This file contains suggestions about researching music on the web.
For links to various online resources, including library catalogs, reference materials, concerts in New York, musical organizations and instrument collections, and other, more specialized resources, scroll down to the end of this file.
The web is very useful, but for most music research it remains a supplement for conventional printed sources of information. For this reason, many instructors do not encourage the use of webpages as sources for college research papers. This is especially true in the field of classical music, where much of the information on the web has been posted by amateur enthusiasts, not original researchers or scholars. I do not allow the use of webpages as sources for college papers except in the rare cases where information is not available in any other form. Naturally an exception is made in the case of printed material that has been put online in the form of full-text articles or encyclopedias (but see below).
The primary use of the web resources listed below is to get you started on your research. Most of these resources are intended to lead you to the library or to other sources of books and articles.
Types of music materials
Recordings
By "music" people often mean recordings, which nowadays include various video formats as well as purely audio recordings. Don't rely on the web to download actual classical music. Although an increasing number of vendors are offering classical music downloads, CDs remain the preferred means for acquiring classical music. There are two main reasons for this: (1) classical compositions are typically grouped into programs of related works that are meant to be heard together (more so than the songs on a typical commercial music album); and (2) classical recordings have traditionally been accompanied by booklets containing historical information about the music and its composer(s), biographical information about the performers, and, in the case of vocal music, the complete texts (lyrics), with translation into English in the case of foreign-language works.
CD recordings of operas and other dramatic works also include summaries or synopses of the plots. It is usually not possible to download this material, even when the same recording is available online. DVD videos can be a convenient way of getting to know an opera, but they lack the booklets packaged with CDs, and some also lack English-language subtitles (captions), which are necessary for most Americans wishing to follow the dialogue of an opera--so be sure to check for the inclusion of English subtitles before ordering any opera DVD.
Don't rely on free "sound clips"--brief extracts from longer compositions--that are available on many commercial sites as samples of complete works or downloads. Of course, these samples may be useful for deciding whether or not to buy a particular recording.
Of the many online sellers, the largest and most reliable for ordering classical CDs remains Amazon. Many CDs sold on Amazon can be purchased used, at reduced price, from other vendors whose sales are linked from the Amazon site.
Scores ("sheet music")
Even if you cannot read music, you can often learn a great deal by examining a score for such information as the correct title of a composition, the voices and instruments that it calls for, and the headings or subtitles of its various sections or movements. You might think that the notes of a classical composition are always the same, but this is not true. An edition may contain errors, or it may give a work in an inauthentic arrangement. It can be difficult to determine the reliability of an edition, so be sure to ask someone who knows (e.g., me) before acquiring or using one. Most of the editions of music that students photocopy for their lessons and ensembles are not reliable for study purposes.
Online Encyclopedias and bibliographies
Wikipedia is handy for starting research on certain topics, but not music. You will do better to begin your music search with Grove Music Online (see below).
Other free sources of this type are usually oriented toward children and thus are of limited use. Because articles are often unsigned and undated, you cannot be sure of the reliability of content. You should be skeptical of any item that:
is not signed by an author, especially an author identified as a scholar in a university
lacks a copyright date, or indicates that it has been copied from a very old publication that is out of copyright
lacks a bibliography, or includes one that only lists old items, or that gives incomplete bibliographic information
A good bibliography for a musical topic is likely to include:
recent works published by university presses, such as Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, and commercial publishers specializing in academic works such as Norton, Routledge, and Ashgate.
articles in scholarly journals such as Early Music and the Journal of the American Musicological Society (most of these are now available through electronic databases; see below)
foreign-language items (even if you can't read them, their presence is a sign that the author is a scholar who knows the subject)
Search Engines
Most students today are familiar with web search engines such as Google. But because these are commercial products, you need to be very critical of what they show you. The software driving these engines is very sophisticated and may be programmed to steer you toward sites that are trying to sell you something. Once the search engine has determined that you are interested in music, it may begin to give you excessive numbers of links to commercial record- and book-sellers. These will rarely be helpful.
Occasionally a Google search will be useful, especially if you are trying to find information about music too recent to have been the subject of an article in Grove Online (but you'd be surprised how up-to-date the latter can be). Many contemporary composers and performers have websites that contain otherwise unavailable information as well as sound clips. But remember that one of their primary purposes may be to advertise themselves, and all information should be read with that in mind.
Virtually useless is the surging number of fan sites and blogs which try to rate composers and recordings; these may be fun to read but they won't give you useful information. Many simply repeat information (often inaccurately) from other sites.
Library Catalogs
Many large institutions have specialized music collections containing not only books and periodicals about music, but also scores and recordings. Classical recordings usually do not circulate and are not usually available online or through interlibrary loan. Nevertheless, you can use library catalogs to find titles of books and recordings and to identify editions of music (scores). A number of research library catalogs are freely available and will provide information about authors, composers, and performers (dates of birth and death); when and where a book, score, or recording was published; and other facts that may be useful for judging the value or reliability of an item.
Most college library catalogs list not only books but also journals and other periodicals, encyclopedias and other reference works, and non-print media such as musical scores and recordings. Government archives and libraries at major universities often include special collections that contain rare material such as manuscripts and early printed books and scores.
The Wagner College Library is primarily a teaching library, and its music collection although growing remains small. To get an idea of what types of books are available on a given musical topic, it is useful to do a keyword search on your topic in the online catalogs of several research libraries such as the following:
Indiana University Music Library
Some organizations, especially scholarly societies, have useful pages of links (see below)
Online Resources
General music reference sources (some may be accessible from Wagner only; others may not be available)
Grove Music Online (the standard English-language music encyclopedia, includes bibliographies). This is the electronic version of the standard English-language music encyclopedia. Grove is the first place to go for virtually any question about a composer, performer, type of composition, or musical term, including commercial (popular) and world music and jazz. Most entries include up-to-date bibliographies; those for major composers also include detailed lists of their works, with dates, performing forces, and other information, as well as bibliographic abbreviations that will lead you to modern editions of the scores. Of course, to get to the books or scores themselves you will need to go to a library catalog; for journal articles and other publications, the following databases may prove useful.
JSTOR music journals (full text articles)
Proquest (index to periodical literature, including music)
WorldCat (search for books, scores, manuscripts, and rare items in other libraries)
Music Index (a primarily English-language database of periodical literature, not available at Wagner)
Concerts in NYC (tickets and information)
Lincoln Center (symphony, opera, ballet, jazz)
New York Collegium (primarily Baroque and early Classical music, 1600-1800)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
http://nyphil.org/
Polyphony (Early Music Calendar)
WQXR Concert Board (listings of free and inexpensive concerts)
Musical instruments and museums
Guides to orchestral instruments (for beginners)
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1
http://www.dsokids.com/2001/instrumentchart.htm
http://www.concertgoersguide.org/onstage/audios.php
Medieval and Renaissance instruments
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Musical Instruments Department)
Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Musical Instruments Department)
National Music Museum
http://www.usd.edu/smm/
Organizations
American Musical Instrument Society
American Musicological Society
National Association for Music Education
Scores (sheet music)
Free scores, sorted by composer (currently unavailable)
Song (Lied) texts and translations
More Specialized Resources
Bach
Works and sources (in German)
Cantata texts (translations)
Cantata texts (German, with English commentary)
The Face of Bach (a detailed study of portraits of Bach family members)
Historical Musical Instruments
Medieval and Renaissance Instruments (with MP3s)
Boston Clavichord Society--site with information about a particular early instrument
Museums of Musical Instruments
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
The National Music Museum in Vermillion, S.D.
Formats for Papers, Including Citations (Footnotes, Endnotes, and Bibliographies)
Click here for a concise guide to writing and formatting a college paper on music, including formats for footnotes (endnotes) and bibliography entries. However, the best guide is simply to imitate what you find in a published paper in a recent issue of a scholarly publication such as the Journal of the American Musicological Society (available online at Wagner in the stacks or online through JSTOR).