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Music Research Guide - Online Resources

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Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Grove Music Online: Grove Music Online is the most important and complete music encyclopedia. The web version includes the full text of three different encyclopedias: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition; 29 volumes), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes) and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (second edition; 3 volumes). It is an excellent source to start your research. You will find here biographies of composers, performers, musicologists, music ensembles, etc., including lists of works and bibliographies, as well as information on important music works, topics and theory concepts. Over 500 musical examples, in notation or in sound, are also available.
Jazz Discography Online (on-campus access only): Discography created and maintained by Tom Lord including 175,000 jazz recording sessions from 1896 to today. It can be searched by musician, leader, record label, song, recording date, instrument, nationality of musicians, etc.
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada: The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada aims to describe Canada's musical heritage and culture in all its breadth and depth: the past and present manifestations of popular, folk, religious, concert, and other forms of music, as well as the educational, critical, administrative, and commercial aspects of music in Canada. Includes more than 4,000 articles, photographs and audio and video clips, on composers, performers, ensembles, musicologists, educators, events, institutions, etc.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music: "[Provides] thousands of entries on musical terms, works, composers, librettists, musicians, singers, and orchestras, the dictionary's coverage is exceptional, giving comprehensive work-lists for major composers, detailed entries on living composers and performers, important ballets and operas, as well as descriptions of musical instruments and their histories."
The Oxford Companion to Music: "Includes articles that range from clear, concise definitions of musical ideas and terms to extended surveys of musical forms and styles, with specialist coverage of virtually every musical subject. It places music in its social and cultural context, with a range of new entries on topics such as politics, religion, psychology, and computers. The book covers current research in and approaches to music, including analysis, theory, ethnomusicology, and performance practice. All varieties of musical forms are convered, including jazz, popular music, and dance."
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera: Provides "plot synopses and first performance details, bibliographies of works about opera, entries on singers (including their debuts and career highlights, with notes on voice type, style, and reputation), definitions and discussions of technical terms and operatic styles, and surveys of the history of opera worldwide are all included in a reference work that provides an enormous amount of information."
Who's Who in Opera: "Containing over 2,500 operatic characters, this guide gives plot synopses for over 250 operas and operettas, and details full information on each operatic role, including its creator and notable performers."
Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary: Dictionary of music terms developed by the Virginia Tech Music Department. Each term is accompanied by an AIFF sound file for prononciation. Musical examples are also provided for some entries.

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Databases

Music Bibliographic Databases • Other Bibliographic Databases • Audio Databases

Music Bibliographic Databases

RILM - Abstracts of Music Literature: The first database to use to find articles about music. RILM is the most comprehensive music bibliographic database. It provides citation for international scholarly journals, magazines and newsletters articles, books, dissertations and thesis, reviews, festschriften, and conference proceedings dating from 1967 to the present day. It covers all genres and styles of music (e.g., classical, jazz, popular).
Canadian Music Periodicals Index (CMPI): Main source to find articles on musical activity in Canada. Indexes articles from more than 500 Canadian music journals, magazines and newsletters dating from the late 19th century to the present day. This database is maintained by Library and Archives Canada.
International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text: Major source to find articles on opera, ballet, and musical theatre. Provides indexing and abstracts of articles from around 230 international periodicals ranging from 1864 to the present, plus full text for 73 journals. In addition to the subjects mentioned above, it covers a wide range of other subjects in the performing arts.
Fake Book Index: Useful source to identify in which book(s) you can find the song you are looking for. Indexes over 60 mostly jazz-oriented fake books.
Doctoral Dissertation in Music Online: "International database of bibliographic records for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in the fields of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific, and humanistic disciplines."

The two following databases can be used to search several full-text music electronic journals simultaneously:

Project MUSE: Project MUSE provides access to important scholarly journals in arts, humanities and social sciences. Use the "Advanced Search" screen to limit your search to the 11 full-text music journals included in this database. To do so, select "All Muse Titles by Subject" in the "By Journal" drop-down menu, and then select "Music" in the list below.
JSTOR: JSTOR provides access to backfiles of important scholarly journals in many disciplines. Use the "Advanced Search" screen to limit your search to the backfiles of the 33 full-text music journals included in this database.

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Other Bibliographic Databases

CBCA Complete: Another useful source to find articles on musical activity in Canada, especially reviews of concerts held in Canada. Indexes over 600 Canadian newspapers, magazines and journals in all subject areas, from 1982 to the present, and includes the full text for over 150 periodicals starting in 1993.
Eureka.cc: Useful source to find articles on musical activity in Quebec, especially reviews of concerts held in Quebec. Offers full text access to several Quebec French newspapers and magazines, including La Presse, Le Devoir, Voir, and L'Actualité from as far back as 1985 for La Presse.
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO): Good source to begin a research or to search for articles on multidisciplinary topics. The largest multidisciplinary academic database, Academic Search Premier provides the full text for nearly 4,000 scholarly publications. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating from 1975.
ERIC: Excellent source to find articles on music education. Providing citations with abstracts to articles, reports and conference papers from 1966 to present, ERIC is the most important database in the field of education.

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Audio Databases

Classical Music Library: Provides access to a collection of over 35,000 tracks of recorded classical music in streaming audio from more than 32 labels, among which are EMI, CBC, and Hyperion. The music moves from medieval to contemporary, from choral works to symphonies, operas, and the avant-garde. Also includes a reference section with biographies, a glossary, images, and MIDI files.
The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings: Website devoted to 78-rpm and cylinder recordings released in Canada. Provides access to "images and digital audio recordings, as well as biographies of musicians and histories of music and recorded sound in Canada."
Bibliolthèque et Archives nationales du Québec: Collection numérique - Enregistrements sonores: Provides access to more than 2,000 pieces of music recorded in Quebec between 1900 and 1952.

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Scores

African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920: "Consists of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. The collection includes many songs from the heyday of antebellum black face minstrelsy in the 1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period."
Bibliolthèque et Archives nationales du Québec: Collection numérique - Livres et partitions musicales: "A collection of 1,500 Quebec music books and scores from the 19th and 20th centuries."
Chopin Early Edition: "Includes over 400 first and early printed editions of musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin, maintained in the Special Collections Research Center" of the University of Chicago Library.
Choral Public Domain Library: Wiki providing access to free choral scores. Also includes texts, transcription, translations, and information about composers.
Historic American Sheet Music: 1950-1920: "Presents 3,042 pieces of sheet music drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, which holds an important, representative, and comprehensive collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century American sheet music."
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library: "The Petrucci Music Library is an internet-based collaborative music score library, and is currently the main project. You will find tens of thousands of scores composed by thousands of composers here, all available for free download. "
Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music Collection: Contains over 29,000 pieces of music from the Special Collections at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of The Johns Hopkins University. It focuses on popular American music dating from 1780 through 1960.
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885: "Consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra."
Sheet Music from Canada's Past: "Features sheet music published before 1900, from 1900 to 1913 and from 1914 to 1920, selected from the historical collection of Library and Archives Canada."

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Directories and Portals

General • Classical & Contemporary • Jazz/Popular • Ethnic/World

Music - General

Worldwide Internet Music Resources: Directory of music resources developed and maintained by the William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University.
Internet Public Library: Music: Music section of a directory of high quality Internet resources selected by the staff of the Internet Public Library, a public service organization and learning/teaching environment maintained by the University of Michigan School of Information.
Intute: Music and the Performing Arts: Directory of Internet resources for education and research in music and the performing arts developed by staff based in the University of Oxford, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of the Arts London.
Music Associations in Canada: List of associations of music in Canada with links to their web sites.

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Classical and Contemporary Music

WWW Sites of Interest to Musicologists: Directory of classical music resources developed and maintained by the American Musicological Society.
Portail de la musique contemporaine en France: Research tool allowing people to search the institutional repositories of several institutions dedicated to contemporary music in France. Collections include scores, recordings, press kits, program notes, etc. Some of these documents are available online.

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Jazz/Popular Music

allmusic: Important music reference source on music recordings, also known as All Music Guide. It covers all genres and styles of music, with an emphasis on popular and jazz music. For each artist or album covered, allmusic provides information about the artist/album (e.g., title, tracks, genre, label, credits, release date), descriptive and editorial content (e.g., biographical information, reviews, style description), as well as relational content (e.g., similar artists, influences and followers).
Canadian Jazz Sites: Directory of Internet resources on jazz in Canada. Includes links to musicians, jazz festivals, magazines, radio and labels websites.
The Red Hot Jazz Archives: A History of Jazz before 1930: Rich reference source on the history of early jazz. Includes biographical information on artists, discographies, pictures and sound recordings files.
Jazz Corner: Jazz Sites: Important source of information on jazz musicians, including numerous contemporary artists.
100 Jazz Profiles: Important source of information on jazz musicians developed and maintained by BBC, Radio 3.
Rutgers University Library: Subject Research Guide: Jazz: Directory of Internet resources on jazz developed and maintained by the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.

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Ethic/World Music

Ethnomusicology, Folk Music, and World Music: Directory of resources in ethnomusicology developed and maintained by the Music Library & Listening Center, University of Washington.

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Canadian Music

Library and Archives Canada • Bibliothèque et Archives nationales • Periodicals • Other

Library and Archives Canada

Canadian Information By Subject: 780 Music: Directory of Internet Canadian music sources developed and maintained by Library and Archives Canada.
Canadian Music Periodicals Index (CMPI): Main source to find articles on musical activity in Canada. Indexes articles from more than 500 Canadian music journals, magazines and newsletters dating from the late 19th century to the present day. This database is maintained by Library and Archives Canada.
Disc-O-Logue: Created by Louise Lamothe, Disc-O-Logue was a catalogue of French-language popular music recordings available in Canada published between 1962 and 1979. It was acquired by the Naional Library of Canada in 1986 and is now available on the Web.
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada: The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada aims to describe Canada's musical heritage and culture in all its breadth and depth: the past and present manifestations of popular, folk, religious, concert, and other forms of music, as well as the educational, critical, administrative, and commercial aspects of music in Canada. Includes more than 4,000 articles, photographs and audio and video clips, on composers, performers, ensembles, musicologists, educators, events, institutions, etc.
The Glenn Gould Archive: Developed by Library and Archives Canada, this site is the official repository for the archives of Glenn Gould.
Sheet Music from Canada's Past: "Features sheet music published before 1900, from 1900 to 1913 and from 1914 to 1920, selected from the historical collection of Library and Archives Canada."
The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings: Website devoted to 78-rpm and cylinder recordings released in Canada. Provides access to "images and digital audio recordings, as well as biographies of musicians and histories of music and recorded sound in Canada."

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Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

Collection numérique - Enregistrements sonores: Provides access to more than 2,000 pieces of music recorded in Quebec between 1900 and 1952.
Collection numérique - Livres et partitions musicales: "A collection of 1,500 Quebec music books and scores from the 19th and 20th centuries."
Collection numérique - La Lyre: Full-text archives of Le Passe-temps, a perdiodical published semi-monthly in Montreal from 1895 to 1949.
Collection numérique - Le Passe-temps: Full-text archives of La Lyre, revues musicale et théâtrale, a monthly perdiodical published in Montreal from 1922 to 1931.

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Canadian Journals and Magazines

Canadian journal for traditional music: Peer-reviewed journal on Canadian and traditional music. Published annually by the Canadian Society for Traditional Music.
Canadian musician: Magazine on "prominent Canadian artists, the latest gear, technique and the business of music. Published bi-monthly, [it] features regular columns on Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion, Brass, Woodwinds, Vocal, MIDI, Business, Songwriting, Live Sound, Recording and On-Line Music."
Circuit: musiques contemporaines: French-language journal dedicated to North American contemporary music and published by Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal.
Opera Canada: English-language independant journal published in Toronto and dedicated to opera in Canada.
Recherche en éducation musicale: French-language journal dedicated to music education and published annually by the music department of the Université Laval.
La Scena Musicale: Free monthly Quebec magazine dedicated to the promotion of classical music. Published in English and French, it "contains a comprehensive calendar of concerts, compact disc reviews, interviews with musicians as well as feature articles on the local, national and international classical music scenes."

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Other Canadian Sources

Canadian Jazz Sites: Directory of Internet resources on jazz in Canada. Includes links to musicians, jazz festivals, magazines, radio and labels websites.
Canadian Music Centre (CMC): Holding the Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, the Canadian Music Centre mission is to promote the works of Canadian composers.
Centre de musique du Canada : Région du Québec: Quebec regional centre of the Canadian Music Centre.
Société québécoise de recherche en musique (SQRM): Based in the Music Department of UQAM, the SQRM is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to encourage the development, promotion, support, circulation and conservation of Quebec music.