All Guides: Music: Getting Started

Getting Started

Welcome to the Music Research Guide!

This guide provides links to major music databases, books, images, streaming videos, music scores, and more. Scroll below to see resources to help you get started. Click on the tabs in the left navigation bar to see more in-depth and comprehensive resources.

Online Music Reference Collections

Oxford Music Online
Oxford Music Online is the access point for Grove Music Online and other Oxford music references including the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music and the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.
Classical Music Reference Library (Proquest)
The Classical Music Reference Library brings together a variety of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, which are available for the first time in electronic form.
African American Music Reference (Proquest)
African American Music Reference provides information and insight on the history and development of African American music. Information on performers, instruments, individual works, and significant events from genres as diverse as Negro Spirituals to Ragtime to Hip-Hop are included.

General Reference Books

Please browse the Reference shelves in the M-MT section for other valuable resources:

M = Music scores
ML = Music Literature (composer biographies, music history, essays, facsimiles, etc.)
MT = Music Instruction (theory, pedagogy, etc.)

To locate scores and sheet music, visit the 5th floor and browse the M shelves and the M Folio (oversize) shelves.

Oxford Music Online
Oxford Music Online is the access point for Grove Music Online and other Oxford music references including the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music and the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.

Ebook: Fundamentals, Function, and Form: Theory and Analysis
This free and open textbook "provides readers with a comprehensive study of the theory and analysis of tonal Western art music." There is a companion free workbook with exercises.

The Oxford Dictionary of Music by Tim Rutherford-Johnson; Michael Kennedy; Joyce Kennedy (Editor)
Call Number: Reference ML100 .K35 2012

ISBN: 9780199578108

Publication Date: 2012

For the sixth edition of this classic dictionary, the text has been thoroughly revised and updated. With over 10,000 entries, the Oxford Dictionary of Music offers broad coverage of a wide range of musical categories spanning many eras,including composers, librettists, singers, orchestras, important ballets and operas, and musical instruments and their history.
Online: Cambridge History of Music Collection
Scroll down the webpage to view the collection of Music & Theatre online histories. Online access includes The Cambridge Histories of: American Music, Musical Performance, Seventeenth-Century Music, Eighteenth-Century Music, Nineteenth-Century Music, Twentieth-Century Music, and Western Music Theory.
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments by Laurence Libin (Editor-In-Chief), et. al.
Call Number: Reference ML102.I5 N48 2014

ISBN: 9780199743391

Publication Date: 2014

The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd edition, is the largest, most comprehensive reference publication on musical instruments of the world yet produced.

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