Music Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Reference Sources
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MusRef Bibliographies This online bibliography of music and dance reference resources contains abstracts only, indicating the existence of a resource. If BYU owns a copy, a BYU call number is listed.
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African American Music Reference (ASP) This link opens in a new window African American Music Reference from Alexander Street Press offers comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.
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Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990 An A-Z biographical reference that focuses on individual artists and groups in all popular styles active from 1990 to the present, including those in rock, rhythm and blues, rap, country, electronica, jazz, vocal and classical. Features include select discographies, bibliographies, a glossary of musical terms, and other information. Also features appendix essays on various topics including the music industry, rap, and grunge.
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Classical Music Reference Library (ASP) This link opens in a new window Classical Music Reference Library brings together more than 30,000 pages of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker\\'s Dictionary of Music, Baker\\'s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker\\'s Student Encyclopedia of Music.
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Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online (ASP) This link opens in a new window The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online is devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. It includes more than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world.
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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Music This link opens in a new window Oxford Bibliographies in Music combines the best features of a high-level encyclopedia and a traditional bibliography in a style tailored to meet the needs of today's online researchers. Each article, written and reviewed by top scholars in the field, is rich with citations and annotations, expert recommendations, and narrative pathways to the most important works for virtually all areas of music.
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Oxford Handbooks This link opens in a new window The complete texts of the prestigious Oxford Handbooks in Business and Management, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion now available online. Extensive links make the online Handbooks easy to navigate making these valuable reference resources more easily discoverable, accessible and searchable.
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Oxford History of Western Music This link opens in a new window The Oxford History of Western Music is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the rich and diverse tradition of Western music. Starting with the invention of musical notation more than a thousand years ago, Taruskin sweeps across centuries of musical invention and European intellectual history to provide a nuanced and stimulating historical account. He combines an emphasis on structure and form with a discussion of relevant theoretical concepts in each age, illustrating how the music itself works and how contemporaries heard and understood it. He also describes how the context of each stylistic period – key cultural, historical, social, economic, and scientific events – influenced and directed compositional practices.
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Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window Indexes the full text of the revised second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the authoritative encyclopedia for all aspects of music. Includes links to digital sound, images, and related sites. Updated quarterly and annually. We have 10 simultaneous users.
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Oxford Reference Online - Performing Arts This link opens in a new window Oxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource. The Core Collection contains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these books, giving subscribers unprecedented access to a comprehensive information resource. Also includes access to Oxford Digital Reference, a collection of 17 ebooks covering The Renaissance, Dance, Global Change, The Reformation, Byzantium, Theatre and Performance, The Enlightenment, Economic History, Evolution, Ancient Egypt, Food and Drink in America, The Middle Ages, American Literature, Latinos and Latinas in the United States, British Literature, Linguistics, and Children's Literature.
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RILM Music Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window RILM Music Encyclopedias is a continually expanding curated full-text collection that currently comprises 57 titles published from 1775 to the present. Its content spans various fields and subject areas of historical musicology, ethnomusicology and theory, with focus on topics ranging from popular music, opera, instruments, blues and gospel, to recorded music and women composers.
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St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Includes more than 2,700 signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and, where appropriate, photographs and textual cross-references to related essays.
Other Useful (Non-Music) Encyclopedias
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Britannica online This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Language Dictionaries Online This link opens in a new window Oxford Language Dictionaries Online (OLDO) features fully searchable, completely comprehensive bilingual dictionaries, and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning and using an expanding range of languages. Offering over 4 million words, phrases and translations in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. OLDO also features native speaker audio pronunciation - allowing you to hear how words actually sound. More than just a dictionary, OLDO offers a complete suite of language learning support materials for users of all levels: click-through verb tables and pronunciation charts, explanations of grammatical terms, hundreds sample letters, CVs and resumes, notes on life and culture, guidance on grammar and idiomatic usage, extensive links to other sites for further research, and more.
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World Biographical Information System (WBIS) Online This link opens in a new window World Biographical Information System Online is the most comprehensive biographical database available, providing short biographical information on 4 million people with a historical coverage from the 4th century BC to the present. It contains 3.85 million digital facsimile articles from more than 3,700 reference works, including biographical information on 2.3 million people worldwide. Access to the digitized full-text articles at BYU is limited at present to America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), and Scandinavia.
Related Guides
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LDS MusicGo here to find ward choir music and arrangements for special numbers in sacrament meetings.
Performing Arts Librarian
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