Music Databases
Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World
ML102.P66 C66 2003 (Music Library Reference)
A seven volume guide to world music industries organized by continent.
Encyclopedia of Popular Music (part of Oxford Music Online)
Features a broad musical scope covering popular music of all genres and periods from 1900 to the present day. Coverage includes jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music, as well as additional entries covering popular music genres, trends, styles, record labels, venues, music festivals and biographies of artists. Contains the full-text of the 4th edition, 10 volume set.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
ML100 .G16 1998 (Music Library Reference)
A comprehensive survey of world music organized in ten volumes by continent.
Grove Music Online (part of Oxford Music Online)
Considered to be the unsurpassed authority on all aspects of music. Coverage includes biographies, musicology, world music, ancient and church music, theatre directors, and much more. Contains the full-text of the 29-volume print edition, with links to related web sites, including sound archives and illustrations. Updated quarterly and annually.
Oxford Companion to Music (part of Oxford Music Online)
Includes articles that range from clear, concise definitions of musical ideas and terms to extended surveys of musical forms and styles. It places music in its social and cultural context and offers a concentrated focus on the Western classic tradition, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The book covers current research in and approaches to music, including analysis, theory, ethnomusicology, and performance practice. All varieties of musical forms are convered, including jazz, popular music, and dance.
Oxford Dictionary of Music (part of Oxford Music Online)
Includes brief entries on composers, performers, conductors, musical terms and forms, instruments, works, venues and more.
Oxford Music Online
Includes full-text of the the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.), Grove Music Online, the Oxford Companion to Music (2002 revision) and the Oxford Dictionary of Music (2nd ed. rev.).
Oxford Reference Online - Performing Arts
Includes the Oxford Dictionary of Dance, the Concise Oxford Dictionaries of Music and Opera, Who's Who in Opera, the Oxford Companions to Music and Shakespeare, the Concise Oxford Companion to Theatre, and more
Online Indexes to Music Literature
Academic Search Complete
Provides full text for more than 4,000 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. This database is updated daily. List of journals included.
Music Index Online (1979 - Current)
Index to writings on classical and popular music, including scholarly and journalistic publications and reviews of books, recordings, and performances. Covers publications from 1979 to the present. Updated quarterly. See print edition for coverage of writings from 1949 to present.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1969 - Current)
Includes references (most with abstracts) to scholarly writings, including books, articles, and dissertations from 1969 to the present in English and most European languages. Updated monthly.
Listen to Music Online
Classical Music Library
An online streaming music service featuring works from the Medieval era through the present. Recordings can be located by browsing lists or by using either the basic or advanced search engines, and users can create and save playlists of their favorite music. Note: Off-campus access to Classical Music Library requires Internet Explorer.
Naxos Music Library
"Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos, Marco Polo and Da Capo catalogues of over 75,000 tracks, including Classical music, Historical recordings, Jazz, World, Folk and Chinese music. While listening, users can read notes on the works being played as well as biographical information on composers or artists in Naxos's extensive database"--FAQ page
Foreign Language Dictionaries
Oxford Language Dictionaries Online
This resource offers fully searchable comprehensive bilingual dictionaries and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning languages. Currently includes Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish bilingual dictionaries.
Oxford Reference Online
Contains entries from over 100 major discipline-related dictionaries and other publications from Oxford University Press. Coverage includes the sciences, foreign languages, art and architecture, politics, business, literature and more.
Includes more than 1500 dictionaries representing more than 230 languages.
Related Resources
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1980 - Current)
This "Web of Science" database covers the journal literature of the arts and humanities, indexing 1,100 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. Updated weekly. Tutorial
Contains nearly 12 million biographical entries from over 2700 current and retrospective reference books; covers historic and contemporary figures.
Dissertation Abstracts (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses) (1861 - Current)
Includes citations for dissertations dating from the first U.S. dissertation issued in 1861. Contains abstracts for dissertations from 1980 to the present and for master's theses from 1988 forward. The work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities are also included. Titles published since 1997 are available in PDF digital format and have 24 page previews available.
Database of citations for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, and related disciplines.
ERIC (EBSCO) (1966 - Current)
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, it consists of over 900,000 citations from journals, reports, and other sources spanning the entire field of education and related areas. Updated monthly. How to get ERIC Documents at Kent State University
ERIC (OSearch) (1966 - Current)
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, it consists of over 900,000 citations from journals, reports, and other sources spanning the entire field of education and related areas. Updated monthly. How to get ERIC Documents at Kent State University
Lists death dates for musicians as reported in current media. Updated daily.
Humanities International Complete
Humanities International Complete provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracting for over 1,900 titles, and full text of hundreds of journals books and other publications. The database includes citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations.
Catalog of the Library of Congress. Also offers access to authority records in the National Authority File.
Newspaper Source
Provides selected full text for over 180 regional U.S. newspapers, international newspapers, newswires, newspaper columns and other sources as well as indexing and abstracts for national newspapers. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc. This database is updated daily. List of journals included.
Top of page |