Music Subject Guide
- Getting Started
- Finding Music Materials
- Finding Books
- Browsing Music Materials
- Finding Articles
- Course Guides
Getting Started
To help define your research topic, it often helps to consult some of the standard reference works before searching for books, music materials, and journal articles. A good article in a specialized encyclopedia can give you the necessary background you need to get started and can help suggest keywords or other research avenues.
You can look for relevant sources in the reference collection in the Seay Library, as well as the reference section (look under “M”!) located on Tutt Library’s first floor, near the circulation desk. Both of these libraries have excellent reference collections, but the materials aren’t identical, so it’s worth your while to examine both collections! You can also ask me, a Seay library staff member, or the librarian at the Tutt Reference Desk for assistance in finding appropriate reference sources.
General Sources
These are excellent standard reference resources for music:
Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
Ref. ML 105 .B16 2001 v.1-6 Music Library and Tutt Library
Excellent resource. Short bios of composers, some including short lists of works and writings, including entries for jazz and pop composers
25 million words, hundreds of carefully selected and classified links to musical sites – Grove is an essential companion and tool for scholars of classical, world, and contemporary music and musicians. This is the online, expanded version of the 29-volume print New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and includes the Grove Dictionary of Opera and the Grove Dictionary of Jazz. In spite of their names, these sources are actually encyclopedias.
The Harvard Dictionary of Music
Ref. ML100 .H37 2003, Music Library;
ML100 .A64 2003 Tutt Library
The best English dictionary of music, with both brief and extensive explanation of terms. Some articles have bibliographies.
Specific Sources
See the Music Reference Resources pages, organized by specific music topics, to help refine your research. These include selected resources to support Music Department courses.
Finding Music Materials
FINDING MUSIC CAN BE CHALLENGING, EVEN IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR!!!!
Unlike text, a musical work isn’t about something. Usually, musicians are most interested in the work’s format (score, CD), genre (symphony, jazz ballad), and instrumentation (what forces perform the work).
If you’re looking for music for particular performance forces, use our Music Instrumentation Search
In general: If you are searching for music scores and recordings, be as specific as you can. If a title is “distinct” (unique), such as an opera or song title, use that. If the title is a music form or type, such as symphony, concerto, sonata, etc., enter the most specific information you have. If you seek a portion of a larger work, such as a selection from a musical, song cycle, or opera, you will often need to discover the name of that larger work in order to find it. We can help you with this!
For detailed information see UNLV’s How to Find Music in the Library Catalog
This site includes an explanation of the Music Uniform Title. The Uniform Title is especially useful for finding music titles that are “non-distinct”, such as symphony, concerto, sonata, etc. A huge number of musical works fall into this “non-distinct” category.
Finding Books
Searching
Searching TIGER by keyword or subject is often the fastest way to find books about your topic.
For books and music materials that we don’t own here at Colorado College, or items that are checked out or otherwise unavailable, use Prospector - Colorado Unified Catalog . You’ll find books and music materials in libraries across Colorado that you can request and have sent to the Tutt Library circulation desk where you can check them out.
For items not available in TIGER or Prospector, you can request through Interlibrary Loan via WorldCat . This is a particularly valuable resource for finding specific musical works that may be hard to locate, as well as a great way to discover to what musical work a musical excerpt may belong.
Please ask a librarian if you need help with TIGER, Prospector, or WorldCat.
Browsing Music Materials
Music searchers are lucky, because “M” is for music!
You’ll find books about music and scores under M, ML and MT
Music scores are located under M
Books about music are located under ML
Music teaching materials (both scores and books) are located under MT
Here is a selective overview of the call numbers for music:
M Music
- M2 Collections of musical scores
- M3 Collected works of individual composers
- M5-1490 Instrumental music
- M180-298 Duets
- M300-386 Trios
- M400-486 Quartets
- M500-586 Quintets
- M600-686 Sextets
- M700-786 Septets
- M800-886 Octets
- M900-986 Nonets, large combinations of chamber music
- M 1000-1160 Orchestra
- M1495-5000 Vocal Music
- M1497-1998 Secular Vocal Music
- M1999-2199 Sacred Vocal Music
ML Literature on Music
- ML62-90 Musician’s writings
- ML100-109 Dictionaries, Encyclopedias
- ML112.8-158.8 Bibliography
- ML159-3775 History and criticism
- ML410 Biography
- ML430-455 Composition
- ML459-1380 Instruments and instrumental music
- ML1400-3275 Vocal music
- ML3400-3465 Dance music
- ML3469-3541 Popular music
- ML3544-3775 National music
- ML3800-3923 Philosophy and physics of music
MT Musical Instruction and Study
- MT1-5 History and criticism
- MT5.5-7 Music theory
- MT40-67 Composition
- MT68 Improvisation, Accompaniment, Transposition
- MT70-74 Instrumentation and orchestration
- MT90-146 Analysis and appreciation
- MT170-810 Instrumental techniques
- MT820-915 Singing and vocal technique
- MT918-948 School music
- MT955-956 Musical theater
If you’re looking for music for particular performance forces, use our Music Instrumentation Search
Generally, books about music are located in Tutt Libary. Seay Library houses scores and sound/video recordings. Both libraries provide music reference collections.
Finding Articles
You will find useful articles in databases that are specific to music, as well as those that include articles on many subjects. Both Seay and Tutt libraries have some print music periodicals.
List of databases for music (text and sound resources)]
Not all of the databases found on this page are specific to music.
Online journal archives
Unlike the subject-specific article databases, these online journal archives don’t concentrate on any one academic subject. Instead, they take leading journals from many fields, or all the journals from one publisher, and provide extensive archives of the full text of those journals online, usually in the form of PDF files. You’ll find many useful resources in these general databases.