Subject & Research Guides: Music Resources: Internet Resources

Faculty Favorites

American Music Review
Issued by the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York

Here is a selected listing of web sites some of the music faculty find useful.

IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
Free public domain sheet music library
Living Composers Project
New Music Box
NPR (National Public Radio)
Sequenza 21: contemporary Classical Music Community

Internet Resources

10th-16th Century Liturgical Chants
Library of Congress collection. Description from the website: "...we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office."
19th Century California Sheet Music
"A virtual library of some 2,700 pieces of sheet music published in California between 1852 and 1900, together with related materials such as a San Francisco publisher's catalog of 1872, programs, songsheets, advertisements, and photographs... Images of every printed page of sheet music from eleven locations have been scanned at 400 dpi, in color where indicated.
In 2007 some 700 sheet music editions were added from the library of the Society of California Pioneers." -- from web site
AllMusic.com
A free resource that includes encyclopedic entries on genres and performers, and also has strong discographies; a good way to learn about genres that you are less familiar with.
American Choral Music - Library of Congress
The Music Division of the Library of Congress, working with the American Choral Directors Association, has created a database of choral music in the public domain. The titles may be downloaded.
American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page
Covers a number of subject areas, including music. Follow the links to explore the great American musical heritage.
American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca.1730-1910
subtitle: Digital Collections from the American Antiquarian Society and the Center for Popular Music. Approximately 350 unique, handwritten manuscripts were included in the project, totaling more than 17,000 pages of music. (description from website)
Art Vincent Jazz Collection
Located at the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, the collection consists of over "800 hours of interviews, broadcasts, and call-in segments primarily created for the radio program Art of Jazz, produced and presented by Art Vincent (1926-1993), Jazz DJ and concert producer" (description from publicity announcement).
Audio Database of Pre-1914 Recordings
"Thousands of centuries-old records, carved in wax, celluloid, shellac. The Phonobase offers the historian, musicologist, and to all the public, the new resource of thousands of recordings, made before 1914, mostly in France." Auto-translation of French text from website.
Bach Bibliography
The Bach Archive Leipzig provides access to the combined databases of Yo Tomita's online Bach bibliography and the Archive's online catalog. Approximately 65,000 titles are presented in the bibliography.
Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads
Digitized images from the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, England
Chopin Early Editions
"Chopin Early Editions consist of digitized images of all scores in the University of Chicago Library's Chopin collection. Users can search or browse Chopin Early Editions via a variety of data points, including titles, genres, and plate numbers." -- from site's home page
Civil War Sheet Music Collection
This Library of Congress collection makes available approximately 2500 scanned titles of sheet music which are specifically about the Civil War.
Classical String Quartet, 1770-1840
From Duke University; features rare and unusual string quartets not available in modern editions
Copyright, Public Domain, and Creative Commons
This informative tutorial from the University of Montana can help clarify these terms and how to apply them when working on projects.
Copyright Guide for Music Librarians
This site is maintained by the Legislation Committee of the Music Library Association (MLA) as a resource for anyone interested in issues of copyright as they apply to the fields of music and music librarianship.
Cylinder Preservaton & Digitization Project
Features the collection of cylinder recordings from the mid 1890s to the mid 1920s held by theSpecial Collections Dept., University of California at Santa Barbara; digitized audio files.
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"The collection includes nearly all types of recordings made around the turn of the 20th century including popular song, vaudeville, minstrelsy, comedic monologues, classical and operatic, solo instrumental recordings, bands, foreign and ethnic recordings, and speeches.." -- from announcement
Digital Library of the Caribbean
"The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections."--from web site Music topics are included.
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
"...a leading resource for the study of medieval manuscripts. We present images and metadata for thousands of manuscripts on this website. We also provide a home for scholarly resources and editions, undertake digital restoration of damaged manuscripts and documents, publish high-quality facsimiles, and offer our expertise as consultants."--Web site description.
Digital Resources for Musicology
This website provides links to substantial open-access projects of use to musicians and musicologists. [from web site]
Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology-Online
A listing of completed or new topic doctoral dissertations in music and related fields (scientific, humanistic); international in scope. Please note that the actual dissertation is not available in full-text and must be obtained through ILL or purchase.
Early American Sheet Music
Library of Congress digitized collection of American sheet music published 1820 or earlier.
Early Music Online (British Library, et al.)
The British Library in partnership with other groups has digitized over 300 anthologies of printed music (not manuscripts) from the 16th century and these are now freely available online. Important composers represented in the collections include Josquin des Prez, Thomas Tallis, and William Byrd. Vocal and instrumental pieces are represented in the collection.
Early Music Sources
"The aim of this website is to simplify the access to the vast amount of online early music sources. The sources database as well as the iconography database enable quick search and gateway to sources according to various categories...In addition to the databases, Early Music Sources also features a youtube series dealing with various topics relating to early music." -- Description from website.
Folksong Index
"An Oberlin College Libraries and Sing Out!
Collaboration, an extensive online index to traditional folk songs of the world with an emphasis on English-language songs... The index contains over 42,700 entries, and, to date, indexes over 2,000 anthologies. Each entry includes the song title, first line of chorus, first line of verse, and full bibliographic information on the source."-- from announcement
Folkstreams
This is a great site for viewing streamed videos for free. The site description: "A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures
streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites."
Geese Book
A team of experts headed by Volker Schier and Corine Schleif opens the Geese Book to scholars and provides a window for broader audiences. Completed in 1510 for the parish of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg, this large-format gradual preserves the mass liturgy that was sung by choir boys until the Reformation was introduced in 1525. Provocative and satirical illuminations include the one from which the book takes its name. (Description from web site)
Global Music Archive (Vanderbilt University)
"The Global Music Archive is a multi-media reference archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and the Americas..The GMA’s primary mission is to provide access to sound recordings and images of indigenous music from communities in Africa and the Americas."--Web site
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"...the GMA recently launched its first database in a series of databases, the Digital Collection of East African Recordings which consists of over 1,600 discrete musical performances recorded by an East African ethnomusicologist, Centurio Balikoowa."--Web site
Harvard Music Library Online Resources for Music Scholars
"A guide to electronic resources on a variety of topics in music, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, composition, and performance practice." (Description authored by Kerry Masteller, from Dec. 2010 issue of New England Quarter Notes, p.12)
Hip hop bib/webliography
Site maintained by John Ranck, scholar and musician
Historic American Sheet Music
From Duke University.
"...19th and early 20th century American sheet music. The Historic American Sheet Music Project provides access to digital images of 3042 pieces from the collection, published in the United States between 1850 and 1920." -- from Duke's web site
IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana
Digitized collection of historic sheet music from the libraries of Indiana University and other partnering organizations
In Mozart's Words
The website provides multilingual access to the correspondence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his family. This is an ongoing project which will take several years to complete.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
The Center is the only institution in North America devoted solely to the life, works, and accomplishments of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)...the Center now has the largest collection of Beethoven materials outside of Europe. --from Website
Irish Sheet Music Archives
This online collection consists of scans of public-domain sheet music held by the Ward Irish Music Archives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Jewish Theological Seminary Digital Collections: Jewish Art Music
The sheet music in this collection is primarily from early 20th century Russia and Central Europe. The general public may download and print the music for free.
John Cage Materials at Yale: A Study guide
This site offers links to the extensive holdings of Cage materials at Yale as well as additional resources at other institutions.
Journal of Seventeenth Century Music
Online journal. Instrumenta series includes composer thematic catalogs (example: Chambonnieres).
Juilliard Manuscript Collection
In 2006 the Juilliard School in NYC received a donation of 138 music manuscripts collected by Bruce Kovnar. The majority of the collection is now digitized and may be viewed online.
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"Forty-two composers are represented in the online presentation of the Juilliard Manuscript Collection, ranging from Arensky to Zemlinsky; as old as Purcell, and as recent as Maxwell Davies; including multiple works by Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, Wagner, and many others. A printable list of the complete manuscript collection, with brief descriptions, is available on the Juilliard Manuscript Collection website..." -- from Juilliard Journal announcement
Latin American Choral Music
An updated and expanded online version of Suzanne Tiemstra's book of the same title (1990).
La Trobe University Library Medieval Music Database
Although this site has not been updated in quite a while, the information available can be quite useful, especially for fourteenth century music. Serving mostly as an index to sources in Medieval music, the site also provides access to 4 digitized manuscripts and includes in other cases the incipits to works.
Legal Encyclopedia of Popular Music
This music law database includes court opinions covering a time period of almost 200 years.
Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection
"Drawing on the rich musical and cultural heritage of traditional New Orleans jazz, the collection contains close to 700 photographs taken over the past nine decades." -- from announcement
Media History Digital Library
"We are a non-profit initiative dedicated to digitizing collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access."--Web site.
The Monterey Jazz Festival Collection at Stanford University
"archive recordings spanning the full history of the festival many of which have not been heard since their first performance. The centerpiece of the web site is a database documenting nearly 9,000 jazz pieces, interviews, and other events representing over 1,000 hours of audio and video recordings."--announcement from Stanford University
Morgan Library and Museum - Music Manuscripts
The Morgan Library's extraordinary collection of music manuscripts is being made available online for the first time. The initial release numbers about 40 titles, with a goal of posting over 900 manuscripts over time. Among the composers represented are J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Fauré, Haydn, Liszt, Mahler, Massenet, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Puccini, Schubert, and Schumann.
Music Festivals Database
A fully-searchable index of programs, personnel, ensembles and venues of musical festivals held in Great Britain between 1695 and 1940
National Jukebox (Library of Congress)
"The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment"--Website description
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The website includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Additional material and labels will be added over time.
New Mozart Edition Online (Neue Mozart Ausgabe)
Project to digitize the print edition of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe. The site comes up in German, but users are given the option to view it in English. The Greer Music Library has the print version of the NMA. Please note the restrictions on the use of the material when you view the site.
New York Philharmonic Digital Archives
This site includes over 1700 scores marked by Leonard Bernstein, Andre Kostelanetz, and others as well as over 500,000 pages of parts marked by Philharmonic muscians. Printed programs from 1943-1970, photographs, and other documents are also accessible.
Samuel and Ann Charters Archives of Blues and Vernacular African American Musical Culture
An interesting print collection at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Scroll down the list to "African American Vernacular Music."
Schatz Opera Libretti Collection
Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with an interest in opera, and planned to write a history of opera. He traveled throughout Europe, acquiring materials for his research. His collection includes 12,000 opera libretti.
Televised Opera and Musical Comedy Database: Home
Database of hard-to-find U.S. opera telecasts, including programming of early live presentations on experimental television stations and contemporary productions released on broadcast television, cable, and home video. Produced by Indiana University Digi
Zinfonia Music Publisher Portal
Among other services, you can find sources for renting music scores.

Greer Music Library

Andrew Lopez

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Charles E. Shain Library
Connecticut College
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