Music

Compiled by leading scholars in music fields, this set of bibliographies covers several musical areas, including composers, instruments, musical forms, ethnomusicology, countries, and more. Each article is reviewed and updated annually; new bibliographies are slated to be added as well.

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online is a comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of the world’s peoples. It contains more than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world.This release includes 1,217 essays and images from 10 sources and hundreds of audio examples.

The Oxford History of Western Music discusses the history of Western classical music from the perspective on the renowned musicologist, Richard Taruskin. The online version contains the entire text of all 69 chapters from the print 2009 edition, as well as the 500 illustrations and 1800 musical examples. It also offers links to relevant entries in Grove Music Online and search and browse options for navigation of the text.

NEW in 2021! MGG online is the preeminent digital encyclopedia for music researchers published from 1994 to 2020 with over 3,800 subject entries and over 15,000 biographical entries. “MGG Online builds on the second edition of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG, 1994–2008), offering new and substantially updated content as well as continuous updates, revisions, and additions. MGG Online is being developed by Bärenreiter and J. B. Metzler in partnership with RILM.”

Online access to Oxford University Press reference handbooks in music. Each Handbook has in-depth essays by the world’s leading scholars. Search contents through one interface, individually or by modules. Over 70 handbooks comprising over 2,300 articles/chapters. Publication dates of the handbooks are quite current ranging from 2011-present.

NEW in 2021! The Cambridge History of World Music focuses on "foundational historical moments – in Europe, Oceania, China, India, the Muslim world, North and South America – in search of the connections provided by a truly world music. Historically, world music emerged from ritual and religion, labor and life-cycles, which occupy chapters on Native American musicians, religious practices in India and Indonesia, and nationalism in Argentina and Portugal. The contributors critically examine music in cultural encounter and conflict, and as the critical core of scientific theories from the Arabic Middle Ages through the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Overall, the book contains the histories of the music of diverse cultures, which increasingly become the folk, popular and classical music of our own era."

A guide to copyright law as it applies to music. Prepared by the Music Publishers Association. Includes information such as: Permission Forms & Informational PDFs; Frequently Asked Copyright Questions; Streaming Live Music: What You Need To Know; Distance Learning and Using Copyrighted Music; Creating Authorized Orchestral Pops Arrangements;
Creating Authorized Band Arrangements; Creating Authorized Choir Arrangements;
Quick Guide to Copyright; Copying Under Copyright; Resources for Churches

2018. Keith Hatschek et al. “ The US music industry is an exciting, fast-paced, marketplace which brings together creative and business interests to connect artists with audiences. This book traces the history of the music industry from the Colonial era to the present day, identifying trends and the innovative leaders who have shaped its course. This volume embraces the diversity of the American music industry, spanning classical to country and hip hop to heavy metal. Historical Dictionary of the American Music Industry contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes that provide a comprehensive directory of college music business programs and a listing of all relevant music industry trade associations, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important artists, managers, companies, industry terminology and significant trade associations.”

2017. Norman Abjorensen. “ This book seeks to trace the rise of popular music, identify its key figures and track the origins and development of its multiple genres and styles, all the while seeking to establish historical context. It is, fundamentally, a ready reference guide to the broad field of popular music over the past two centuries. It has become a truism that popular music, so pervasive in the modern world, constitutes a soundtrack to our lives – a constant though changing presence as we cross thresholds and grow from children to teenagers to adults. But it has become more than a soundtrack; it has become a narrative. Not just an accompaniment to our daily lives but incorporating our lives, our sense of identity, our lived experiences, into it. We have become part of the music just as the music has become part of us. The Historical Dictionary of Popular Music contains a chronology, an introduction, an appendix, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on major figures across genres, definitions of genres, technical innovations and surveys of countries and regions.”

2016 (2nd ed.) William A. Everett. “ The Broadway musical has greatly influenced both American and world culture. Shows such as Oklahoma! and Annie Get Your Gun are as American as apple pie, while the long runs of imports such as Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables have broken records. Shows filled with rock and pop music such as Mamma Mia! and Wicked enthrall audiences, and revivals of beloved shows play an important role in contemporary Broadway culture. Actors Ethel Merman, Yul Brynner, Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, and Audra McDonald; composers and lyricists Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Jeanine Tesori; and directors and choreographers George Abbott, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Susan Stroman—to name only a few—have gained national and international recognition by way of the Broadway musical stage. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical contains a chronology, an introduction, an appendix, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on Broadway shows, composers, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, actors, and theatres.”

2016 (2nd ed.) Joseph Peter Swain. “ Sacred music is a universal phenomenon of humanity. Where there is faith, there is music to express it. Every major religious tradition and most minor ones have music and have it in abundance and variety. There is music to accompany ritual and music purely for devotion, music for large congregations and music for trained soloists, music that sets holy words and music without words at all. In some traditions—Islamic and many Native American, to name just two--the relation between music and religious ritual is so intimate that it is inaccurate to speak of the music accompanying the ritual. Rather, to perform the ritual is to sing, and to sing the ritual is to perform it. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on major types of music, composers, key religious figures, specialized positions, genres of composition, technical terms, instruments, fundamental documents and sources, significant places, and important musical compositions.”