LibGuides: Music : General Music Reference Resources

Online Reference Sources

If you need some background information on your topic, try these reference sources:

Credo Reference
Credo is an easy-to-use tool for research projects. Search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 200,000+ images and audio files, and nearly 100 videos.
Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition
Contains full text of encyclopedia articles, including illustrations such as photographs, drawings, maps, and flags. Also includes a dictionary, selected video clips, and links to over 200,000 related websites reviewed by Britannica editors.

New Penguin Dictionary of Music by Paul Griffiths
ISBN: 9780141009254
Publication Date: 2006-08-01
Succinct and comprehensive guide to the history, forms, and personalities of classical music. Readers will find biographies of thousands of composers from Albinoni to Zappa, with in-depth treatment of major figures, coverage of individual works, including plot summaries of operas and ballets, articles on the history of music and instruments, entries on musical forms, from medieval plainchant to contemporary minimalism, and clear definitions of technical terms and jargon.
Harvard Dictionary of Music: Fourth Edition by Randel, Don Michael
Call Number: E-book
ISBN: 9780674011632
Publication Date: 2014
This classic reference work, a one-volume music dictionary, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition. Combining authoritative scholarship and lucid prose, this is an essential guide for musicians, students and everyone who appreciates music.;Long admired for its wide range as well as its reliability, "The Harvard Dictionary of Music" includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Near East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles that reflect today's beat, including popular music, jazz and rock. Throughout this new edition, existing articles have been fine-tuned and new entries added so that the dictionary fully reflects current music schoalrship and recent developments in musical culture.;Encyclopedia-length articles by notable experts alternate with short entries for quick reference, including definitions and identifications of works and instruments. More than 220 drawings and 250 musical examples enhance the text making this an aid for all music lovers.

Music Encyclopedias and Dictionaries (Print copy)

The concise Oxford history of music by Gerald Abraham 1904-1988
Call Number: ML160.A27
Publication Date: 1979
The Da Capo history of Western classical music by J. M Bailie
Call Number: ML160.B107 1999
Publication Date: 1999
The Cambridge music guide
Call Number: ML160 .C36 2000
Publication Date: 2000
The Facts on File Dictionary of Music by Christine Ammer; Facts on File, Inc. Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: ML100.A48 2004
ISBN: 0816052662
Publication Date: 2004-04-01
The Billboard illustrated encyclopedia of music by Barry Alfonso; Paul Du Noyer
Call Number: ML100.B55 2003
Publication Date: 2003
Chambers dictionary of music by Katie Brooks
Call Number: ML100.C43 2006
Publication Date: 2006
The Oxford dictionary of musical works by Alison Latham
Call Number: ML100.D561 2004
Publication Date: 2004
The great composers and their works (2 volume set) by Nicolas Slonimsky 1894-1995 Electra Yourke
Call Number: ML160.S48 2000
Publication Date: 2000
Oxford Dictionary of Musical Terms by Alison Latham (Editor)
Call Number: ML108.D576 2004
ISBN: 0198606982
Publication Date: 2005-02-03
Dictionary of music, by Dr. Hugo Riemann; translation by J. S. Shedlock by Riemann, Hugo, 1849-1919
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 1899

Biographical Sources in Music (Print copy)

Composers on music; an anthology of composers' writings. by Sam Morgenstern ed
Call Number: ML90.M6 1956a
Publication Date: 1958
Sourcebook for Research in Music, Third Edition by Allen Scott (Dale Allen), 1960- compiler Donald H. Foster compiler.; Phillip Crabtree compiler. Since it was first published in 1993, the Sourcebook for Research in Music has become an invaluable resource in musical scholarship. The balance between depth of content and brevity of format makes it ideal for use as a textbook for students, a reference work for faculty and professional musicians, and as an aid for librarians. The introductory chapter includes a comprehensive list of bibliographical terms with definitions; bibliographic terms in German, French, and Italian; and the plan of the Library of Congress and the Dewey Decimal music classification systems. Integrating helpful commentary.
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2015
International encyclopedia of women composers by Aaron I Cohen
Call Number: ML105.C7 1987
Publication Date: 1987
The Harvard biographical dictionary of music by Don Michael Randel An incomparable guide to the thousands of characters, from humble artisan to lofty genius, who people the unfolding history of music, this volume brings together all the pertinent biographical information about composers, performers, music theorists, and instrument makers from the days of praise chants to the bop and pop of today. A long-awaited companion to The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, and compiled with the same meticulous scholarship and delight in detail, this biographical dictionary emphasizes classical and art music, but also gives ample attention to jazz and blues, rock and pop, and hymns and showtunes across the ages - with unusual care devoted to coverage of the twentieth century.
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 1996
The encyclopedia of film composers by Thomas S. Hischak In addition to the handful of composers known to the general public, this book brings recognition to the many men and women who have written music for the movies over the past 100 years-those who have not been given their due in previous books and other sources. This volume features more than 250 famous and little-known movie composers from around the world. In addition to providing facts about the composers (dates, biography, careers, complete list of movie credits), the entries explain what makes each composer notable and discusses their music in detail.
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2015
Composers on Music by Josiah Fisk (Editor, Preface by); Jeff Nichols (Editor)
Call Number: ML90.C77 1997
ISBN: 1555532799
Publication Date: 1997-01-30
Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians. by Nicolas Slonimsky 1894-1995
Call Number: ML105.B16 1984
Publication Date: 1984
Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians by Baker, Theodore, 1851-1934
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 1919
Contemporary composers, by Daniel Gregory Mason 1873-1953
Call Number: ML390.M383
Publication Date: 1918

Music Bibliographies

Women in music a research and information guide by Karin Pendle 1939- Melinda Boyd 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: E-book
Publication Date: 2010
An Annotated Bibliography for Taiwan Film Studies by Jim Cheng (Editor); Sachie Noguchi (Editor); James Wicks (Editor)
Call Number: E-book
ISBN: 9780231173827
Publication Date: 2016-04-19

MSUB Library Reference collection

These titles are available on the 2nd floor of the MSUB Library, next to the Children/Young Adult section. These books are library use only. Other former Reference books are in the main collection on 1st floor, within the the ML 100 to ML 160 section.