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Guide to Research in Music in the Tredway Library
1. Background reading:
Try browsing in the reference collection on 2nd floor in the M section. Here you will find encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks that will help you select a topic, define and focus a topic, or gain background information. Some sources that might be especially helpful are listed below. Not only will you find articles that provide background reading, but you will also find lists of references to further reading, which you can then look up in ALiCat (books) or the library’s databases (articles in journals).
ENCYCLOPEDIAS:
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
REF ML100 .N48 (29 vols.) OR online (see next entry)
This is the standard and comprehensive encyclopedia for music. Start your research here.
Oxford Music Online
This gateway leads you to three major reference sources in music: Grove Music Online (the 29-volume encyclopedia The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music. Although we have all three of these titles in print format in the reference collection, they are fully searchable and regularly updated in Oxford Music Online. Oxford Music Online also provides links to articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (which we also have in print in the reference section), but it does not update these articles. Articles in Opera or Jazz are accessed only through articles in Grove Music Online.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
REF ML100 .G16 1998 (10 vols.)
A gem of a resource where you will find far-ranging articles on music traditions from all over the world. Accompanying CD’s of music samples are available on reserve at the circulation desk.
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music
REF ML101 .U6N48 1986 (4 vols.)
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
REF ML102 .J3N48 2001 (3 vols.)
The Oxford History of Western Music
REF ML160 .T18 2004 (6 vols.)
New and wonderful. More of a book to read than an encyclopedia. Notes are included at the end of each volume and further reading is included in volume 6.
BIOGRAPHICAL:
Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
REF ML105 .B16 2001 (6 vols.)
HANDBOOKS:
The New handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning
REF MT1 .S44 2002
Each chapter provides an overview of research in the field of music education.
WOMEN:
Women and Music in America Since 1900
REF ML82 .W625 2002 (2 vols.)
2. Finding books:
You can look for books in four ways:
- In reference books (or other sources you are working with), use bibliographies and lists of “further reading” to identify books you want to track down. Look for these books by author or title in ALiCat or, if you don’t find them in ALiCat, in I-Share, the catalog of college and university libraries in Illinois. You can request I-Share books on the same page as the catalog record. A van delivers books to us daily.
- Start off fresh in ALiCat or I-Share by putting in your own search words.
- When you find a book you like in the catalog, look at the subject headings in the catalog record and click on ones that look promising. All the books that have been assigned that subject heading will be listed.
- When you go into the stacks to retrieve a book, browse the shelves to see what additional books you might discover.
Hints for searching in ALiCat or I-Share:
If you are searching the musical works of a composer like Mozart or Beethoven, enter the last name of the composer and search by “prolific author/composer.” This will bring up a list of works that you can then choose from for the specific record.
Develop your own list of keywords for the topic you are researching. Instead of doing a search by “any word anywhere” (which searches each word separately), you might try doing a Boolean search where you link two or more keywords with “and.”
You can also search by “subject” in ALiCat. In this case, it helps to know what the standard subject headings are for music-related topics. “Music,” of course, is the basic subject heading. The term “music” will also be subdivided by centuries, countries, and such terms as “history and criticism,” “instruction and study,” physiological effect,” “social aspects,” etc. Then there are narrower terms, such as “art and music,” “folk music,” or “nature in music.” One of the best ways to find subject headings is this: when you find a book you find particularly useful, look at the subject headings assigned to it (in the ALiCat record) and click on them to find other books.
If you want to delve deeper into subject headings (now you’re getting into serious stuff), consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings volumes at the reference desk. Ask the reference librarian for help.
3. Finding articles in journals:
If you want to track down a particular article that you found in a bibliography, go to “Augustana’s Periodicals” on the library web page, and type in the title of the journal. The results will tell you where you can get the full text of the article.
You can also search the databases by topic. The primary databases that index music journals are JSTOR and RILM. You will find both under “Search by Subject/Fine Arts.” JSTOR is a full text database and contains the complete runs of a selected list of music journals. RILM indexes only music material, but is not primarily a full text database. So when you find an article in RILM that you want, and if there is no link to full text, you will have to look up the journal title in “Augustana's Periodicals” to determine if we own the full text of the article in some other database or in hard copy. If the title is not listed in “Augustana’s Periodicals,” you may request the article via interlibrary loan; be sure to allow time for the articles to get to you.
Other databases that include music-related topics:
Academic Search Premier: includes popular magazines as well as academic titles
Project Muse: academic journals only; full text
Arts and Humanities Search
Humanities Abstracts
Periodical Abstracts
ERIC: education-related topics
4. Recommended Web Sites:
Most of the following sites are gateways, that is, they provide links to reliable databases about music. If you were doing a project on Gilbert and Sullivan, for example, the Duke University site on classical music resources takes you from “genres” to “opera, choral music and songs” to “operetta” where you find two sites listed that are devoted to Gilbert and Sullivan.
GENERAL WEB SITES:
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subjects/music/music.html#top
Internet Resources in Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/
Guide from Indiana University School of Music.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/research/guides/music/resources/index.html
Harvard College Library.
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/MusicLib/resources/composers.html
Information about composers from the University of Virginia.
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/mused.html
Indiana’s guide to music education on the web.
http://www.lcl.lib.ne.us/depts/polley/polley_music_links.htm
The music web site of the Lincoln, Nebraska public libraries.
http://opera.stanford.edu
The best site on the Web for accessing electronic libretti, maintained by Stanford University.
WORLD MUSIC WEB SITES:
http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/instrument/
Chico Instrument Encyclopedia
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/ethnic.html
Created by the University of Indiana, contains lots of links to world music online.
http://www.allmusic.com/
Great for an overview of the music scene in various countries, for essays about world music, and for finding recordings. Go to “genre/world.” You have to register to get full access to the files.
http://echarry.web.wesleyan.edu/ethno.html
Ethnomusicology resources on the web, created by a faculty member at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/world.html
A rich list of links from the University of Washington.
http://www.lcl.lib.ne.us/depts/polley/polley_music_links.htm
The Lincoln, Nebraska public libraries provides great links to world music.
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Augustana College