Online Music Resources: Reference Sources
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians / Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowThis music compendium, itself a part of Oxford Music Online, includes the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
- Performing Arts Encyclopedia This link opens in a new windowExplore music, theater and dance at the Library of Congress.
- Garland Encyclopedia of World MusicMost comprehensive encyclopedia for world musics traditions. This link will take you to volume 1; see additional volumes in Onesearch under this title.
- Harvard Dictionary of MusicPublication Date: 2003
- Music - Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window"Oxford Bibliographies in Music combines the best features of a high-level encyclopedia and a traditional bibliography in a style tailored to meet the needs of today’s online researchers. Each article, written and reviewed by top scholars in the field, is rich with citations and annotations, expert recommendations, and narrative pathways to the most important works for virtually all areas of music (Oxford University Press)."
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowReference works on history and related disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, religious studies, and the arts.
Fondren owns access to titles in this series published through 2024.
Other Databases
- RISM Series A/II: Music Manuscripts after 1600 This link opens in a new windowSeries A/II, an international locator for music manuscripts created after 1600.
- IPA Source Online This link opens in a new windowLibrary of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts.
- Orchestral Music Online This link opens in a new windowBased on the classic work by David Daniels. Information on more than 6700 works by some 900 composers. Info includes duration, instrumentation, chorus type, soloists, etc, for each work.
- Bridge Worldwide Music Connection This link opens in a new windowDatabase of the New England Conservatory's Career Services Center--auditions, festivals, grant listings, and more.
Please contact eresources@rice.edu for login information.
Biographical Sources
Subject Guide
Thematic Catalogs and Bibliographies of Composers
Thematic catalogs enumerate and describe known works of composers and usually include information on manuscript locations, first publication, and first performance. Thematic catalogs can be found under the call number ML134, sub-arranged alphabetically by composer. Also in the ML134’s are bibliographies (guides to other writings) about the composers and their music.
Use thematic catalogs to verify the existence of a musical work, its title, opus number, instrumentation, etc. Thematic catalogs generally give information on the location of surviving manuscripts, sketches, or early printed editions. They also cite secondary literature regarding the work, many times this is literature that pre-dates the coverage of the standard music literature indexes.
Classic Music Reference Works Online
- Neue Mozart Ausgabe online This link opens in a new window