Robert J. Maxwell, Jr. Music Media Center -- Finding Solo Vocal Materials

Information Sources for Music 16

Basics for Beginning Your Research	Music Searching
Finding Articles and Reviews	Writing the Paper

The Basics for Beginning Your Research
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians	Ref ML 105.B16 2001
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians	Ref ML 105.S612
Composer Biographies	ML 410 (arranged alphabetically by composer)
IPA Manual	Ref MT 883.W34 1989
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians	Ref ML100 .N48 2001
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera	Ref ML 102.O6 N5 1992
New Harvard Dictionary of Music	Ref ML 100.R3 1986
Resources of American Music History	Ref ML 120.U5 R47
Worldwide Internet Resources - Composers	Click here

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Journal Articles and Reviews
International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) Full Text, 1874-present Search with keywords or choose items from subject list Check "peer reviewed articles only" to limit to scholarly publications	Click here
JSTOR - includes full image access to music journals from the 19th century to five years ago	Click here
LexisNexis Academic Universe - use to find reviews of performances	Click here
Music Index - Citations for scholarly and popular articles, 1979-present Use "Expert Search" to limit search Take advantage of subject list - link at top of screen	Click here
New York Times Historical Full Image, 1851-2001 - work premieres, reviews, obituaries of composers	Click here
RILM - Abstracts of all scholarly works, 1967-present Limit search by document type To narrow search, limit to those with "abstract available"	Click here

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Search Alcuin - Tips for Music Searches

Use a composer’s (or performer’s) last name

Beethoven
Bach

Limit to Sound Recordings or Scores in the drop down men

Separate words with AND, OR, & NOT

     Schubert AND song
     Beethoven AND symphony
     Symphony OR concerto
      Bach NOT Johann

Truncate words with an asterisk that may have multiple endings

Symphon* - will find symphony, symphonies, symphonien
Bach AND cantat* - will find cantata, cantate, cantatas, cantaten
Schubert AND (song* OR lied*) – will find song, songs, lied, lieder
Rachmanino* - will find items listed as Rachmaninov and Rachmaninoff

This works in IIMP and RILM also; in Music Index the symbol is $.

Use catalog or opus number of larger work rather than song name

Bach AND “bwv 61”
Mozart AND “K. 427”

Search for a specific title by putting it in quotation marks

“Ave Maria”
“Rite of Spring”

Song titles are usually indexed for compact discs, but are often not listed for printed music. There are two solutions to this – you can use a song index (see the music librarian) or broaden the search (Schubert and song* rather than Schubert and Erlkönig).

The music library is open the following hours:

Sunday 3-11 pm
Monday- Thursday 8:45 am – 5 pm, 7-11 pm
Friday 8:45 am – 4 pm
Saturday 1-5 pm

Can’t find what you need? E-mail the music librarian: jenny.colvin@furman.edu

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Writing the Paper
MLA handbook for writers of research papers, 6th ed.	MusLib Reserve LB2369 .G53 2003
MLA Bibliography Builder	Click here
RefWorks (Bibliographic Management Program)	Click here

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