Theodore. Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians. Centennial ed. Nicolas Slonimsky, editor emeritus. Enl. ed. of the 8th ed. 6 vols. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML105 .B16 2001
ONLINE: Through Research Port as part of Classical Music Reference Library
The standard biographical dictionary of music. Primarily covers figures from the western classical tradition and includes composers, performers, and scholars. Witty, engaging, lively writing. - Blume, Friedrich. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopedie der Musik. In two multi-volume parts: Subjects (10 volumes) and Biographies (17 volumes) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1994-2007.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML100.M92 1994
This standard German language music encyclopedia, often called simply 'MGG,' is a reference work of the highest scholarly quality. Available only in German but still useful even for those with a rudimentary command of the language. Some illustrations are in color. The MGG English language Website [http://www.mgg-online.com/english/E_index.htm] is a useful introduction to this work. - Dolmetsch Online Music Dictionary [http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheorydefs.htm]
A free, authoritative source for quick definitions of musical terms. - The encyclopedia of music in Canada, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML106.C36E52 1992
A splendid one-volume encyclopedic dictionary of all aspects of music in Canada. Includes articles on repertories, musical figures, and cultural groups. Also available online (Encyclopedia of Music in Canada [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/emc/index-e.html]). - The Garland encyclopedia of world music. 10 vols. New York: Garland 1998-.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML100.G16 1998
ONLINE: Through Research Port as Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
Intended to be a comprehensive English language source for information about world music and the field of ethnomusicology. Organized by geographical location. Volume 10 covers general perspectives and reference tools for world music. - Larkin, Colin. The encyclopedia of popular music, 3rd edition. 8 vols. New York: Muze, 1998.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML102.P66G84 1998
A substantial, comprehensive reference to popular music. Since the first edition, published in 1992, this work has doubled in size. - Marcuse, Sibyl. Musical instruments: a comprehensive dictionary. New York: Norton, 1975.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML102.I5M37 1975
A handy one-volume dictionary of musical instrument names. Excellent descriptions of the instruments, but no pictures. Cross-cultural in coverage with cross references to different names of the same instruments. - Randel, Don, ed. The Harvard dictionary of music. 4th ed. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2003
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML100.H37 2003
The latest edition of the most widely-used one-volume English language dictionary of music. Exhaustive coverage of the western classical tradition and basic coverage of world music, but little coverage of popular idioms. No biographies of musicians and composers. - Randel, Don, ed. The Harvard biographical dictionary of music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER ML105.H38 1996
A dictionary of short biographical sketches of composers and musicians. Covers primarily figures in the western classical tradition, but includes popular and jazz figures as well. - Sadie, Stanley, ed. The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. 2nd ed. 29 vols. NY: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 2001.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML100.G887
ONLINE: Through Research Port as part of Oxford Music Online
The most important English-language encyclopedia. The online version contains the full text of the 2nd edition as well as the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. There a number of offshoots to the print version that may be of interest to those studying a particular genre or aspect of music: The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 4 vols.; The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 4 vols.; The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 3 vols.; The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols.; and The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (in US, The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers).
- Thompson, Oscar. The international cyclopedia of music and musicians, 10th ed. New York: Dodd and Mead, 1975.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML100.T47 1975 Folio
An older resource, but still very useful for identifying musicians and composers of earlier ages who may have dropped out of the repertory.
Discographies and Sources Related to Recorded Sound
- Allmusic.com is a popular commercial site for information about recordings.
- Bielefelder klassik katalog (Germany, 1979 - present)
- R.E.D. classical catalogue (U.K., 1997 - present)
- Schwann opus (U.S.A., 1992 - 2000)
- Schwann spectrum (U.S.A., 1992 - 1999)
- Clough, Francis F., and Geoffrey J. Cuming. The world's encyclopedia of recorded music. London, 1952 + 2 suppls.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML156.2.C6 1970
An historical discographical survey of all classical sound recordings through the 1950s. Referred to as WERM (pronounced "worm") by aficionados. Arranged alphabetically by composer. - Marco, Guy A. Encyclopedia of recorded sound in the United States. New York: Garland, 1993.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML102.S67E5 1993
A dictionary of terms, names, and companies associated with the history of recording in America. - Rust, Brian. Brian Rust's guide to discography. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML111.5.R87
A guide to the art and science of discography. Includes information about the purposes, functions, and creation of discographies, a brief history of the field, a discussion of the types of discographies, information about record labels and where to find the right information for creating accurate discographies. Includes a bibliography, a glossary, and information about organizations and journals.
The above are national attempts to list commercial recordings currently in print. The most recent issues are located in the Current Periodical section of the Performing Arts Library
Bibliographies of Music and Catalogs of Music Collections
- The British Library music collections [http://www.bl.uk/collections/music.html]
- Charles, Sydney Robinson. A handbook of music and music literature in sets and series. NY: Schirmer, 1972.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.C45
A bibliography of and index to continuations in the field of music. Includes both printed music and literature about music. - New York Public Library Music Division Collections. [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/mus/mus.majcoll.html]
Or search CATNYP, the NYPL online catalog. - Fuld, James J. The book of world famous music: classical, popular, and folk, 4th. ed. New York: Dover, 1995.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.F8 1995
One of the finest bibliographies of music ever created despite its commonplace title. Traces the publication history of well known works. - Heyer, Anna Harriett. Historical sets, collected editions, and monuments of music, 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1980.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.H52 1980
Often it is difficult to locate individual works in historical sets, collected works of composers, and national monuments. Both Charles and Heyer will help you with this. The composer work lists in The New Grove are also usually good for identifying pieces in collected editions. - Hill, George, and Norris Stephens. Collected editions, historical series & sets, & monuments of music: a bibliography. Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press, 1997. (Fallen Leaf reference books in music, 14)
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.H55 1997
Continuing in the tradition of Heyer, this new edition is a reworking and updating of the older edition. The electronic index has been promised for some time now, and the bibliography is essentially useless without it. Therefore, it is especially important to keep the older Heyer within reach. - Popular music, 1920-1979: a revised cumulation, 3 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML120.U5S5/.U5S5 1985/.U5S51
A bibliography of popular songs including composer, lyricist, publisher, date, and recording history. Supplemented by various volumes; coverage now extends from 1900 - mid 1990s.
Miscellaneous Tools
- Berkowitz, Freda Pastor. Popular titles and subtitles of musical compositions. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1975.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML113.B39 1975
This is the source to use when you know the piece in question is called the Beethoven Eroica symphony, but not that the actual title is Symphony no. 3 in E-flat major, opus 55. - Barlow, Harold, and Sam Morgenstern. A dictionary of musical themes, rev. ed. New York: Crown, 1975.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML128.I65B3 1975
- Barlow, Harold, and Sam Morgenstern. A dictionary of opera and song themes, rev. ed. New York: Crown, 1976.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML128.V7B3 1976
What do you do when you know a tune but don't know what it is? The above two sources provide indexes to the primary melodic themes of the standard instrumental and vocal literature. Each item provides a musical incipit. The incipits are indexed and may be identified by reproducing the tune. With the Parsons book, can answer 90% of those types of questions. - Musical America international directory of the performing arts.
LOCATION: PA LIB RDYREF (Latest edition in RDYREF; earlier editions in STKS)
CALL NUMBER: ML12.M88 Folio
An important trade publication providing basic information on the business of music. Includes names and addresses of artists, symphony orchestras, opera, theater, and ballet companies, etc. International coverage. - Parsons, Denys. The directory of tunes and musical themes. Cambridge: Spencer Brown, 1975.
LOCATION: PA LIB REF
CALL NUMBER: ML128.I65P33
Popularly know as "The Up-Down Book" it works as a tune identifier by indexing melodic contour. Includes both classical works and popular songs, but nothing from the last 25 years. Covers materials found in Fuld.
