Music

Writing Guides

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:45:36 -0700

Writing About Music: A Style Book for Reports and Theses, by D. Irvine. ML3797 .I79 1968 Part 1, Style in the typescript, discusses specific details of typography and documentation, such as footnotes, bibliography, and illustrative material. Part 2 deals with writing skills and literary style in general and as they pertain to the discussion of musical topics.
Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide, by R. Wingell. ML3797 .W54 1997. Designed as a guide for undergraduate music majors, this brief but helpful book covers the writing of research papers, program notes, concert reports, and other types of writing about music. It provides guidance in the research process and writing effective prose.

Music at OSU

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:14:46 -0700

Library resources for music at OSU are in two locations on campus:

1. The Valley Library contains:

collected works of selected composers
"monuments" and other collections of music
limited collection of full and miniature scores
reference books in music, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies
books about music and musicians
music journals and indexes to aid in their use
a NEW collection of classical music CDs and DVDs that circulate

2. The Music Resource Center in Benton Hall (part of the Music Department) contains:

900+ music CD's (primarily classical, choral, jazz) (do not circulate - listen in MRC)
4,800+ full and miniature scores (may check out for 3 weeks)

Phone number for the MRC is 737-3634; hours are 8 am - 6 pm during the term.

Recordings

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:21:18 -0800

The Music Resource Center in Benton Hall contains 900+ music CDs that do not circulate (listen in the MRC). These are NOT in the OSU Libraries catalog.

The Valley Library has recently started to collect CD and DVD recordings of classical music and opera that can be checked out. It is still a small collection, but it is fully cataloged and included in the OSU Libraries catalog. Click on the "Audio & Video" button when you do your search there.

Another option for finding recordings in the library is to browse or search the collection on the web page under Find It -> Find Other Materials -> Audio & Video -> Multimedia Listing. (Here is a direct link) You cannot browse the physical collection; you must request the item using its call number from the Circulation Desk.

Another alternative is the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. Anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in the Benton County Library District may get a free library card. Also available from CBCPL is the Classical Music Library database with recordings that include music written from the earliest times (eg Gregorian Chant) to the present. You can access this with your library card number and stream the recording to your computer.

Music Reference - Online

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:32:52 -0700

Music Reference - Print

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:55:38 -0700

Dictionaries & thesauri

The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. ML101 .U6 N48 1986b
New Harvard Dictionary of Music. ML100 .N485 1986. Contains definitions of musical terms used in performance, history , and criticism of music. Emphasizes Western art music, but with some coverage of non-Western music, popular music, and instruments of all cultures.
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. ML102.6 .N5 1992. Comprehensive 4-volume dictionary of opera from its beginnings in about 1600 to the present.
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. ML102 .J3 N48 1988.
The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. ML102 .I5 N48. Comprehensive coverage of classical and modern Western, non-Western, and folk or traditional musical instruments, performance practice, and instrument makers.

Encyclopedias

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. ML100 .G16 1998. Multi-volume encyclopedia accompanied by CDs housed at Circulation Desk.
International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. ML100 .T4 1975. One-volume encyclopedia, with strong emphasis on American music and musicians.
The library also has specialized encyclopedias covering folk, popular, country, jazz, rock, and musical theater.

Handbooks & directories

The Definitive Kobbe's Opera Book. MT95 .K52 1987 The most complete one-volume guide to opera plots.
The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. ML102 .P66 G35 1991. Covers approximately 1850 - 1985, with emphasis on the English-speaking world.

Biographical information

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. ML105 .B16 1992. Brief biographies of musicians, with lists of their works and works about them.
Music Index ML118 .M84 and other periodical indexes.

Bibliographies

Collected Editions, Historical Series & Sets, & Monuments of Music: a Bibliography, by George R. Hill and Norris L. Stephens. 1997. ML113 .H55 1997. Comprehensive bibliography of collections of music and individual composers' collected editions.

Indexes

SongCite: An Index to Popular Songs. by William D. Goodfellow. ML128 .P63 G65 1995. Indexes 7000 songs in 248 collections.
Songs in Collections: An Index, by D. DeCharms and P. Breed. ML128 .S3 D4. Indexes 411 collections of art songs and operatic arias published between 1940 and 1957.
Popular Song Index, by P. Havlice. ML128 .S3 H4 1975 and supps., 1978-89. Preface states that "the purpose of this volume is to provide a tool for finding words and music to folk songs, pop tunes, spirituals, hymns, children's songs, sea chanteys and blues."
Music Index ML118 .M84 1949-present.
Author and subject index to journals representing various aspects of the music field. Library subscribes to annual volumes in print format.
Humanities Index
AI3 .H8 1966-91 - Indexes some major music journals. Library also has its predecessors, Social Science & Humanities Index - AI3 .I6 1965-74 and International Index to Periodicals AI3 .I6 1907-65.
Historical Sets, Collected Editions and Monuments of Music: A Guide to Their Contents, ed. by Heyer. ML113 .H52 1980.

Music Databases

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:09:28 -0700

Free Music Databases

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:07:15 -0700

You don't need to be at OSU to access the following:

The Aria database http://www.aria-database.com/
Offers a main index and browse features. Also searchable by aria, composer, opera, role, range, language, voice parts, and accompanying materials, if available (e.g., translations, MIDIs). Entries also include the dramatic setting of the aria, synopsis, sound files if available, aria text, a link to Amazon.com to locate recordings of operas, and a link suggesting sources for obtaining the score. Most of the operas included in this database are mainstream.
Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature http://www.music.indiana.edu/chmtl/
Combines electronic access to several databases of interest including Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology-Online (http://www.music.indiana.edu/ddm/index.html), and Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (http://www.music.indiana.edu/tml/start.html), a comprehensive database of music theory treatises.
Institute for Music Research http://imr.utsa.edu/
Includes CAIRSS (Computer-Assisted Information Retrieval Service System) for Music, a bibliographic database of music research literature in music education, music psychology, music therapy, and music medicine.
ACE http://ascap.com/ace/ace.html
One service on the ASCAP site is ACE, a database of song titles licensed by ASCAP in the United States. For each title, you can find the names of the songwriters and the names, contact persons, addresses and, in most cases, phone numbers of publishers to contact if you want to use the work. For most of the titles, you'll find some of the artists who have made a commercial recording.
Classical Music Search http://la.znet.com/~iwamura/page2.html
You'll need speakers and a sound card for this one. When you know a melody and you don't know its title or composer, this melody search engine can help. Using a "keyboard" on the search page, you click the keys to enter a melody (playback lets you hear what you entered). Key is unimportant; the database automatically transposes. The database then searches for the name of the composition and the composer, providing midi files to listen to so that you may make sure you've found the right piece. The database includes more than 1500 classical music melodies, covering many of the famous works of the past three hundred years.

Music Articles in Journals

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:25:28 -0800

If you are looking for articles on a topic and do not know which journals they may be contained in, please use a periodical database to search for them. (See section on Music Databases)

If you already know the title of the journal you want, or want to browse what journals are available, they are cataloged in the OSU Libraries Catalog. They can be searched by the name of the periodical or found by searching using a broad subject search, such as Music - Periodicals.

There are a variety of electronic journals about music available by library subscription or full-text within various databases. They can be found in two ways: through their OSU Libraries Catalog records, or from the complete E-Journals list linked on the Libraries' home page.

Finding Books and Scores

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:20:53 -0800

Books: Books are listed in the OSU Libraries Catalog by author, title, and subject. The Library of Congress Subject Headings books (located at the Reference Desk) can aid you in selecting the appropriate subject heading.

Scores: Since both The Valley Library and the Music Resource Center at Benton Hall have score collections, look both places and ask for assistance if necessary to determine if a desired composition is located in either collection. Individual scores in the Library are listed in the OSU Libraries Catalog with the composer as author, and sometimes by distinctive title, if there is one.

Scores are also listed under their form, such as Harpsichord music or Symphonies - Scores.For works of music issued in parts of collections, see books listed in the Music Research Guide under the heading Indexes to Music.

To locate and request scores from other libraries, use the new Summit catalog. With one search, the new catalog presents results from the collections of regional academic library catalogs (indicated by the heading Held by: Summit), followed by results from libraries around the world (Held by: WorldCat Libraries). If OSU does not own the item you may request it through Summit. If it is not in Summit, request through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Summit requests generally arrive within 3 working days; ILL often takes longer, so use Summit first.

Music Copyright

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:19:37 -0700

Music Library Association. A Guide to Copyright for Music Librarians.
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/mla/
A Comprehensive guide to information on copyright law for music and recordings.
Worldwide Internet Music Resources: Copyright.
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/copy.html
Extensive list of copyright sites linked from the Indiana University School of Music's Worldwide Internet Music Resources list.
PDInfo: Public domain music
http://www.pdinfo.com
The Web home of the Public Domain Information Project. Stated mission is to teach "how to understand and fully respect legal copyright protection," and offer music that is in the public domain. Provides users with information on how to identify published music in the public domain, and how to confirm a particular work's public domain status. Extremely useful for performers and music arrangers, and anyone else who seeks royalty-free music.
ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Performers) http://ascap.com The American Society of Composers, Authors and Performers is a membership trade association of over 145,000 U.S. composers, songwriters and publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. ASCAP's licensees encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly. The Society makes giving and obtaining permission to perform music simple for both creators and users of music.

Lyrics and Translations

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:53:21 -0700

Word by Word Translations of Songs and Arias. ML54.6 .W65. Contains texts of well-known art songs and arias with English translations. v. 1, German and French; v. 2, Italian.
Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder; the original texts of over seven hundred and fifty songs. Included English translations. PT1160 .E6 F5 1977.
Ring of Words: an anthology of song texts, by Philip L. Miller. Includes German, French, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, and Spanish. ML54.6.M5 R5 1963
Song Lyrics; Libretti (Worldwide Internet Music Resources)
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/songlyr.html
Yahoo! Entertainment: Music Lyrics
http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Lyrics/

Classical Music Directories

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:07:57 -0700

DW3 Classical Music Resources - Duke University http://www.lib.duke.edu/music/resources/classical_index.html
Bills itself as the "World's most comprehensive collection of classical music links." Contains accurate, scholarly biographical and historical data on all musicological periods, with a strong search engine.
Classical Music Navigator http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/music/index2.htm
Organized for the user to find familiar composers and classical types of music. There are five subjects to choose from: Composers, Basic Library of Notable Works, Geographical Roster, Index of Forms and Styles of Music, and Glossary. An excellent site for students.
Classical net http://www.classical.net
Covers all aspects of classical music through a network of commercial and noncommercial links. Included under general classical are genres and singers, composers, performers, period links, geographical guides to instrumental music, and FAQs. Navigation is easy and direct.

Show Music Directories

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:09:10 -0700

Musicals.Net http://musicals.net
The idea behind this non-commercial website is "To provide the on-line community of musical theatre lovers a place to 'meet' other people, to share information about the shows that they love, and to learn about shows they may come to love!" Generally, the shows that are represented on Musicals.Net tend to be popular Broadway musicals. Links, lyrics, song lists, synopsis, and forums for discussion of particular shows are some of the elements that are available for each show.
Musical Heaven, celebrating the musicals of yesterday and today http://www.musicalheaven.com/
This site showcases various classes of musical shows including Opera, Movie Musicals, Broadway Musicals, Off-Broadway Musicals & London's West End. Musicals can be browsed by title or subject (General, Classic Musicals, Contemporary Musicals, Revivals), or there is a pretty good site search engine available. There are also links to reviews and fully licensed MIDI files, licensing agents for the shows in case your local theater company wishes to perform one, and a "Musical Mart" where you can find links to purchase recordings, music and other merchandise relating to the musical theater.
Internet Broadway database http://www.ibdb.com/default.asp
This site is useful for music researchers looking for lists of songs that were performed in the original runs of Broadway musicals. The IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre to the present. Created by the Research Department of League of American Theatres and Producers, the national trade association for Broadway, IBDB provides a comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all "title page" information about each production. Information is derived primarily from theatre programs (in most cases from a production's opening night). Supplemental information is taken from newspaper and magazine reports, theatrical text books, interviews with theatre professionals, and League archives. Easily searchable, the IBDB prides itself on its accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Research Directories

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:10:01 -0700

Internet resources for music scholars - Edna Kuhn Loeb Music Library of the Harvard College Library http://hcl.harvard.edu/loebmusic/online-ir-intro.html
Links to more than 300 scholarly music resources on the Internet. The format is simple: an index page leads to eight other pages, each for a single topic, e.g., scholarly societies, journals, databases, publishers.
Worldwide Internet Music Resources - William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University School of Music http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/
Subject directory to Internet resources developed by musical organizations and individuals. Organization is by genres of performers, composers, compositions, and music-related organizations. Other resources include links to publishers, copyright, reviews, and music software; extensive alphabetical listing of both mainstream and specialized publications; and a searchable database of composers, manuscripts, and repertoire. A combinations of popular and scholarly resources.
Jewish Music Webcenter http://www.jmwc.org/
Lists of organizations, societies, conferences, institutions for studying Jewish music, and online biographies. Research assistance is provided by the article Starting Research in Jewish Music by Judith Shira Pinnolis. Also includes web resources and links to performers, performances, festivals, and reviews of Web sites, CDs, and books.

Subject Directories

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:58:57 -0700

These websites, also known as "pathfinders," contain links to other internet sites. Unlike general interest search engines, the resources listed in subject directories have been organized and evaluated, simplifying a researcher's information search.

General Music

Valery.King@oregonstate.edu (Valery King) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:13:02 -0700

Librarian's Index to the Internet: Music http://lii.org/pub/topic/music Arranged by topic, these sites are reviewed and indexed by librarians.
Yahoo! Directory: Music http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music
A well-organized hierarchical subject-oriented guide for the Web and Internet.
AMG All Music Guide http://www.allmusic.com/
Strongly recommended for its breadth of coverage and excellent cross-references by the review journal CHOICE, this site covers over 307,000 recordings, 1.5 million song titles, 45,000 biographies and 107,000 reviews of music from classical to rap. Artists, musical styles and genres, discographies and numerous links to every kind of music are included.