LibGuides: Music: Home

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Music Call Numbers

ULRICHSWEB: Global Serials Directory This link opens in a new window

Featured Databases

A-R Online Music Anthology This link opens in a new window ARMA is an extensive collection of music and articles designed expressly for music history and theory courses. There are more than 600 pieces of music (over 7,000 pages) from antiquity through the romantic era.
Digital Concert Hall This link opens in a new window Historical and current video performances of the Berlin Philharmonic. Set up your free account when using a library computer or the VPN. You can use it off campus afterwards but will need to re-authenticate on the VPN every 30 days to keep your account affiliated with CMU.
DRAM This link opens in a new window DRAM Contains American music represented by the New World Records and CRI label(s), which merged in 2007. From folk to opera, Native American to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic and beyond, New World has served composers, artists,students and the general public since its inception in 1975 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. DRAM also includes more than 4,000 albums' worth of recordings from a distinctive set of 42 independent labels and archives with new content being continuously added.
electrothèque This link opens in a new window The electrothèque web app allows you to listen to selected works culled from the empreintes DIGITALes catalogue and its composers. Founded in 1990, empreintes DIGITALes is considered the reference label in electroacoustics, acousmatics and musique concrète. electrothèque is accessible on mobile devices (iOS, Android, etc.), tablets, on laptops as well as good old desktop computers. The music featured on this site is available for online streaming purposes only. Downloading or saving are not allowed.
IPA Source This link opens in a new window IPA Source is the web's largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts.
Medici.tv This link opens in a new window Offers filmed concerts performed by today's greatest names in classical music, archive movies, inspiring documentaries on performers and composers, educational programs, and master classes.
Met Opera on Demand This link opens in a new window Provides unlimited access to more than 450 extraordinary Met performances.
Musical America This link opens in a new window The business source for the performing arts.
Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century This link opens in a new window A collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements.
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window Streaming recordings for genres such as Classical, Jazz, Blues, Nostalgia, World, Contemporary Instrumental, Chinese, Pop and Rock, Gospel, Spoken Word, and Relaxation. iPhone and Android apps available.
nkoda Digital Sheet Music App This link opens in a new window nkoda is a sheet music subscription service that can be accessed via app on your phone, tablet, or desktop giving you direct and unlimited access to the publishers’ catalogues in app. They are partnered with over 100 publishers but some of the big ones are Barenreiter, Boosey & Hawkes, Chester, Faber Music, Novello, and Ricordi. Features include: mark-up tools, sharing of scores and playlists, uploading PDF formatted files, store and access offline, and hands-free page turner. Explore their eclectic collection of instrumental and vocal music - from Mozart, Brahms, and Stravinsky to Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Scores are not downloadable.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window Includes The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002), The Oxford Companion to Music (2002) and The Oxford Dictionary of Music (2006).
Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new window The largest database of music journalism online containing over 40,000 articles, interviews, and reviews on acts from ABBA to Zappa. The archive draws on numerous publications from Creem and Trouser Press to Rolling Stone, and from New Musical Express and Melody Maker to MOJO. It is fully searchable by artist, genre, writer or keyword (allowing search by album or single title, date etc.). Rock’s Backpages also features a library of over 600 audio interviews.

Technology Lending

Microphones, recorders, projector/screen, cameras
(IDeATe lending office, Hunt Library, Level A)

AirTurn Wireless foot pedals, headphones, iPads, chargers
(Hunt Library, 1st floor)

New Music News (free)

I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is an award-winning multimedia hub for living music creators.

Newer Databases

BabelScores This link opens in a new window Contains over 210,000 pages of contemporary music online by the most creative, original and innovative composers of the past few decades offering a wide catalogue and setting up a powerful circulation platform addressed to instrumentalists, ensembles, orchestras, composers, musicologists, conservatories, universities and festivals throughout the world.
Bloomsbury Popular Music This link opens in a new window Content includes: Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World; 170 volumes of the widely acclaimed 33 1/3 and 33 1/3 Global book series, providing in depth analysis of influential albums across diverse musical eras, by artists ranging from Caetano Veloso to Public Enemy; an expanding range of scholarly books from Bloomsbury’s popular music studies list, comprising edited volumes, biographies, and historical overviews; an illustrated Timeline of Popular Music back to 1900; an interactive World Map enables users to navigate to books and articles covering a particular country or region that is most relevant to their work; and artist pages including curated related content, and biographical information on hundreds of artists and musicians.
Diction Police This link opens in a new window Provides singers with a comprehensive set of tools for the study and application of lyric diction. Includes phonetic (IPA) transcriptions; translations in English, French, German; text readings by native speakers who are opera coaches or singers; video tutorials and lessons; podcast; and full review courses.
IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library This link opens in a new window International Music Score Library Project. Strives to comply with Canadian copyright laws. Incorporates the former Werner Icking Music Archive. Eliminated wait time for downloading PDFs.
Principal Chairs (Flute) This link opens in a new window Principal Chairs (Flute) is an exciting new online resource for the study of orchestral repertoire – an online excerpt book with fantastic extras! They provide free sheet music and orchestral audio recordings (thanks to Naxos) of the most prominent and important solos in the repertoire along with educational, informative and inspiring pre-recorded video lessons by leading international orchestral artists.

Explore what isn't in Google

CMU Library Catalog

Worldcat (FirstSearch interface through University Libraries)
Note that results may differ between this interface and the free version below. I find the FirstSearch interface results to be more comprehensive, but feel free to search both and use what works best for you.

Worldcat.org (free version)

Oxford Music Online (includes Grove Music Online)

Oxford Art Online
If your topic crosses over into art you may want to search Oxford Art Online as well. I noticed there is an article for John Cage in both Oxford Art and Oxford Music. The content differs enough that depending on your focus one might be better than the other for your topic. There is also an article on 'music and art' in Oxford Art but there isn't a comparable article in Oxford Music. There is an article in Oxford Music for Impressionism that could be useful if you're more interested in composers who contributed to that movement.

Music Index with Full Text
Citations and some full text of articles about classical and popular music, musicians, and the music industry for more than 475 periodicals, as well as book reviews, obituaries, news, and selective coverage for more than 230 periodicals. Covers 1970-present.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
A comprehensive bibliography on writings about music featuring citations, abstracts, and indexes. It covers over one million publications from around the world on traditional music, popular music, classical music, and related subjects. Coverage begins in the early 19th century and extends to the present.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Articles in important academic journals from all disciplines (latest few years not available); also eBooks from leading academic publishers, as well as some images.

ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Mega-database that searches many interdisciplinary databases together - journals, newspapers, and magazines. Includes Historical NYT and Dissertations & Theses. Good database to search for current music topics, performance reviews past and present, and music education articles.

Hunt Library - Request Books/Music and Scans

Video: How to Request CMU Books for Pickup

Video: How to Request Digital Scans of Print Items

Writing & Citing Your Sources

Writing Help

Student Academic Success Center

Citing Your Sources

APA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue OWL)
Chicago Manual of Style
A Guide for Music Citation - Chicago/Turabian Style (Indiana University Libraries)
MLA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue OWL)
MLA Handbook FAQs

Unlocking the Digital Age: The Musician's Guide to Research, Copyright, and Publishing (2024) by Kathleen DeLaurenti and Andrea I. Copland. Kathleen DeLaurenti is a CMU School of Music alum.

Research Your Topic

Background Information

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Grove Music Online

Oxford Art Online

African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window Resources that chronicle the history and culture of the African American experience through music.
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window Comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with precise search and browse capabilities. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
Includes Africana, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present, Black Women in America, Second Edition, African American National Biography
Dictionary of African Biography, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Harvard Dictionary of Music & Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music

Music Online: Classical Music Reference Library Brings together essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music.
MusicSack
free database that leads you to sources of biographical information. Sometimes not available. Check back.

Music Manuscripts

RISM: The online catalog contains over 1,500,000 entries, mainly sources from between the years 1600 and 1850. They also have printed music up to 1945 (e.g. music by Florence Price and William Grant Still). They have manuscripts from all time periods and are adding more 19th and 20th century sources. You can also browse by country/nationality.

Bibliographies & Handbooks

Browse the ML134 STACKS-4 section in Hunt Library

Try an Advanced Search with the term bibliography as a Subject and the composer's name or topic (e.g. chamber music) in All Fields

History of Music

The Black Music History Library This is a living collection of books, articles, documentaries, series, podcasts and more about the Black origins of traditional and popular music dating from the 18th century to present day. Resources are organized chronologically and by genre for ease of browsing.
Black Opera Research Network BORN wishes to serve as a platform for conversations on the history, experiences, politics, and practices of Black opera.
Oxford History of Music Online (Richard Taruskin)
Music History Textbooks (in Hunt Library)

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
click on Resources then Musicology

World History

Music Chronologies

Browse these titles in the Arts Reference area (4th floor of Hunt Library)

Library Catalogs

WorldCat This link opens in a new window

Journal Articles

JSTOR This link opens in a new window fulltext articles online (only 53 music titles so be sure to search Music Index and RILM Music Abstracts as well since JSTOR is only current up to 2-5 years ago)
Music Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window citations for scholarly and popular music titles. Online 1970-present. In print 1949-1970 in Fine Arts Reference, ML118 .M84 VOL. 1
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window (Repertoire International de Litterature Musicale): citations and abstracts for scholarly articles, book chapters, dissertations and theses, articles in Festschriften, and congress reports. More selective in content than Music Index
Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century This link opens in a new window A collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
ERIC: Education Resources Information Center (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window Central resource for articles and documents on all aspects of education. Contains citations, abstracts, and some full text. Database Guide
MEDLINE. In FirstSearch. This link opens in a new window Biomedical journal citations and abstracts created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine with links to CMU holdings and interlibrary loan request form.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Current humanities and social science journals from a variety of university presses.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window Mega-database that searches many interdisciplinary databases together - journals, newspapers, magazines; also industry reports.

ProQuest Dissertations

PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window 1894-present.The full text of nearly 80 journals from the American Psychological Association as well as its imprint, the Educational Publishing Foundation (EPF), and from allied organizations including the Canadian Psychological Association and the Hogrefe Publishing Group. It includes all journal articles, book reviews, letters to the editor and errata from each journal.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window 1887-present. American Psychological Association's renowned resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, it is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. Database Guide. Also see definitions of methodologies.
PubMed This link opens in a new window Biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window index for scholarly articles in the Arts & Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. A good database to find out how many times an article has been cited and find other relevant articles to your topic. Google Scholar may work better for the Arts.

Music Analysis

Diamond, Harold J. Music Analyses: An Annotated Guide to the Literature
FA-REF4 ML128 .A7 D5 1991 (Reference Book, Hunt Library 4th flloor)

Hoek, D.J. Analyses of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music, 1940-2000
FA-REF4 ML113 .N695 2007 (Reference Book, Hunt Library 4th flloor)

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Go to Resources on the navigation bar within Naxos and click on Work Analyses

Music Careers

Musical America This link opens in a new window The business source for the performing arts.

Career & Professional Development Center
Drama & Music Consultant: Anne Marie DeGeorge

Copyright

Music Collection

Music materials are located on the 4th floor of Hunt Library. There are approximately 18,000 music books, 20,000 music scores, 13,000 LPs, 9,700 CDs, and 80 journal titles.

Music Librarian

Kristin Heath

Contact:

Hunt Library

4th Floor, Room 410C

412-268-7267

Subjects: Music