Find Materials at Blough-Weis Library
This box doesn't really search everything, but it includes the library catalog and many of the general databases to which the library subscribes.
If you're getting inaccurate results, or just too many of them, choose Advanced Search to help narrow the focus.
Find Materials at Other Libraries
Blough-Weis Library has a new ILL (Interlibrary Loan) service, and it's integrated directly into our regular catalog! For more detailed information, visit our
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The easiest place to start is the "Library Search" box on the library homepage or just above!
After you run a search, click the "expand your search" just above the results list to find books and articles that you can request from other libraries.
Do you need to find specific information on a particular book, like which libraries own it, or details on exactly when and where certain editions were published? Visit
which integrates the catalogs of college, university, and research libraries across North America and Europe. You can also click on the "Find It" link within a record to submit an ILL request.
General Databases & Reference Works
These broad-based reference works & databases also include entries on music, with articles on composers, famous performers, and significant compositions.
Reference
- Britannica Online Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
- Credo Reference Academic Core This link opens in a new windowCredo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from nearly 400 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library (now Gale Ebooks) This link opens in a new windowExplore this database of encyclopedias and reference sources within the Gale eBooks platform. For multidisciplinary research.
- SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new windowOver 5000 eBook and eReference titles purchased in perpetuity. Collection includes:
- SAGE Knowledge Complete 2018 Backlist Collection comprised of 5,139 titles
- SAGE Knowledge Complete Books and Reference 2019 Frontlist Collection comprised of 247 titles
- SAGE Knowledge Complete Books and Reference 2020 Frontlist Collection comprised of 200-250 titles
Databases
- ProQuest One Academic This link opens in a new windowOur largest database, this will search across journals, books, dissertations, and even videos in numerous disciplines.
- EBSCO Databases (Music)This link searches multiple databases, selected based on their relevance to music research topics. It includes the Music Index as well as databases focused on history, humanities, social science, and literature. It will return much broader and less-focused results than a search in the Music Index alone. To remove, add, or change databases, select "Choose Databases" above the search boxes.
- American Doctoral Dissertations This link opens in a new windowCitations for 153,000+ theses and dissertations on multiple subjects.
- Cambridge Journals Online This link opens in a new windowA search interface for all journals published by Cambridge University Press.
- Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new windowArticles and reviews from 500+ journals on the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowExtensive scans of journals and books from numerous disciplines.
- Oxford Journals This link opens in a new windowAccess to journals published by Oxford University Press.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowJournals in literature and criticism, history, cultural studies, and related fields.
General Musicology Resources
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowSearch Grove Music Online here. This is the best place to begin your research, as articles include lists of editions as well as bibliographies of modern research. The site also offers access to The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music.
- Classical Music Reference Library This link opens in a new windowIncludes Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music.
- Music Index This link opens in a new windowThis database searches over 600 international music periodicals, with a focus on current scholarship in both classical and popular music.
- RISM This link opens in a new windowRépertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), or the International Inventory of Musical Sources, documents extant musical sources worldwide, including manuscripts, printed music, writings on music theory, and libretti. RISM publications are divided into the following series:
A: Inventories alphabetically by composer
B: Bibliographies of materials organized by topic
C: Directories of music research libraries.
- Doctoral Dissertations in MusicologyThe American Musicological Society hosts this international database of dissertations and theses in musicology, both completed and in progress. Note that full-text access is not necessarily available.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new windowIf you've found a dissertation or thesis title that looks promising, check this database to see if we have online access before you put in an ILL request.
Medieval & Early Modern Music Books & Manuscripts
- Digital Image Library of Medieval Music (DIAMM)A portal to worldwide collections of medieval polyphonic music manuscripts dating from ca. 800 to 1550. Includes catalog records, bibliographies, and any available digital images or links to digitized copies.
- Production and Reading of Music Sources (PRoMS)This project, from several UK institutions, aims to create a page-by-page description of manuscripts and printed books containing polyphonic music, 1480 - 1530. It links to digitized copies where available, but also includes detailed information on materials not available online.
- Early Music OnlineThis subset of the British Library's digitized manuscripts consists of 327 volumes of sixteenth-century music, hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London.
- Thesaurus Musicarum LatinarumThe Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML), at Indiana University, endeavors to provide free, searchable texts for all musicological works in Latin from late antiquity through the seventeenth century.
- Thesaurus Musicarum Italicarum (TMI)Centered on the writings Italy's most important music theorists, Pietro Aaron and Gioseffo Zarlino, this site includes full searchable texts of all their works as well those of an additional sixteen theorists from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
More Digitized Books & Manuscripts: Broad-Based Sites & Search Aggregators
- International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) This link opens in a new windowIMSLP pulls together over 200,000 scores freely available online, ranging from scans of medieval manuscripts to newly-typeset versions by users. While its breadth of coverage is unmatched, the quality is patchier.
- Digitized Medieval Manuscripts AppThis app, organized by location, identifies and links to libraries and other locations which have scanned copies of their medieval manuscripts online.
- Europeana CollectionsThe Europeana website aggregates search results from numerous digitization projects at libraries, museums, and archives across Europe, with links to the digitized copies of early printed books, manuscripts, scores, and recordings.
- Internet Archive: BooksInternet Archive describes itself as a "non-profit digital library offering millions of free books, movies, & audio files, plus billions of saved web pages in the Wayback Machine."
- Hathi TrustHathiTrust is a repository of digitized books and other materials contributed by libraries from around the world; those materials no longer under copyright (published before 1924, in most cases) can be viewed in full.
Digitized Manuscript Collections
France
- BnF GallicaGallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Germany
- Bayerische StaatsbibliothekThis massive digital collections includes over 2.7 millions volumes from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, as well as from the regional State Libraries of Augsburg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Passau.
Italy
- DigiVatLib: Vatican Library Digital CollectionsHome page for manuscript and early printed collections digitized by the Vatican Library.
Spain
- Biblioteca Digital HispánicaThe digitized holdings of the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Switzerland
- e-codices: Virtual Manuscript Library of SwitzerlandThis site collects manuscripts scanned by libraries and archives across Switzerland, and even includes "reconstituted" collections digitally pieced together from originals scattered in multiple locations.
- e-manuscripta: Manuscript Material from Swiss LibrariesClosely related to e-codices, this project collects digitized copies of manuscript documents held in Swiss Libraries. Although the focus is on individual items - such as letters - there is some overlap with manuscript codices, so it's worth checking here if e-codices doesn't have what you're looking for.
United Kingdom
- British Library Digitised ManuscriptsThis site provides access to digital copies of manuscripts, archival materials, and early printed works from the holdings of the British Library.
- Early Music OnlineThis collection is a subset of the British Library collection, and consists of 327 volumes of sixteenth-century music.
- Parker Library On the WebAlmost all of the manuscripts held by the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, have been digitized and made available through this site run by Stanford University; includes extensive descriptions and bibliographies for each manuscript.
Belgium
- BelgicaBelgica is the digital library of KBR, the national library of Belgium.
Netherlands
- IDEM: Integrated Database for Early MusicThe Integrated Database for Early Music contains digitized manuscripts and early printed books which focus on the musical history of the Low Countries from the early Middle Ages through 1800.
Music Editions
- A Genealogy of Music Editions
This flowchart is a rough attempt to show the relationships between different types of musical editions.
- Music: What Are Scholarly Editions?This page, from Brigham Young University Library, gives an overview of some major types of music editions, including definitions and examples.
