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Music Subject Guide
This guide is designed to help you find resources and research assistance for topics in Music.
Useful Databases for Music
Find music reference sources, journal articles, streaming audio, music scores online, and more!
Journal Finder
Music Department, Mount Allison
Visit the website of the Mount Allison Music Department to find out about events and programs.
Mount Allison Libraries & Archives
Go to the main page of the Libraries and Archives.
Interlibrary Loans
Order books or other materials from outside the Novanet consortium.

Selected Reference Sources for Music

Grove Music Online
Part of Oxford Music Online, Grove Music Online is the authoritative resource for music research with over 51,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory and cultures of music around the globe.
Oxford Music Online
Includes the Oxford Dictionary of Music, the Oxford Companion to Music, and Grove Music Online. Grove is the most comprehensive source of the three, and may be easier to search on its own for some topics. To do so, use the Grove Music Online link in the A-Z list.

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780195313734
Publication Date: 2006-11-20
Writing about Music by Richard Wingell
Call Number: MUR ML 3979 W.54 2009
ISBN: 9780136157786
Publication Date: 2007-12-29

Novanet: Start your research here.

Quick search for books, ebooks, articles, movies, music & more.

Looking for a specific musical work?
Tip: Search using composer name and title words. Example: mozart AND nozze (with AND in upper case).

Novanet Advanced Search

Novanet searches many but not all library databases (details). Databases not included in Novanet can be accessed from the A-Z List of databases.

Help: Which Search Tool Should I Use? | Novanet Search Tips

Mount Allison Concert Recordings
An index to the music recorded since 1980 on audiocassette or compact disc of Department of Music concerts by faculty, guests, departmental ensembles, and students. Concert programs are included with each recording. Recordings are available in the Alfred Whitehead Music Library.
Sheet Music Collection (Alfred Whitehead Music Library, Mount Allison)
An index to the 7000-piece collection of sheet music in the Music Library. Holdings, not entered into the Libraries’ catalogue, include choral sheet music, popular songs, and pieces of classical sheet music organized by type (either keyboard, solo vocal, or instrumental pieces).

Novanet: Start your research here.

Quick search only for books.

Novanet Advanced Search

Searching for a particular book by title or author? Try Browse searching.

Switch to: Novanet Classic (aka the Library Catalogue)

Help: Which Search Tool Should I Use? | Novanet Search Tips

Novanet: Start your research here.

Quick search only for articles.

Novanet Advanced Search

Novanet searches most but not all library databases (details). Databases not included in Novanet can be accessed from the A-Z List of databases.

Help: Which Search Tool Should I Use? | Novanet Search Tips

Key Online Resources for Music

Grove Music Online
Part of Oxford Music Online, Grove Music Online is the authoritative resource for music research with over 51,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory and cultures of music around the globe.
Oxford Music Online
Includes the Oxford Dictionary of Music, the Oxford Companion to Music, and Grove Music Online. Grove is the most comprehensive source of the three, and may be easier to search on its own for some topics. To do so, use the Grove Music Online link in the A-Z list.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Comprehensive international bibliography of music literature including articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, theses, reviews, etc. Coverage: from 1967; currency of title coverage varies.
ProQuest (All Databases)
Search all ProQuest databases simultaneously: ABI, Canadian Research Index, CBCA, Periodicals Archive Online, the Politics Collection (PAIS, Policy File Index, Political Science Database, Worldwide Political Abstracts), Philosopher's Index, ProQuest Central, Research Library, and the Historical Newspapers collections of the Globe & Mail (1844-2013) and Toronto Star (1894-2015).
JSTOR
Expanded access until June 30, 2021
Full-text archive of journals in the Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences. Current and recent volumes (last 2 to 5 years) not available for most titles.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Oxford Reference Online)
First published in 1992, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music is the largest project ever undertaken for the subject. This authoritative biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists covers popular music from 1900 to the present, including folk, blues, world music, rock, heavy metal, techno, reggae, and hip hop. In addition to thousands of biographical entries, this A-Z reference also includes entries covering popular music genres, trends, styles, record lables, venues, and festivals. Key dates, biographies, and further reading are provided for artists covered, along with complete discographies that include record labels, release dates, and a 5-star album rating system. From Grateful Dead to The Killers, from Whitesnake to White Stripes, from R.E.M. to Blink-182, from The Jazz Singer to Jerry Springer - The Opera, and from Bye Bye Birdie to Rent, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Fourth Edition has something informative and clever to say about everyone's favorite band.
Full list of databases for music

Naxos Music Library
Streaming audio service; more than a million tracks of music across a broad spectrum of styles and periods. Important note: we have a limited number of user spaces for this resource. Please log out when you’re done.
Naxos Music Library Jazz
An extensive collection of jazz music available for streaming.
Naxos Spoken Word Library
Comprehensive collection of classic audiobooks and independent publisher productions,
Naxos Video Library
Extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries.
Naxos Music Library World
An extensive collection of world music recordings.
AVON via Alexander Street
Stream hundreds of informative videos and documentaries. This database provides the abilities to create and customize clips, read along with transcripts, and provides persistent linking for all your research.
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall
**You will need to create a free account to log in and view the library.**
Streamed concerts archived and live performances. Each season, around 40 concerts are broadcast live and they can also be viewed at a later date in the concert archive. The archive contains hundreds of recordings. There are also documentaries and bonus films.

The Global Jukebox
The Global Jukebox makes available to the general public, scholars and scientists all of the data and many of the analyses of the research into the expressive arts carried out under the direction of Alan Lomax and the anthropologist Conrad Arensberg from 1960 to 1995 at Columbia University and Hunter College/CUNY. Songs are organized by geography in the Map View, and by culture in the Tree View. Access to some songs is subject to tribal permission.
The Great 78 Project
"The Great 78 Project is a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78 rpm records. From about 1898 to the 1950s, an estimated 3 million sides (~3 minute recordings) have been made on 78 rpm discs. While the commercially viable recordings will have been restored or remastered onto LP’s or CD, there is still research value in the artifacts and usage evidence in the often rare 78 rpm discs and recordings." Click on Discovery to listen to digitized 78 rpm recordings.

Medici.tv
This classical music channel features over 1,800 programs (3,000 original works), including concerts and archived historical concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries, artist portraits, and educational programs and master classes.

Classical Scores Library
Contains 400,000 pages of classical scores from both in-copyright and public domain editions. Works of major and lesser known composers, Renaissance to 21st century.
IMSLP: Petrucci Music Library
The International Music Score Library Project features a large and growing collection of downloadable public domain music.

IPA Source
"The web's largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts."