Music - Music Genre

Library Resources

Books on music have call letters beginning ML or MT and are located in the Johnson Center Library open stacks. Printed music and recordings have call letters that begin with M and are located on the first floor of the Johnson Center Library. A book designated REF. is non-circulating and will be located in the Johnson Center Music Library Music Reference section. Books with * are also located in the Fenwick Library Reference section.

Subject-specific encyclopedias and dictionaries are excellent places to begin looking for background information or general information about particular music forms and genres. This would include information about composers, styles, instruments, musicians, history, and theory.

The following is a selective list of resources:

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
*Ref. ML 100. N48 1995
The most comprehensive music reference resource to date; an authoritative encyclopedia with 22,000 articles covering music from all periods and encompassing all forms. Includes theory, practice, history, excellent biographies and lists of works, and detailed bibliographies. No index.

AMERICAN MUSIC

New Grove Dictionary of American Music
*Ref. ML 101. U6 N48 1986
Principle reference work on American music. Copiously illustrated, it provides detailed coverage of styles and genre. For composers there are works lists and bibliographies. There are also many articles covering American musical instruments.

OPERA

New Grove Dictionary of Opera
Ref. ML 102. O6 N5 1994
Signed articles on composers, singers, conductors, and other persons associated with the production of opera, as well as operas, opera houses, specific opera libretto, opera topics, terminology, and activities related to opera such as costume, etc. Includes appendices of roles in cognate form and incipits of arias, ensembles, etc. Individual entries have bibliographies.

Dictionary of Opera and Operetta
REF. ML102. O6 A6 1995
Over 1,000 operas with plot summaries; biographies of singers, conductors, and composers with an emphasis on the 18th and 20th centuries. Terms include characters, elements of opera, professions, instruments. Discographies of opera recordings are not provided.

Annals of Opera
REF. ML102. O6 L6 1978
Operas listed by year then by composer, with the date of its premiere, librettist, what it is based on, and important subsequent productions until the early 20th century provided.

MUSICAL THEATRE

Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre
REF. ML102. M88 G3 1994 v.1-2
Concentrates on French, Austrian, British, American, Hungarian, Australian, and German book musical theatre excluding opera, revues, pantomime, paste-up musicals, musical film and TV, etc. Critical analysis of composers and works. Biographies are of mostly composers and producers with a few performers included. Opening dates, credits, theatre venue information, and recordings given for individual works.

American Musical Theatre
REF. ML1711. B67 1992
Chronological history of American musical theatre from its origins until 1990 with brief descriptions and critical analyses of musicals provided, short biographies of performers, producers, composers and directors interspersed throughout.

JAZZ

New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
Ref. ML 102. J3 N48 1984
First fully developed dictionary of jazz. The 1994 edition is an unaltered reprint of the previous 2-volume edition. Covers individuals, groups, styles, terminology, theoretical topics, musical instruments, record labels, festivals, venues, films, institutions, and individuals who are not musicians but who have contributed to the field of jazz. There is a bibliography of discographies at the end of the volume and bibliographies of selected recordings and resources given for most articles.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
REF. ML102. P66 G84 1998 v.1-8
Biographical entries with birth date and place, short bibliographies, and a list of recordings rated on a four star system.

WORLD MUSIC

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
REF. ML100. G16 1998 v.1-2, 4-5, 8-9
Seven volumes of the ten volume set have been published covering music in Africa, South America, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Europe, Australia, and the pacific Islands. Profiles of each geographic area include the people, language, industry, trade, politics, society, and religion. A history of the scholarly study of the music in each area is also provided. Individual artists are not covered in an in-depth fashion. A glossary of terms with page references is included, as is a CD of audio samples.