Databases
UK Libraries provides access to over 400 databases. Below you will find music databases grouped together by type or focus. Grove Music, MGG, and Oxford Music are down the right hand side of this page. You will find more information and a focus on RILM, RISM, and other specialized databases using the drop down menu on the 'Databases' tab at the top of the page.
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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Full-text of Colin Larkin's 10-volume The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th edition. Contains entries covering popular music from the 1900 to the present including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music. Covers popular music genres, trends, styles, record labels, venues, music festivals, and biographies.
- MGG Online General encyclopedia of music. Stands with Groves as a basic source for music research.
- Oxford Music Online
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Includes the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz; New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; New Grove Dictionary of Opera; New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers; and the Oxford Dictionary of Music
Histories, Bibliographies, & Indexes
- Index to Printed Music (IPM)
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Resource for finding individual pieces of music published in standard scholarly editions. Includes music from ancient Greek resources to the present. Searchable by composer name, editor, genre, language, librettist, publisher name, series, title, instrumentation. Limited to one user at a time. - Oxford Bibliographies in Music
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Bibliographic "topic guides" to selected resources in music. Provides an introduction to the specialized literature on major and minor topics within music. Part of Oxford Bibliographies.
- Oxford History of Western Music
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Online version of Richard Taruskin''s five volume print work. Includes all 1.25 million words, 500 images, and 1,800 musical examples from the updated paperback edition. Also provides links to relevant Grove Music Online articles. Please note: Access limited to two simultaneous users.
The "R" Projects
- RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
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A bibliography of writings about music; includes hundreds of thousands of bibliographic records featuring citations, abstracts, and indexing. It covers publications from 1800-2021 and in all document types from around the world on traditional music, popular music, jazz, classical music, and more. Includes citations for all document types including books, conference proceedings, journal articles, dissertations, internet resources, and audio and visual recordings.
- RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals
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An international annotated bibliography of writings on musical history and culture published in 17 countries between 1766-1962. Indexes the content of complete runs of journals and offers access to thousands of English-language translations of foreign documents. Some direct access to the full-text of the article cited. - RISM: Répertoire International des Sources Musicales
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RISM : Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is an international inventory of musical sources. Founded in 1952, RISM is a joint project sponsored by IAML (International Association of Music Libraries) and IMS (International Musicological Society). RISM strives for comprehensive documentation of extant primary musical sources worldwide: music manuscripts, printed music, writings on music theory, and libretti that are housed in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools, and private collections. RISM establishes what exists and where it can be found.
Abstracting & Indexing Databases
- JSTOR
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Searchable full-text journal backfile collection. Individual titles are listed in the E-Journals A-Z. - Music Index
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Contains indexing and abstracts of articles about music and citations for book reviews, obituaries, and news articles. Includes articles from over 660 journals; coverage dating back to 1964. - Music Periodicals Database
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Provides indexing, abstracts, and full-text articles from hundreds of international music periodicals and journals. Some complete journal runs are included, with indexing back to 1874. Coverage includes music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theater, theory, popular music, classical music, opera, music theory, music business, and more. - RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
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A bibliography of writings about music; includes hundreds of thousands of bibliographic records featuring citations, abstracts, and indexing. It covers publications from 1800-2021 and in all document types from around the world on traditional music, popular music, jazz, classical music, and more. Includes citations for all document types including books, conference proceedings, journal articles, dissertations, internet resources, and audio and visual recordings.
- RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals
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An international annotated bibliography of writings on musical history and culture published in 17 countries between 1766-1962. Indexes the content of complete runs of journals and offers access to thousands of English-language translations of foreign documents. Some direct access to the full-text of the article cited.
Scores Online for Printing and Study
- A-R Music Anthology (ARMA)
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Extensive collection of music and articles designed expressly for music history courses. Instructors can adapt the contents of the Online Music Anthology as a music history textbook and anthology. Students can print out any of the all newly engraved scores for their classes or personal use. - Classical Scores Library (Music Online)
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A vast collection of digitized scores that encompass all major Western classical music genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and serves as a recourse for the discover of lesser-known contemporary works. Includes full, study, piano, and vocal scores.
Grove Music Online
Grove Music Online includes the following resources:
- Grove Dictionary of American Music
- Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments
- New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
- New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
- New Grove Dictionary of Opera
- Norton Grove Dictionary of Women Composers
MGG Online (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart)
MGG Online contains the complete contents of the second edition (2008) of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, plus continuous updates, revisions, and additions. MGG Online provides a bilingual English/German interface.
Oxford Music Online
Oxford Music Online includes the following resources:
- Grove Music Online
- Oxford Companion to Music
- Oxford Dictionary of Music
To search all the Oxford Music Online resources at once:
- type your term(s) in the search box
To move from Oxford Music Online to only Grove Music Online:
- click on ABOUT on the navigation bar
- Under What would you like to do? Click on the link under Take me to Grove Music Online
Oxford History of Western Music
- Oxford History of Western Music ONLINERichard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music is also a good source to check.
Oxford History of Western Music by Call Number: ML160 .T18 2010The Oxford History of Western Music is a five-volume survey of the traditions of Western music.
