Yale University Library Research Guides: Music: Reference Books and Online Resources

Online Reference Resources to Try First

Oxford music online
Oxford Music Online (OMO) is the access-point for Oxford music reference subscriptions and products, including Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music. With OMO patrons can cross-search Grove and Oxford reference content in one location. Articles from specialist dictionaries such as The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed., are available via OMO.
MGG online
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG) is a general encyclopedia of music. MGG is encyclopedic in the true sense of that term: it offers in-depth articles on every aspect of music as well as many related areas such as literature, philosophy, and visual arts. MGG Online contains the second print edition of MGG, published from 1994 to 2008, as well as current, continuous online updates and additions.
Oxford reference
Brings together digitized entries from Oxford's Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias, spanning multiple subject areas, including Music and the Performing Arts. This source includes the full content of the Grove dictionaries of American Music and Musical Instruments.
Bloomsbury popular music
This resource provides information about popular music worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present day for those working in the disciplines of music, ethnomusicology and the performing arts to media and communication, cultural studies, anthropology and sociology. It includes the entirety of the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, the 33 1/3 series of books exploring key albums, and much more.
Cambridge Histories
Includes 10 broad histories of music; search within the text of each volume.
Oxford bibliographies
Includes nearly 200 bibliographies related to music.
RILM Music Encyclopedias
This resource provides access to a curated collection of full-text content covering historical musicology, ethnomusicology and theory with focus on topics ranging from popular music, opera, instruments, blues and gospel, to recorded music and women composers.
RISM International Inventory of Musical Sources
The world's largest database of musical sources including over a million records of historic music manuscripts and printed music, indexed and bibliographically described by specialists. Includes significant collections from libraries and archives worldwide. Emphasis is on music manuscripts originating between 1600 – 1800 and printed music before 1800.

Try also...

Daniels' Orchestral music online
Daniels' Orchestral Music Online is a unique orchestral music finder tool and an invaluable resource for performance planners, musicologists, conductors, and artistic directors.
Index to printed music (IPM)
An index of individual music pieces published in standard scholarly editions (such as composers’ collected works), and published in sets and series. The database contains indexing including (but not limited to) composers, editors, poets, librettists, performing force (medium), format, genres, musical incipits (for identification), geographical area, and time or style period.
IPA Source
Online since 2003, IPA Source is the web's largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. Now with over 12487 titles!
Musical Theater Songs
A song index with an interface that allows searching via various parameters (voice type, character age, range, ease for accompanist, descriptive characteristics, etc.) to generate a list of songs tailored to your needs. This resource provides links to various sites in order to locate sources of sheet music and recordings, subject to availability. Users should be aware that these links will not search local collections or subscriptions.
Music Online: Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
The Garland encyclopedia of world music online is a comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Searchable and browsable database of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day. It also offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997.

Subject Words to Locate Reference Books

The Music Library's Reference Room on the mezzanine level has a wealth of books that have not been superseded by databases. Use the following as Subject Words in Quicksearch or Orbis.

Bibliography – use as a subject word to find book-length annotated bibliographies of music and literature on music (ML112.8-ML158.8; ML113 and ML128 particularly useful); or limit to Subject (Genre) Bibliography in Quicksearch
Chronology – works arranged by date, e.g. dates of first performance. Example: Music Since 1900 (Reference ML197 S634 M9 2001+)
Dictionaries, encyclopedias – also useful as subject words (ML100-109)
Discography (as a subject word for book-length discographies, or major portions of a book; it could also be an appendix within a book in which case it would be a keyword)
Handbooks
Thematic catalogs – subject words that help to identify the catalogs of composers works, with musical incipits for each

Classification of Music Reference

Here is a general guide to the classification numbers of Reference Books.

ML12-21 Directories. Almanacs
ML47-54.8 Librettos. Texts. Scenarios
ML100-109 Dictionaries. Encyclopedias
ML110-111.5 Music librarianship
ML112-112.5 Music printing and publishing
ML112.8-158.8 Bibliography
- ML128: Bibliographies by Subject or Instrument, including Repertoire Guides
- ML134: Composers' Thematic Catalogs, arranged alphabetically by composer
- ML135: Manuscript Catalogs
- ML136: Library Catalogs
- ML138: Catalogs of Private Collections
- ML141: Exhibition Catalogs of Collections
- ML145: Catalogs of Publications, Publishers
- ML152: Autograph and Booksellers' Catalogs
- ML155: Musical Instrument Collection Catalogs
- ML156: Discography
ML160-162 History & Chronology

Library of Congress. Class M guide
See this guide for more detail

Related Guides

19th Century Music Theory Treatises
Treatises digitized by the Yale Music Library and some free online treatises
Music Dictionaries
Print and online dictionaries
Music Literature Prior to 1800
Resources for locating writings about music published prior to 1800.