"Includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles that reflect today's beat, including popular music, jazz, and rock." Also in print, Music Library Reference ML100 A641 2003
Biographical information about composers, performers, music theorists, and instrument makers. This biographical dictionary emphasizes classical and art music, but also gives ample attention to jazz and blues, rock and pop, and hymns and showtunes across the ages - with unusual care devoted to coverage of the twentieth century.
Free online dictionary of musical terms & composers. Includes sound bites with pronunciation. Appendices for music fundamentals and performance practice. Includes a chart of musical symbols
Includes information on "musical terms, musical works, musical instruments, composers, librettists, musicians, singers, and orchestras. Earlier editions also available in print under the title The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
This dictionary provides some help in the form of pronunciations by a phonetic system devised by E. Douglas Brown of the staff of WOI Radio at Iowa State University. Many of the pronunciations in the dictionary were derived from tape-recorded pronunciations made by foreign nationals who were were speaking their respective native languages.
A Selection of Biographical Sources
These sources can supplement general dictionaries like the Grove or MGG.
An updated and expanded edition of Nicolas Slonimsky's venerable reference work. Coverage has expanded to over 1,000 new entries on classical music and over 2,000 new entries on jazz and popular music. Nice features include reprints of Slonimsky's witty introductions to earlier editions and indexes for genre, nationality, and women composers and musicians.
Call Number: Ref ML105 H339, also Closed Reserve, Stacks, and online (see box at left)
ISBN: 0674372999
Publication Date: 1996
Short articles (few paragraphs). Biographical information about composers, performers, music theorists, and instrument makers. This biographical dictionary emphasizes classical and art music, but includes jazz and blues, rock and pop, and hymns and show tunes across the ages - with unusual care devoted to coverage of the twentieth century.
Emphasis on classical music composed by black composers but covers some important jazz names as Monk, Mingus as well as African composers and some pop and ragtime names. Provides nice illustr. and lists of works for some entries.
Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music by 
International Dictionary of Black Composers by 
