Research Guides: Music: Encyclopedias & Bibliographies

Background Information & Facts - Online

Use these ONLINE resources to locate authoritative factual information such as biographies, dates, and works listings. This is generally the sort of information you need when starting research projects and for writing program notes.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Contains several important resources including New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (the place to go for information when you think you wanted to go to Wikipedia instead) and other specialized encyclopedias. Use this site to find biographies of composers and performers. Also important for the complete works listings of each composer providing essential information for program notes. Make sure to also check out some of the TOPICAL entries and other helpful features available like the following (and many more):

A list of all operas covered here arranged by their composer. Very helpful for some operas that have popular names...
Timeline of Contemporary Music (with links to the pertinent articles)
Timeline of Women in Music (with links to the pertinent articles)

MGG Online This link opens in a new window
An essential German language music encyclopedia. This online version contains the second editions (published between 1994-2008). It's particularly good in that some of its more important older articles are being regularly updated and new articles for emerging people and musical concepts are being added. While this is in German, it has Google translate embedded into the platform so you can easily get a rough translation.

It has an interactive and very detailed timeline you can use to explore musical history.

Classical Music Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Brings together about 40 different music reference resources. Some of the most notable include:

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC

African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window
Contains essays and liner notes related to blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. Includes books like the following selections (and many more):

WORLD MUSIC

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music This link opens in a new window
Locate information about music from cultures all over the world. The information presented here is generally focused on "traditional" music (i.e., not intended for performance in a concert hall). Generally textual information, but it also includes some streaming audio.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary collection of bibliographies by experts on each subject. Locate the Music module by clicking on the "Browse by Subject" link in the header. Use one of the bibliographies to quickly locate the essential readings on a given topic. Includes entries on topics like the following (and many more):

INTERDISCIPLINARY

Oxford Research Encyclopedias include dozens of high quality, peer reviewed encyclopedias on a wide array of topics. These articles can be extremely helpful to better understand the context and background in which music has appeared. Examples of topics covered in this platform include: African History; American History; Asian History; Latin American History; Psychology; Religion; etc.

Gale Virtual Reference Library * is an excellent resource for a plethora of electronic encyclopedias and dictionaries. Very few offered here are specific to music, but many of them can be helpful. For example, if looking up information on queer musicians, you will find some excellent information in the Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History. Another example: Use something like Encyclopedia Judaica to find information on Jewish music. Be a researcher and look everywhere!