Music

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Best Places to Start

The best place to start depends on the type of music research you're doing. Are you looking up a score? Do you need specific information about a composer? Are you looking for a music theory textbook? The Library of Congress Classification System (which is what we use here at GW) places Music and Books on Music under the letter M, and divides this subject into three categories:

 

M1-5000: Musical Scores
ML1-3900: Literature on Music
MT1-960: Instruction and Study

 

Music encyclopedias can be found in the reference section on the first floor under these call number ranges; also, books can be found under these ranges on the 5th floor of Gelman.

Electronic Resources

The following databases are excellent sources for journals specifically on topics related to Music:

Grove Dictionary of Music
This database includes the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed.

International Bibliography of Theater and Dance with Full Text
Full text database of journal articles, books, and dissertation abstracts created by Brooklyn College's Theater Research Data Center. From 1984 to the present.

Music Index
International coverage of classic and popular music journals, from 1978 to the present.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Abstracts of journal articles, books, and dissertations related to music research, from 1900 to the present.

A complete list of databases useful to music research can also be found in the ALADIN Research Portal under the Music Subheading.

Internet Resources

Librarians' Index to the Internet: Music Topics
A publically-funded, librarian-produced index of useful websites related to Music Research.

Smithsonian's America's Jazz Heritage
On-line exhibits and sample audio programs (including oral histories) produced by Smithsonian Institution and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.

Themefinder
Themefinder provides search access to a database containing short melodies and musical snipits. Themefinder has been developed at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities at Stanford University and the Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory at the Ohio State University.

Music Theory Online: A Journal of Criticism, Commentary, Research, and Scholarship
MTO is the refereed, electronic journal of the Society for Music Theory. The website provides full text access to this publication from 1993 to the present.

Local Resources

The Washington, DC area has several repositories and centers that focus on the city and nation's rich culutral heritage.

Gelman is home to two significant collections:

American Women Composers Collection, Gelman Library, George Washington University
The American Women Composers Collection consists of printed scores and manuscripts originally collected by a now defunct Washington-based organization called American Women Composers. The collection chronologically spans the period from the late 19th century to the early 1990s and includes musical scores by hundreds American female composers. The music ranges from Christmas carols, religious anthems and pop standards to extreme avant-garde. To find material in this collection in the ALADIN catalog, use the phrase 'american women composers' as a keyword anywhere in a Guided Keyword search:

Scrapbook of Sheet Music Gelman Library, George Washington University, Special Collections
The library has a collection of bound sheet music published between 1827 and 1900. To see if this particular collection includes a piece you are looking for, use the phrase 'scrapbook of sheet music' as one element in a Guided Keyword search:

The following libraries in the Washington, DC area contain significant music collections:

Catholic University Music Library
The library has subscriptions to over 100 music periodicals, as well as scores, audio materials, and videos. Use the ALADIN Catalog to verify that they have what you are looking for.

University of Maryland, Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library
This library, in College Park, MD, collects manuscripts, sound recordings, letters, programs, scrapbooks, and other archival and primary source materials that deal with Music and the Performing Arts.

Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room and the Recorded Sound Reference Center
Includes music, theater, and dance. Check the web site for all particulars. Note: A Library of Congress Reader's Card is required to use the Reading Room.
American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
The oldest repository of manuscripts, photographs, and sound and video recordings of traditional culture, founded in 1928. Requires a Library of Congress Reader's Card.

Performing Arts centers in DC:

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Bastion of classical arts and home of the National Symphony Orchestra, right down the street from GW.

HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz & Blues
Named for the Congressional resolution proclaiming Jazz to be "a rare and valuable national American treasure," this local,non-profit music center seeks to provide educational experiences about Jazz and Blues.

For more information, call the Reference Desk at 202-994-6048 or use the E-mail Reference Form. This page is maintained by Tina Plottel.

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