Grove Music Online

The primary English-language reference source for music. Over 47,000 articles provide comprehensive coverage of music of all styles, periods, and geographic regions. There is also a print version in the Music & Media Library reference section:  ML100 .N48 2001 (29 vols., non-circulating). 

Tips

• Use the toolbar options to find Related Articles, Illustrations, and Sound (files), and for navigating.

• Each article contains a link to "How to cite Grove Music Online": note that the examples use British pratice for punctuation, rather than American.

 

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online

An encyclopedia of more than 700 articles covering the music of the world's peoples, from the earliest known traditions to current practices.  Includes articles on geographic areas, nations, and ethnic groups, as well as discussion of scholarly trends and issues.  

Browsing is recommended:

• Click on the BROWSE button.
• Select the volume you want.

Vol. 4: Southeast Asia.
Vol. 5: South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent
Vol. 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea

• Scroll to the bottom of the screen, find the contents listing that interests you
• Expand the contents list by clicking on a plus sign (+).
• Click on a listing to access the text.

Tips:

• Advanced Search (click on Search at top left) allows more focused results than the search box on the home page.
• Citations to additional sources are listed in the "References" sections within articles and in the "Guide to Publications" at the end of each volume.

 

Get AUDIO EXAMPLES and PRINTED VOLUMES in the Music and Media Library. There's one CD of audio examples (not yet available online) for each volume. All CDs and reserve volumes are kept behind the desk.  You'll need to give the call number and volume number.

Call no for print volumes and CDs:   ML100 .G16 1998.

• 1 set is in the Music & Media Reference section.
• 1 set (CDs and volumes) is on Reserve for 3-day checkout.  (Beware hourly reserve overdue charges!)

 

Also see the Reference Tools section below.

Use the databases listed below to identify articles on your topic.

• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature

A "comprehensive, ongoing guide to publications on music from all over the world," RILM Abstracts covers all literature on music—books, journal articles, articles in collections of essays, dissertations, and other publications. Entries include abstracts in English. Coverage begins with 1967.

Search Tips

• Truncation symbol: *. Wildcard: ?, *.
• To switch between Quick and Advanced searches, click Change Search & Display Level—the gray button at the far right of the screen.
• Use Advanced Search to limit results to English.

 

• Web of Science 

This collection of multidisciplinary citation databases may be your most comprehensive source for articles. Contains Arts & Humanities Citation Index, covering 1975 to the present, and Social Sciences Citation Index, covering 1956 to the present.  Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (i.e., its bibliography), you can also search for articles that cite a known author or work. 

Search Tips  

• Truncation symbol: *. Wildcard: $. 
• "Change Limits and Settings"— bottom of search screen—lets you select which indexes to search. You may at times want to exclude the science and chemistry indexes.
• Notice the "Refine Results" box on the left of the list of hits.

 

• Google Scholar

More of a general-purpose database, it tends to provide less exhaustive coverage than RILM combined with Web of Science.  Valuable for its ease of use and the Find it at Emory links.

 

• JSTOR 

Limited in scope, but may be useful for its links to articles citing the article being viewed (right-hand box on the article screen).    Contains full text of about 40 music journals, plus journals in other disciplines.

• Music Index Online

Index to periodical articles on music. Coverage begins with 1979, is international in scope, and includes music of all periods and genres, musical instruments, composers, performers, the music industry, and other music-related topics. In addition to comprehensive coverage of periodicals devoted to music, provides selective indexing of journals in related disciplines and of some general titles. The print version of Music Index (Musicmedia REF ML 118 .M84) goes back to 1949.

Search Tips

• Do not use any punctuation other than quotation marks in searches. It may cause a null result.
• Use quotation marks to indicate exact phrases.
• $ may be used as a truncation symbol or to replace any number of characters in a term.
• Whenever you see this logo in a full citation, you can click on it to view the article online in JSTOR (Journal Storage Project).  If there's no logo, check the title of the journal in EUCLID.

In Expert Search

• To find citations about a person, search the name as a Subject.

• To find citations about a composition, search the work's title as a Title.
• If you leave the Word Form Options set to Boolean (the default), all forms of the search term will be retrieved. E.g., a search on sing will include results also for sings, sang, singer, and singing.
• With the Boolean option mentioned above, you may use operators (such as and, or, not) in your search.

• International Index to Music Periodicals

Indexes articles from more than 430 music periodicals from about 20 countries, and selectively indexes some newspapers. Coverage begins with 1996 except for selected journals which are indexed in their entirety. Abstracts are provided for articles published after 1995.

 

• All Databases at Emory

While each electronic database works a bit differently, almost all database—including EUCLID— provide certain standard search capabilities, such as

• truncation (for finding variants of words)
• operators (Boolean and proximity): AND, OR, etc.
• limiting features (for narrowing results).

Familiarize yourself with these by reading Database Standard Features.   Then you'll be able to create more effective searches.

Find out about books, sound recordings, videos and other materials that Emory doesn't own by using

WorldCat

Also called OCLC, this is the public interface to the huge OCLC catalog, a union catalog of over 28 million records representing the holdings of over 11,000 libraries in the United States and abroad. As a library catalog, WorldCat contains records for the same types of materials as EUCLID. Note: Individual member libraries may have items that are not represented in the database.

Search Tips

• Truncation symbol is *.
• Use Advanced Search to limit by format (books, sound recordings, etc.) and to search by subject.

To obtain these materials, use Interlibrary Loan:

Emory's Interlibrary Loan service will obtain from another library, at your request, a book, article, etc., that Emory doesn't own.  It will then lend the item to you or send you a copy of the article.  Allow at least two weeks for this service.

Place your request online.  If you need help, ask at the Music and Media Library service desk or at the reference desk on level 2.  Contact the Music Librarian if you have more questions.

OR

Borrow from other libraries in the Atlanta area:

Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and the University of Georgia (Athens)

Use your Emorycard to borrow materials from these libraries. You will need to register at the circulation desk of the lending library in order to set up your account.

Other Academic Libraries in Atlanta

Most of the other colleges and universities in the metropolitan area grant borrowing privileges for a limited time upon presentation of an Interlibrary Use card from Emory. (Do not confuse with Interlibrary Loan.) Obtain your Interlibrary Use card at the main Reference/Information desk in Woodruff Library before visiting the other institution.

To find an individual library's catalog on the web, consult the Local and National Catalogs

ALSO TRY

Google Books 

Especially useful for older titles that are in the public domain.  Don't overlook the "Advanced Book Search."

General information on when to cite

Citing Your Sources 

Books dealing specifically with music

How to Write about Music: The RILM Manual of Style.  2d ed. James R. Cowdery, ed. 

Musicmedia REF ML3797 .H69 2006

Help with many details of wording, usage, citation style, and other technical aspects of preparing a paper.

Holoman, D. Kern. Writing about Music : A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-century Music.
Musicmedia REF ML63 .W68 1988 (2nd copy in circulating collection)

A style manual often used for writing about music of any period.

 

Irvine, Demar. Irvine's Writing about Music. 3d ed. Revised and enlarged by Mark A. Radice.
Musicmedia REF ML 3797 .I79 1999.

This is more recent and includes information on citing websites

 

Remember to adapt punctuation and other components in various guides to maintain one consistent style for your citations. Check with Professor Lee about which citation style to use.

Use Software to Keep Track of your Citations

EndNote or Zotero could help you format and organize your citations for every paper you write.

• Free software
• Free workshops in the library to get you started
• Read about EndNote and Zotero.
• Compare features of these two on the Citation Manager Comparison guide.