Popular Encyclopedic and Reference Resources
These sources are good for finding background and general information on a composer, composition, or musician. Use and cite general information from these sources rather than Wikipedia. NOTE: Some instructors do not count encyclopedic sources towards your source requirement.
- Performing Arts Encyclopedia (Library of Congress)A guide to the performing arts collections (both print and digital) and exhibitions at the Library of Congress. Includes digitized items from the collections and topical compositions such as Civil War Sheet Music and American Choral music.
- RISM International Inventory of Musical SourcesThe International Inventory of Musical Sources (RISM) aims to comprehensively document the world’s musical sources of manuscripts or printed music, works on music theory and libretti stored in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections. The online-catalogue offered here contains around 700,000 references almost exclusively to music manuscripts.
Popular Databases
These databases are your best bet for finding scholarly resources about music and composers as well as viewing musical scores in the public domain.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR primarily provides online article access to back files (non-current) of hundreds of important scholarly journals in nearly 50 disciplines spanning the arts, humanities, social sciences and the sciences. Current issues are only included for a few titles. Date ranges of coverage vary by journal title. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization established with the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
PLEASE NOTE: JSTOR is now providing some eBook collections as it expands to become a “highly selective digital library academic content in many formats and disciplines.” - Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
(Johns Hopkins University Press) Full-text articles from "over 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals."
