Clinton Community College
Music Reference Sources
DESCRIPTIONS OF MUSIC REFERENCE SOURCES
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REF ML 100 .H36 1999 |
Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1999. “Devoted to concert music in the Western tradition from the earliest times…. Includes entries for performers of Western concert music, jazz, and popular music…. [Also features] a number of terms and instruments … belonging to non-Western musical traditions and to Western popular music.” |
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REF ML 100 .N48
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New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, 1980. This massive 20-volume work is a completely revised and expanded version of Sir George Grove’s 1954 masterwork. Written by 2,500 people, it is the standard multi-volume reference work for the English-speaking world. So huge that it requires a 10-page “Introduction” in Volume 1 to describe how to use it, its length and format make it invaluable for any music researcher. |
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REF ML 100 .N5 1983
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New Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press, 1983. A 2-volume set, this title “is a completely new encyclopedia covering music from ancient times to the present day. Clear, authoritative, and readable, it provides within two volumes some 6,600 entries on...composers, individual works, music at various periods and in many different countries and civilizations, opera, jazz, popular music, electronic music, acoustics, and musical instruments from all parts of the world. There are also 2,000 entries defining musical terms, together with articles on music theory and forms.” |
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REF ML 100 .R3 1986 |
New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986. This source includes only a handful of the entries in the earlier dictionaries. Heavy emphasis is on the coverage of non-western and popular music and musical instruments of all cultures. Bibliographies at the end of many entries include source no found elsewhere. Recent scholarship on all periods of music, including recent music. A 2-page bibliography in the preface includes “Festschriften and Congress Reports”. |
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REF ML 100 .S37 2002 |
Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press, 2002. “[Covers] composers, conductors, performers, individual works, instruments, notation, forms and genres, theory, aesthetics, and the way music is performed and [distributed].”
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REF ML 101 .U6 N48 1986 |
New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, 1986. This 4-volume set is a dictionary of American music, not a dictionary of general music. Covers American composers, conductors, singers, and instrumentalists as well as music of foreign musicians who settle here in the U.S. and American musicians who settle abroad. Includes terminology and instruments that occupy a place in American music, dealing specifically with American traditions of music, composers, etc., and includes entries on the bibliography on American music and on its discography. |
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REF ML 102 .C7 E54 1998 |
Encyclopedia of Country Music. Oxford University Press, 1998. Covering 8 decades of country music, this book features 1300 alphabetical entries on singers, songwriters, record companies, radio and TV programs, etc. In addition, there are 10 essays on the historical, cultural, religious, artistic, and financial forces shaping country music. |
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REF ML 102 .I5 B34 1992 |
Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments. Oxford University Press, 1992. An alphabetical listing of Western and non-Western musical instruments, with numerous drawings to illustrate details of the instruments. There are articles on the instruments of specific periods as well as articles on instruments of individual continents. Related topics such as pitch are also discussed. Includes bibliography and list of makers of musical instruments. |
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REF ML 102 .J3 N48 2001 |
New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2002. Covers “the music, history, performers, and venues of jazz…. [Gives] detailed attention to all periods and styles from many countries…. Besides traditional jazz topics, there are extensive entries on blues, brass bands, soul music, ragtime, and rock music, as well as profiles on musicians.” |
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REF ML 102 .O6 N5 1992 |
New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, 1992. This four-volume set features nearly every opera and important performer from before 1992. Also includes cities, companies, composers, directors, stagecraft, terms, and theaters. |
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REF ML 102 .P66 G84 1998 |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 3rd ed. Muze, 1998. This eight-volume collection is an alphabetical listing of performers, songs, and record companies. Volume 8 contains a song title index, a general index, a bibliography by artist, a bibliography by subject, and a list of selected fan club magazines. |
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REF ML 102 .R6 R64 2001 |
Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Rolling Stone Press, 2001. “Each of the alphabetically arranged entries provides basic biographical information and, where appropriate, a selective or full discography plus group personnel chronology showing as clearly as can be determined the history of personnel changes. This is followed by an essay that … sums up the subjects’ lives and careers, [and] attempts to place their work in critical and historical perspective.” |
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REF ML 105 .M455 1989 |
Jazz Handbook. G.K. Hall, 1989. Although a small source, this book is chock full of useful information that is both biographical and bibliographical. Especially useful are pages 6 and 7 on “How to Use this Handbook.” A wonderful index, as well as useful sections on record labels, jazz books, a glossary, and jazz organizations can be found at the end. |
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REF ML 105 .N67x 1994 |
Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. W.W. Norton, 1994. “This definitive source chronicles the lives and works of 875 women composers of Western classical music. ...Most entries...include a detailed biography, an evaluation of the subject’s music and her career, and a comprehensive list of her published and unpublished works.” |
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REF ML 105 .P66 1999 |
Popular Musicians. Salem Press, 1999. |
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REF ML 105 .S62 1995 |
Portable Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Schirmer Books, 1995. A paperback, condensed version of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Focus is on the key composers and musicians that every music lover and student will want to know. The entries included here are “basic, most of them written with more information and more flair than can be found in any comparable volume.” Many entries have been abridged from the original version but still retain their substance. |
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REF ML 105 .S67 1982 |
Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Greenwood Press, 1982. Comprised of concise biographical sketches giving objective accounts of the Afro-American or African musician’s professional life. “Personal details are included only when relevant to the professional career. Each entry gives facts of birth and death, education, details of career arranged generally in chronological order, and representative compositions or performances. In some cases, [evaluative comments have been added], particularly where the subject was a pioneer in this field of activity. Each entry carries a bibliography, and, when possible, a discography.” |
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REF ML 113 .G4 1993 |
Dictionary of Composers and Their Music: A Listener’s Companion. Wings Books, 1993 This 1993 edition includes substantially more information on composers than the 1978 edition. A notable inclusion in each entry is a paragraph of biographical information. In Part One, composer’s last names are arranged alphabetically; their music is organized chronologically. Collections of short works are sometimes not listed individually. Key signatures are given in full. Part Two is a purely chronological survey of compositions that continues through the end of 1984. Part Three is a timeline that allows readers to see which composers were contemporaries.
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REF ML 128 .P3 H53 1993 |
Music for Piano and Orchestra: An Annotated Guide. Enlarged ed. Indiana University Press, 1993. Entries are arranged alphabetically by composer and include “more than 3,000 works for piano and orchestra from the 1700’s to the present. Each entry presents such details as the key, opus number, editions available, performance time, level of difficulty, style, and special qualities of the work.” Supplement includes new works, new editions and new information about previously listed works. Indexes, annotated bibliography and addresses of music publishers are also provided.
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REF ML 128 .S3 C55 1996 |
Children's Song Index, 1978-1993. Libraries Unlimited, Inc. 1996. A compilation of 2654 songs derived from 77 books, this source contains an index of song titles, an index of first lines, a thesaurus of broad topics, and a subject index. |
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REF ML 128 .S3 L4 1989 |
Great Song Thesaurus. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1989. “...Covers every aspect of the literature of popular songs from the 16th century to 1987. Compiling 11,000 songs from the English-speaking world, it provides [the following information in each entry]: year of popularity, composer, lyricist, record sales, Hit Parade and air ranking, and the names of artists who recorded the ‘Top Hit’ songs since 1940--and indexes these song titles by subject, key word, key lyric line and category.” It lists virtually every song written in the last 400 years. |
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REF ML 128 .S3 L55 1984 |
Songs of the Theater. H.W. Wilson Company, 1984. This source is divided into a Song section and a Show Section. “The Song section contains approximately 17,000 titles, giving the names of the composer and lyricist, the name of the show in which the song was performed and year the show opened on or off Broadway. The Show section lists the stage productions with the opening date in New York, the composer, lyricist and the songs in the score on opening night.” Several indexes are included.
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REF ML 156.4 .B6 A45 2003 |
All Music Guide to the Blues. AEC One Stop Group, Inc., 2003. “This [record] guide … reviews and rates 7,000 recordings in all major styles across the blues map - from Delta blues to Louisiana, Memphis, Chicago, Texas, and beyond; from classic female singers to jump blues, blues slide guitar, blues in jazz, soul blues, blues-rock, modern acoustic and electric blues, and more…. Provides profiles of over 1,000 blues artists. Thirty historical essays plus supplemental "music maps" chart the roots and evolution of the blues, its various styles, instruments used, key artists, and more. The essays explore the blues from the Mississippi Delta to modern electric blues and everything in between.” |
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REF ML 156.9 .A38 2001 |
All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. AEC One Stop Group, Inc., 2001. A record guide covering genres including rock, rap, blues, gospel, country, bluegrass, folk music, Celtic and British Isles, Cajun, world music, reggae, and jazz. Recommends a first purchase, that is, an album “representative of the best this artist has to offer.” |
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REF ML 156.9 .M33 1992 |
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes. New ed. Penguin Books, 1992. Although the format is the same as the 1986 edition, many additional composers appear in this volume. While it is no longer possible to include every CD currently available, as many as possible are in the 1,350 pages. Unlike the 1986 edition, LP’s (long-playing records) are no longer included. |
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REF ML 156.9 .M87 |
MusicHound Soundtracks: The Essential Album Guide to Film, Television, and Stage Music. Visible Ink Press, 2000. A record guide reviewing soundtracks. Includes indexes by albums scoring the book’s highest rating, composer, conductor, and lyricist.
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REF ML 160 .H527 1989 |
Heritage of Music. Oxford University Press, 1989. “An encyclopedic history of Western music from its beginnings to the present, [this 4-volume set] combines an authoritative text by leading authorities with abundant and beautiful illustrations. Each volume is a self-contained survey of a period as well as an integral part of the whole. ...It defines music and explains its physical basis, outlines the basis of the Western harmonic system, and provides a comprehensive survey of musical styles from the Middle Ages to the present.” |
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REF ML 390 .K35 1994 |
Chronicle of Classical Music: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and Music of the Great Composers. Thames and Hudson, 1994. A chronological diary from 1600 to the present. “The composers’ own worlds, public and private, spring to life in extracts from contemporary letters and journals, and in hundreds of illustrations, many in full color: paintings and drawings, cartoons, posters, photographs, music scores and documents. An informative introduction traces the history of music before 1600. The reference section, clearly designed for easy use, includes biographies, a glossary of technical words, and charts summarizing the history of music and development of instruments”. A guide to the top CD’s and performers appears here. |
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REF ML 431 .R6 |
New Music Vocabulary: A Guide to Notational Signs for Contemporary Music. University of Illinois Press, [1975]. “In order to standardize a body of symbols so that common usage will replace the present arbitrary and individual usage, Risatti has arranged the new notational material in an orderly fashion. He covers each of the five instrumental groups including voice and presents a chapter on general notational systems. He furnishes a list of composers whose works were used to determine what new notational signs are in current use, a key to indicate in which compositions the symbol may be found, and an extensive cross-referenced index of all terms, symbols, and concepts used.”
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REF ML 460 .R359 1989 |
Musical Instruments: An Illustrated History from Antiquity to the Present. Amadeus Press, 1989. |
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REF ML 1200 .H9 |
The Orchestra. Facts on File, 1980. A well done, basic source that would be useful and informative to the reader unfamiliar with the structure and history of orchestras. It covers not only history (the early orchestra, as well as classical, romantic, and modern) but instruments; British, European, and American orchestras; and conductors. A failing of this work may be that there are drawings of many conductors for whom photographs were surely available. |
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REF ML 1711 .B67 1992 |
American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle. Oxford University Press, 1992. “Universally recognized as one of the major works dealing with the American theatre in any form, ...[this] has become a landmark book since its original publication in 1978. Chronicling American musicals, show by show and season by season, it offers a running commentary and assessment as well as providing basic facts about each production. This updated edition includes the new shows that have opened on Broadway since the original publication and a complete general index. Also included are over 100 musicals newly discovered by [the author]--turn-of-the-century, cheap-priced shows that never played Broadway, but were the training ground for many theatre guests.” |
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REF ML 1711 .G735 1990 |
Broadway Musicals, Show by Show. 3rd ed. Hal Leonard, 1990. “...A combination history, guide, fact book, and photograph album of the most memorable productions presented both on and off Broadway from...1866 right up to the present. There are over 300 entries, including 22 adaptations of foreign works and 16 revivals, comprising musical comedies, musical dramas, operettas, revues” and much, much more. “Among criteria for selection were length of run, seminal importance, people involved, uniqueness of approach or subject matter, quality of the score, and general acceptance as a significant work in the field. Broadway revivals were included if they ran longer than the original productions, if they were notable in their own right, or if they were a part of extended tours.” |
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REF ML 1711 .S25 |
Blacks in Blackface: A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press, 1980. Contains information that would not easily be found elsewhere: an historical overview; Black power in the 1920’s; pioneer Black show producers; famous Black theatres; Black musical comedy shows [show synopses], 1900-40; and biographies of Blacks in blackface. Includes some wonderful Appendices as well as an Index including the names of singers, performers, and composers. |
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REF ML 3470 .M36 1988 |
Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music. M. Cavendish, 1990. The coverage of rock and roll and popular music is so comprehensive as to require 21 volumes. Time period is from the mid-1950’s through 1987. Discographies and indexes are included. |
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REF ML 3534 .H343 1993 |
HeadBangers: The Worldwide Megabook of Heavy Metal Bands. Popular Culture, Ink, 1993. The author’s coverage of heavy metal is just that--distinctly different from hard rock, rock’n’roll, or any other sort of music. Practically any conceivable aspect of information on the genre of heavy metal can be found here. Especially detailed is the information listing bands, which includes personnel notes, recording notes, headliner and support band information, touring information, and career notes. |
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REF ML 3534 .M3 |
Rock Music Source Book. Anchor Books, 1980. A portable education in music, this source is a ”thematic chronicle of songs that have shaped our culture from approximately 1955-1980. Listed...are the themes, the labels, and the artists of popular music”. An excellent description of how and why particular themes and songs were selected and matched is included. Choice of the 50 themes reflects “the deepest personal, social, and political concerns in our world and in the world of rock and roll.” |
All Music Guide to the Blues
All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music
American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle
Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians
Blacks in Blackface: A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows
Broadway Musicals, Show by Show
Children's Song Index, 1978-1993
Chronicle of Classical Music: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and Music of the Great Composers
Dictionary of Composers and Their Music: A Listener’s Companion
Encyclopedia of Country Music
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Great Song Thesaurus
Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians
HeadBangers: The Worldwide Megabook of Heavy Metal Bands
Heritage of Music
Jazz Handbook
Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music
Music for Piano and Orchestra: An Annotated Guide
Musical Instruments: An Illustrated History from Antiquity to the Present
MusicHound Soundtracks: The Essential Album Guide to Film, Television, and Stage Music
New Grove Dictionary of American Music
New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
New Grove Dictionary of Opera
New Harvard Dictionary of Music
New Music Vocabulary: A Guide to Notational Signs for Contemporary Music
New Oxford Companion to Music
Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers
Orchestra
Oxford Companion to Music
Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes
Popular Musicians
Portable Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
Rock Music Source Book
Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll
Songs of the Theater
Updated 10/06 sh