GCSU Library Subject Guide
Music
Music
Reference Sources Subject Headings Articles
Web Sites Citing Sources Contact A Librarian
LP Collection database(Excel Spreadsheet)
Reference Sources The Reference Collection, located on the second floor of the GCSU Library, is often the best place to start your research. Books in the Reference Collection can help you become more familiar with your topic and assist you with identifying keywords and important people. Bibliographies can help you identify specific articles and books.
- The Encyclopedia of Country Music (Ref ML 102 .C7 E54 1998): an encyclopedia which focuses primarily on country music performers. Entries on songwriters, radio personalities, organizations and record companies are also included.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (Ref ML 100 .G16 1998): arranged by geographic region. Each volume covers the musical culture of a particular region such as Africa, The United States and Canada, East Asia, and Europe.
The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Ref ML102 .P66 G84 1995): contains biographical entries for both well known and obscure performers. Discographies are also included.
The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Ref ML100 .H36 1999): contains concise entries which deal primarily with concert music and its performers, as well as entries for jazz and popular music.
Music in the 20th Century (Ref ML105 .M88 1999): contains alphabetically arranged entries on the musical genres, composers, performers, and styles of the twentieth century.
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (Ref ML 101 .U6 N48 1986): a comprehensive dictionary of American music, with entries on composers, performers, institutions, etc.
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (Ref ML102 .J3 N48 2002): a comprehensive dictionary containing biographical entries on jazz musicians from around the world as well as the history jazz.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Ref ML100 .N48 2002):contains articles on important people (performers, scholars, dancers, patrons, etc), terminology, genres, instruments, and institutions.
The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Ref ML102 .I5 N48 1993): contains entries on classical and modern musical instruments. Both Western and non-Western instruments are covered.
The New International Dictionary of Music (Ref ML100 .M857 1992): concise, alphabetically arranged definitions for musical terms and instruments, as well as biographical entries for notable composers and performers.
Subject HeadingsUsing the correct subject headings for your topic will help you get more relevant results when searching the Library Catalog. Below is a concise list of subject headings for the field of music. For a more complete list, you can perform a Subject Heading search using the Exact Search feature in the Library Catalog.
- Arrangement (Music)
Choral music
Composition (Music)
Music trade
Music instruction and study
Music history and criticism
Music in art
Music in education
Music videos
Musical rhythm and meter
Musical instruments
Subject Headings By Type of Music
- Folk music, Jazz, Popular music, New age music
Subject Headings By Type of Musician
- Composers, Conductors (Music), Jazz musicians, Singers, Women musicians, Disc jockeys
Subject Headings By Geographic Region
- Music Africa, Music England, Music India, Music United States
Subject Headings By Time Period
- Music 15th Century, Music 17th Century, Music 20th Century
Articles - Databases
Most databases index articles from journals, newspapers, and magazines. Some databases offer full text articles, while others contain only citations. Some databases are subject specific, while others are more general in coverage. Some databases relevant to the field of music are:
- Academic Search Complete
is a multidisciplinary database that contains articles from academic journals and magazines in the humanities, the social sciences, and the general sciences. Project Muse (provided by GCSU) is a full-text database of scholarly journals in the arts and sciences. If you are accessing Project Muse from off campus, login to your PAWS account to get the password.
Grove Music Online (provided by GCSU) is a gateway that offers users the ability to access and cross-search the resources of Oxford's music reference in one location.
For a more complete list of databases pertaining to music, access GALILEO's Music and Performing Arts page.
Journal Locator
Search for specific journals or magazines. The Journal Locator will tell you the location and availability of a journal or magazine: either in the GCSU Periodicals Collection or in a database.
Online Journals
- Echo: a Music-Centered Journal: "an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal created and edited by graduate students in the Department of Musicology at the University of California."
The Journal of Music and Meaning: "an on-line peer-reviewed journal for multidisciplinary research on music and meaning."
Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music: "published by the Society for Seventeenth-Century music to provide a refereed forum for scholarly studies of the musical cultures of the seventeenth century."
Music Theory Online: A Journal of Criticism, Commentary, Research, and Scholarship: "Music Theory Online is the refereed, electronic journal of the Society for Music Theory, Inc."
*All quotes are taken from the respective journal websites.
Web Sites - African-American Sheet Music 1850-1920: a collection of 1305 pieces of African-American sheet music, selected from the collections of Brown University.
Allmusic: a commercial website covering both popular and classical music which features biographies, reviews, discographies, and music videos.
American Musicological Society: a non-profit organization whose purpose is to advance "research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship."
The Charles H. Templeton Sr. Music Museum: a collection of digitized sheet music, many of which are in the public domain, covering rags, blues, movie tunes, foxtrots, popular, war songs, and show tunes.
A Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments: contains pictures, audio clips, descriptions, and resources for further study for thirty-two medieval and renaissance musical instruments.
The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection: an indexed collection popular music from 1780 to 1960. The collection focuses on popular American music and contains over 29,000 pieces.
The Librarian's Internet Index : The Librarian's Internet Index is a searchable directory of websites compiled and evaluated by librarians.
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music: from the Library of Congress, this collection contains over 15,000 pieces of sheet music from 1820 - 1860 and more than 47,000 from 1870-1885. The collection includes popular music, sacred music, instrumentals, and operatic arias.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum: find information on notable performers, producers, songwriters, and disc jockeys who have helped shape rock and roll music.
The 100 Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century: from National Public Radio. This list covers music from a wide variety of musical genres and provides the audio of the original NPR broadcast dealing with each piece.
Contact A Librarian For further assistance, contact the Reference Desk in the GCSU Library or contact the GCSU Library liaison to the Music and Theatre Department:
- liaison: Edward Whatley
email: edward.whatley@gcsu.edu
phone: (478) 445 - 0981