All Guides: Music: Getting Started

Library Resources

Research & Instruction Librarian

Jackie Beckey

she/her/hers

Email Me

Contact:

Library, Room 302

651-696-6702

Subjects: African Studies, Architecture, History, Media and Cultural Studies, Music, Philosophy, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, Theater, Theater and Dance, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

This guide will help you find resources to support your research, locate music scores, and experience performances from around the world. ♬

Best Bets

Music Online This link opens in a new window Allows one to search across all of the music databases published by Alexander Street Press, including: African American Music Reference, American Song, Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, Dance in Video, World Music Online, Opera in Video and more.
Music Online: American Music This link opens in a new window Songs covering all eras of American history from the Revolutionary War to twentieth-century anti-war protests; extensive liner notes included
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window Provides access to international publications on music and other performance arts, such as dance. Includes a variety of publication types including journal articles, ethnographic recordings, and reviews. Relevant for research on performance studies, education, literature, and more.

New Books in Music

Living ethnomusicology : paths and practices

Being true to works of music

Annunciations : Sacred Music for the Twenty-First Century

Mahler and His World

The Cambridge history of music criticism

Making media : production, practices, and professions

Remembering popular music's past : memory - heritage - history

The Italian Madrigal, Volume 2

German Operetta on Broadway and in the West End, 1900-1940

Featured Journals

Jazz Times JazzTimes is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970.
American Music Teacher Provides articles, reviews and regular columns that inform, educate and challenge music teachers and foster excellence in the music teaching profession.
Journal of the American Musicological Society One of the premier journals in musicology, Journal of the American Musicological Society publishes scholarship from a broad array of musical inquiry: from historical musicology, critical theory, music analysis, iconography and organology, to pedagogy, performance practice, aesthetics and hermeneutics, ethnomusicology, gender and sexuality, popular music, and cultural studies. --from journal homepage

Open Access Databases

AfricaBib This link opens in a new window A collection of Africana social science titles consisting of 2 bibliographic databases covering Africana periodical literature and African Women's literature.
- This link opens in a new window
BASE This link opens in a new window A search engine for academic web resources - includes journals, institutional repositories, digital collections etc. Many open access resources.
- This link opens in a new window
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window DPLA materials come from America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of these are freely available and include; photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, etc.
- This link opens in a new window
Directory of Open Access Journals This link opens in a new window Access to quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals covering a range of topics and languages.
- This link opens in a new window
Dissertations and Thesis - Open Access (Proquest) This link opens in a new window Provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.
- This link opens in a new window
Knowledge Unlatched This link opens in a new window Open access to scholarly ebooks primarily in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
- This link opens in a new window
Open Book Publishers This link opens in a new window Find peer-reviewed open access books in a variety of subjects.
- This link opens in a new window

Local Resources and Organizations

A handful of links to local resources and organizations here in the Twin Cities to help kick-start your research process.

The Cedar
The Cedar’s mission is to promote intercultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.
Discover Music Now
"Our Mission: To educate, inspire, and create opportunities to experinece the life-changing power of music."
Diverse Emerging Music Organization
"Our mission: to promote, support, and educate emerging independent musicians, as well as communities eager for rich, multi-cultural experiences."

Saint Paul Public Library

St. Paul Public Library has more than 42,000 ebooks and 300 audiobooks that you can check out online, including an extensive fiction collection.

You can sign up at https://sppl.org/ecard. Once you've registered, you can borrow and download ebooks and audiobooks to view on an e-reader, computer, or mobile device.

More info: