Databases for Music
Best Bets
| Database | Description | Coverage | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grove Music Online |
Corresponds to 29-volume New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (published 2000). |
Ancient times to the present |
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| RILM Abstracts of Music Literature |
RILM includes all formats of scholarly works--articles, books, bibliographies, catalogs, dissertations, films and videos, and conference proceedings. |
1967-present |
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| Music Index |
Music Index covers more that 850 music periodicals from more that 40 countries. |
1975-present |
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| Music Online |
When complete, Music Online will offer more than 400,000 audio tracks, 400,000 scores, 100,000 pages of music reference, and over 500 hours of video. |
pre-1960 |
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Also Useful
| Database | Description | Coverage | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |
Containing 27,000 entries and over 6,000 new entries, the online edition of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music includes 50% more material than the print Third Edition, and is part |
1900-present |
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| Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online |
The 10-volume set of The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music contains over 9,000 pages of material and covers: v.1 Africa; v. 2 South America, Central America, and the Caribbean; v. |
1997-2001 |
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| International Index to Music Periodicals |
IIMP provides citations with abstracts to more than 300 international music periodicals from over 20 countries. IIMP also includes retrospective coverage from 99 periodicals. |
1874-present |
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| New Grove Dictionary of Jazz |
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, along with the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, provide unsurpassed authority |
1900's-present |
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| New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians |
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, along with The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, provide unsurpassed |
Ancient times to the present |
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| New Grove Dictionary of Opera |
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, along with The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz |
Middle Ages to the present |
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| Oxford Companion to Music |
The Oxford Companion to Music offers over 8,000 articles across an extraordinary range of subjects: composers, performers, conductors, individual works, instruments and notation, forms and |
1400's-present |
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| Oxford Dictionary of Music |
The Oxford Dictionary of Music brings together over 12,500 entries covering musical subjects of all kinds including entries on composers, performers, conductors, musical terms and forms, i |
Ancient times-present |
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| Oxford Music Online |
Oxford Music Online includes the most comprehensive scholarly encyclopedia of music in the English language. Coverage of music of all times and places. |
Ancient times-present |
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Even More
| Database | Description | Coverage | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academic OneFile |
Contains more than 11,000 academic jounals, the majority in full text and peer-reviewed, and podcasts and transcripts from major news sources. |
1980-present |
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| African American Song |
16,000 audio tracks of historical recordings from a diverse range of genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives, among others. |
20th Century |
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| American Song |
Allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. |
pre-1960 |
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| Anthropology Plus |
Provides citations to articles and essays from over 1,000 journals, monographic series, reports, commentaries, and review essays. |
19th century-present |
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| Classical Music Library |
Classical Music Library is a fully searchable classical music resource—a comprehensive database of distinguished classical recordings. |
Medieval to present |
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| Contemporary World Music |
Contemporary World Music will contain 50,000 tracks that deliver the sounds of all regions of the world. |
20th Century |
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| DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) |
DRAM provides on-demand streaming access to CD-quality audio (192kbps Mp4), complete original liner notes and essays from independent record labels and sound archives. |
1800's-present |
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| International Index to Performing Arts Full Text |
This database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 260 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 100 of the indexed journals. |
1990s-present |
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| Jazz Music Library |
The current release (2013) includes 10,752 albums and 133,660 tracks. |
1920s-present |
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| LexisNexis Academic |
News, business information, medical and health topics, and law-related resources |
1990s-present |
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| Naxos Music Library Jazz |
Naxos Music Library Jazz offers close to 60,000 tracks of jazz from over 5,200 albums, with over 7,000 jazz artists represented. |
1900's-present |
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| Naxos Video Library |
Naxos Video Library brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. |
1990-present |
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| New York Times |
Covers the New York Times late edition (East Coast) (1980-present), the New York Times Magazine (1997-present), and the New York Times Book Review (1997-present). |
1980-present |
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| Newspaper Source Plus |
Newspaper Source Plus provides full text coverage for 730 national & international newspapers. |
2000-present |
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| Opera in Video |
Opera in Video contains five hundred hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. |
Renaissance-Present |
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| Smithsonian Global Sound |
The latest release of Smithsonian Global Sound (2013) includes 2,949 albums, equalling 42,405 tracks. |
20th century |
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