Information Sources for American Music

Dictionary of Terms
New Harvard Dictionary of Music -- Ref ML 100 .R3 1986

Basic Encyclopedias
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians -- Ref ML 100 .N48
New Grove Dictionary of American Music -- Ref ML 101 .U6 N48 1986
New Grove Dictionary of Jazz -- Ref ML 102 .J3 N48 1994
New Grove Dictionary of Opera -- Ref ML 102 .O6 N5 1992
New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments -- Ref ML 102 .I5 N48 1984
Encyclopedia of Popular Music -- Ref ML 102 .P66 G84 1998
New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll -- Ref ML 102 .R6 R64 1995

Composer Resource Manuals
Garland Composer Resource Manuals Series -- Ref ML 134
Bio-Bibliographies in Music Series -- Ref ML 134 (Tends to have more American composers)

• Do a "subject search" using words that describe your topic. Examples:
  • Piano
  • Blues (Music)
  • Presley, Elvis (NOTE: names are in reverse order)
  • Beatles
  • Music, United States -- History and criticism (NOTE: use sub-headings as a focus)
• Tip: use the "limit" feature to list filter for videos only or recordings only. This always works on the telnet version (on the desktop of the computers in the library), but doesn't always work on the web version of ALCUIN.
• After you use an index to identify journal and magazine titles, you can search for those titles in ALCUIN to see if we own them, where they are located (General or Music Library), and in what format (current periodicals, bound periodicals, microfiche, microfilm). 
• Remember that ALCUIN does not give you information about articles in the magazines -- it only tells whether Furman owns the journal itself.

Indexes and Bibliographies Specific to Music

• IIMP -- International Index to Music Periodicals
  (NOTE: This database is available on campus only.)
  Includes some full text. Topics range from classical to popular and folk. Indexing goes back the furthest of all the databases.
• Music Index -- Ref ML 118 .M84
  Includes popular and scholarly journals, popular music and "art music". Some overlap with IIMP, but you still should search both. 1979-present available online. 1949-2000 available in print.
• Bibliographies on American music -- Ref ML 120 .U5
  Identifies books and articles on American music topics.

General and Music-Related Indexes

• Expanded Academic Index -- includes articles from magazines and journals. Has some full text.
• LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe -- includes magazine and newspaper articles worldwide. Full text.
• Biography Index -- for finding citations to biographical articles and books.
• America: History and Life -- for historical context to American musical topics.
• Essay and General Literature Index -- for articles collected together as books.

• Internet Searching: Tools, Tricks, & Evaluation
  Guide to finding the right tool for your search and help with evaluating the content of the web pages you find.
• William Gedney Photographs and Writings
  Includes photographs of 20th-century American composers.
• Red Hot Jazz Archive
  Historical survey of jazz bands from 1895-1929. Includes recorded examples.
• American Music Network
  Sponsored by the Society for American Music, formerly the Sonneck Society.
  Contains information about the organization and an index of web links on American music.
• American Music Center
  Includes links to web sites covering all aspects of American music.
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  Biographies of performers, groups, and other rock personalities. Audio clips and virtual reality tours.