Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
Includes biographies of musicians in all musical genres, along with interesting and insightful evaluations of their contributions to the musical world.

It is available in print at the Music Library in the reference collection.

The Harvard Dictionary of Music
This reference includes entries on all styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Near East; descriptions of instruments and their historical background; and articles reflecting the contemporary beat, including pop, jazz and rock.

Grove Music Online
An authoritative resource for music research. Grove Music Online covers the history and cultures of music and musicians worldwide. Topics include people in history; classical antiquity; places; institutions and the music industry; music terminology and concepts; instruments and instrument makers; non-Western and traditional music; individual performers and ensembles; popular music and musicians; music and religious ritual; and opera, music theatre and dance.

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Music
A bibliography is a list of the books of an author or publisher, or on a specific subject. Oxford Bibliographies, compiled by scholars and librarians, contain extensive lists of annotated titles on many topics within the study of art history. It is a great way to find authoritative sources on your topic.

Each subject contains an extensive introduction (which provides an overview of the topic) as well as a list of annotated titles of books, arranged by category.

Sound Recordings

Naxos Music Library
Has 87,000 tracks including the complete Naxos classical, jazz, world-music and historical releases. NML aims at presenting the widest possible range of classical music rather than focusing on different performances of a narrow repertoire.

Periodical Indexes

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
The most scholarly of the music-specific articles databases. RILM indexes journals from 100+ countries in 214 languages, but you can limit to articles in English. Also indexed are books, dissertations, Conference Proceedings, and sound recordings.

Music Index
A comprehensive guide to music periodicals and literature. This database contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts of articles about music, musicians, and the music industry for more than 475 periodicals, as well as book reviews, obituaries, news, and selective coverage for more than 230 periodicals.

Musical Scores and Sheet Music

Classical Scores Library
This comprehensive digital collection ncompasses all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the twenty first century. With full, study, piano, and vocal scores, this comprehensive collection serves to enhance the study of music history, performance, composition and theory.

Writing Handbook

Wingell, Richard. Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Excellent and detailed advice on writing about music, analysis and research, getting started, writing a research paper (from choosing a topic through outlining, writing the draft, editing and revising), questions of format, and other kinds of writing projects (including concert reports).

Additional Resources

Online Research for Music Scholars (Harvard University)
Provides links to a vast range of resources on a variety of music topics (music theory, archival collections, online scores and sound recordings, discographies and bibliographies; scholarly societies, and a miscellany of useful websites), many of which are free.