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History of British Art: Art and Music in Britain

Yale Music Library

The Music Library in Sterling has key materials for your research

See the following guide for music research for an overview.

For specific questions, contact Remi Castonguay, Public Services Project Librarian: remi.castonguay@yale.edu

The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Joy Division, She's Lost Control

Seminal post-punk band whose albums on Factory records often featured work by designer Peter Saville

Art & Music Resources

The following resources are intended to supplement readings and recordings assigned for Art and Music in Britain:
Beggar's Opera to Punk Rock


Online Resources

Classical Scores Library
Over 20,000 classical music scores and manuscripts

Classical Music Library

Thousands of recordings covering music written from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera.

Naxos Music Library – Download the iPhone app, too!


Oxford Music Online
Good reference source for topics covered in the course. Check the bibliographies for further readings.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Essential resource for information about key Britons or people closely affiliated with Britain.


Art Full Text & Art Index Retrospective (Wilson Web)
Includes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles from art publications dating from 1928-present. The Yale Center for British Art Reference Library holds print copies of many of the most important journals relating to British art history. To search the database, click on the "Online database" link next to the green check mark.



Books in the YCBA Library and elsewhere

The Blackwell History of Music in Britain – a multi-volume series, organized by century
    The Sixteenth century / edited by Roger Bray. Music Library: ML285.2 S625
    The Seventeenth century : music in Britain / edited by Ian Spink. Music Library: ML285.2 S497
    The Eighteenth century : music in Britain / edited by H. Diack Johnstone, Roger Fiske. Music Library: ML285.3 E34
    The Twentieth century : music in Britain / edited by Stephen Banfield. Music Library: ML285.5 T971

Sound judgment : selected essays / by Richard Leppert. BAC: ML3800 .L62 2007 (LC)


Music and society : the politics of composition, performance, and reception / edited by Richard Leppert and Susan McClary. YCBA: ML3795 M78 1987 (LC)

Popular music in England, 1840-1914 : a social history / Dave Russell. (E-book, Yale access only)


Visible deeds of music : art and music from Wagner to Cage / Simon Shaw-Miller

Varieties of audio mimesis : musical evocations of landscape / Allen S. Weiss. Music Library: ML85 W429 V2

The BBC and ultra-modern music, 1922-1936 : shaping a nation’s tastes / Jennifer Doctor. Music Library: ML68 D637 B3

The Beatles : image and the media / Michael R. Frontani (E-book)

The Cambridge companion to the Beatles / edited by Kenneth Womack. Music Library: ML421 B369 C1


Panic attack! : art in the punk years / edited by Mark Sladen and Ariella Yedgar. BAC: HQ799.G7 P35 2007 (LC) Oversize

Sniffin’ glue : the essential punk accesory / Mark Perry ; foreword by John Cooper Clarke ; edited by Terry Rawlings. SML: PN4900 S65 P477 2000+ Oversize. Includes reprints of the original 12 issues of Sniffin’ glue, a seminal Punk zine published by Mark Perry from 1976-77.


Music analysis in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries / Catherine Dale. Music Library: ML285 D139 M9


Peter Saville estate, 1-127 / Peter Saville. BAC: NJ18.Sa8743 A12 2007 (LC)
Catalogue of work by British designer who has worked with Joy Division, New Order, and other key bands from the late 1970s to the present.


Subject headings

Use these terms when searching Orbis, select "subject" from the menu


Art and music
Art and music—Exhibitions
Music--Great Britain--19th century--History and criticism
(note: replace “19th century” with 18th, 20th, etc. for titles pertaining to those centuries)