Databases by Subject
Need help doing research? Check out the Music Subject Guide.
Databases for Music
- American Song
- Coverage: N/A
- American Song is an aural history database that 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. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more. Currently it includes 4,058 albums, equaling 68,981 tracks; more tracks will be added regularly.
- Classical Music Library
- Coverage: Recordings from 1910-current
- Growing collection of over 60,000+ tracks, with multiple versions of many major works. Functionality includes playlists and mobile listening. Part of Music Online.
- Contemporary World Music
- Coverage: N/A
- Contemporary World Music delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more. Currently including 2,148 albums, equaling 29,521 tracks, it is growing regularly.
- The Database Of Recorded American Music
- Coverage: N/A
- Provides streamed audio recordings of over 1,500 CDs (9,800 compositions). Basic collection includes the diverse catalogue of American music recordings by New World Records-- from folk to opera, Native American to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic and beyond. Includes liner notes and essays. Currently available via on-campus access only.
- The Garland Encyclopedia Of World Music Online
- Coverage: N/A
- Online version of the 10-volume encyclopedia, with detailed indexing and searching, and accompanied by images and audio samples.
- Grove Music Online
- A large collection of music reference information, encompassing The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, as well as numerous subsequent updates and emendations. Grove is now a part of Oxford Music Online (OMO), and this resource includes The Oxford Companion to Music and The Oxford Dictionary of Music. The following works will become available as content is published: The Grove Dictionary of American Music, the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Where content overlaps, entries from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography are available.
- Humanities International Complete
- Coverage: 1929 - current
- A comprehensive humanities database, with almost 500 full text titles and indexing and abstracting for more than 1,700 titles. Subject areas include (but are not limited to) literature, philosophy, the arts, history, culture-oriented and multi-disciplinary humanities titles with some coverage going back as far as 1929. This database replaces Humanities Abstracts.
- Index To Printed Music
- Coverage: music printed 1720 - current
- Index to 425,000 +individual pieces of music from thousands of scholarly collections, with coverage of music from eras from ancient Greece to present. Many records include instrumentation and score format.
- Jazz Music Library
- Coverage: N/A
- Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. This ever-expanding collection currently includes more than 5,041 albums and 60,292 tracks.
- JSTOR
- Coverage: late 1800's - most recent 0-5 years
- Archival access to many scholarly periodicals. Some titles include current issues while others have a moving wall imposed on them.
- The Music Index
- Coverage: 1979 - current
- Indexes over 670 international music periodicals, covering a broad range of subjects. Good subject headings for searches; citations only.
- Music Online
- Coverage: N/A
- Music Online is the broadest and most comprehensive online music resource that cross-searches all of your library's Alexander Street Press music databases. CC subscribes to 6 streamed-audio databases; you can search these (American Song, Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online, Jazz Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound for Libaries) all at once using this tool.
- National Network For Artist Placement
- Over 700 organizations and more than 2,500 current listings, updated monthly, weekly, daily, in every art discipline: arts institutions, dance companies, museums, galleries, filmmakers, theatre companies, and music organizations throughout the nation. This title replaces National Directory of Arts Internships. (See reference librarian for username and password.)
- Orchestral Music Online
- Coverage: N/A
- The most recent version of David Daniels's classic work, providing information on instrumentation of the standard orchestral repertoire. Features searching of more than 6700 works by some 900 composers by: composer, title, duration of work, chorus type and soloists. Offers monthly updates and links from individual works to music publishers and other sources.
- Oxford Music Online
- Coverage: N/A
- A gateway into music research and the access point for new and forthcoming Oxford music reference subscriptions and products. Currently this includes Grove Music Online, the Oxford Companion to Music, and the Oxford Dictionary of Music.
- RILM Abstracts Of Music Literature
- Coverage: 1967 - current
- Description: This database abstracts and indexes publications on music, in all media: books, journals, online resources, research-based sound recordings and films, dissertations, and more. Publications range from 150+ countries and many languages; title translations into English and abstracts in English are included.
- Smithsonian Global Sound For Libraries
- Coverage: N/A
- Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides educators, students, and interested listeners with an unprecedented variety of online resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of diverse musical forms. This growing collection includes over 2,812 albums, equaling 41,082 tracks.