Reference Sources
Reference sources help establish basic information, such as the definition of an unfamiliar music term or the dates of a composer's life. These are not generally considered scholarly sources (with the exception of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music) and do not necessarily need to be cited or quoted from in research papers or projects.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- Oxford Music OnlineOMO contains Grove Music Online, the most comprehensive English-language encyclopedia of music, the Encyclopedia of Popular Music Online, the Oxford Dictionary of Music, and Oxford Companion to Music. Contains biographies and works lists for composers, as well as subject entries on topics related to music, performance, history, instruments, extensive bibliographies, and more.
- Garland Encyclopedia of World Music OnlineThe electronic version of the 10-volume print work, this encyclopedia offers information on the music of cultures from all over the world, arranged geographically.
- Die Musik in Geschicthe und Gegenwart (MGG)Print only. Extensive German-language encyclopedia of music.
- Daniels' Orchestral Music OnlineDaniels' Orchestral Music Online is an online iteration of David Daniels' Orchestral Music: A Handbook, 4th edition, and contains records of over 6700 works from the orchestral repertoire, by more than 900 composers. Users can search for works by author, title, duration, and instrumentation, or key.
- IPA SourceIPA Source is a large collection of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcriptions and literal translations of art songs and arias originally in Latin, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
Texts and Translations for Vocal Music
- IPA SourceIPA Source is a large collection of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcriptions and literal translations of art songs and arias originally in Latin, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
- Naxos Music LibraryNaxos Music Library provides streaming audio of primarily classical music. Many of the recordings of operas and vocal recitals provide the full text (and sometimes translations) to the operas and songs recorded. These will be in the "booklet," which can be found on the left-hand side of the screen, under the cover art, if provided.
- Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL)The Choral Public Domain Library provides access to public domain choral scores. There are often translations of texts available with the scores.
- LiederNet ArchiveThe texts in this collection come from a variety of different sources including published scores, published poetry collections and books, CD booklets, and concert programs. Details about specific settings also come from bibliographies and catalogs, sometimes score unseen. Because composers sometimes make changes to the texts they set to music, LiederNet tries to show these changes in footnotes. Indication will also be made of where such comparisons have been performed or where they need to be performed.
- Art Song CentralArt Song Central is principally an archive and directory of free, printable public domain sheet music for singers and voice teachers. An emphasis is placed on standard classical and traditional repertoire. IPA transcriptions are now available for every German, French, Italian and Latin song in the index.
The series of opera translations and transcriptions by Nico Castel are the gold-standard in music scholarship. They provide background information on the works and word-by-word and poetic translations in addition to IPA transcriptions of authoritative editions of the texts of operas and art songs. You can find them in the Performing Arts Library reference section between ML 48 and ML 50.
Volumes include:
- French Opera Libretti
- German Miscellaneous Opera Libretti
- Italian Bel Canto Opera Libretti
- Italian Verismo Opera Libretti
- Libretti of Russian Operas
- Gluck and Monteverdi Opera Libretti
- Handel Opera Libretti
- The Libretti of Mozart's Completed Operas
- The Complete Puccini Opera Libretti
- Four Strauss Opera Libretti
- The Complete Verdi Libretti
- Three Wagner Opera Libretti
- Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelung
Research and Information Guides
Routledge has published a series of Research and Information Guides for Music, mostly around individual Genres, Instruments, and Composers. These guides provide excellent background information and describes important scholarship and perspectives for new research. Here are some examples:
Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide by
Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography emerging from more than twenty-five years of feminist scholarship on music. This book testifies to the great variety of subjects and approaches represented in over two decades of published writings on women, their work, and the important roles that feminist outlooks have played in formerly male-oriented academic scholarship or journalistic musings on women and music.
Call Number: Available ONLINEISBN: 1135848130Publication Date: 2012-07-26
String Quartets: A Research and Information Guide by
This research guide is an annotated bibliography of sources dealing with the string quartet. This second edition is organized as in the original publication (chapters for general references, histories, individual composers, aspects of performance, facsimiles and critical editions, and miscellaneous topics) and has been updated to cover research since publication of the first edition. Listings in the previous volume have been updated to reflect the burgeoning interest in this genre (social aspects, newly issued critical editions, doctoral dissertations). It also offers commentary on online links, databases, and references.
Call Number: Available ONLINEISBN: 9780415994170Publication Date: 2010-11-23
Claudio Monteverdi: A Research and Information Guide by
Claudio Monteverdi: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography that navigates the vast scholarly resources on the composer with the most updated compilation since 1989. Claudio Monteverdi transformed and mastered the principal genres of his day and his works influenced generations of musicians and other artists. He initiated one of the most important aesthetic debates of the era by proposing a new relationship between poetry and harmony. In addition to scholarship by musicologists and music theorists, Monteverdi's music has attracted attention from literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists. Research into Monteverdi and Renaissance and early baroque studies has expanded greatly, with the field becoming more complex as scholars address such issues as gender theory, feminist criticism, cultural theory, new criticism, new historicism, and artistic and popular cultures. The guide serves both as a foundational starting point and as a gateway for future inquiry in such fields as court culture, opera, patronage, and Italian poetry.
Call Number: Available ONLINEISBN: 0415837332Publication Date: 2018-01-25
