Reference Books
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. ML 105 .B16 2001
Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. ML 102 .P66 G84 2006
Harvard Dictionary of Music. ML 100 .H37 2003
New Grove Dictionary of American Music. ML 101 .U6 N48 1986
New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. ML 102 .J3 N48 2002
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. ML 100 .N48 2001
New Grove Dictionary of Opera. ML 102 .O6 N5 1992
Online Reference Works
- Oxford History of Western MusicA survey of the traditions of western music by one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists of our time, this book illuminates, through a representative sampling of masterworks, those themes, styles, and currents that give shape and direction to each musical age.
Scores
- Classical Scores LibraryPlease login to libraries.ou.edu to access this collection.
Includes classical scores and manuscripts. The major composers output is represented, as well as many lesser known composers and works. The collection includes works spanning time periods from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Coverage of score types is comprehensive, with full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions. - Digital Image Archive of Medieval MusicDIAMM is a leading resource for the study of medieval manuscripts. We present images and metadata for thousands of manuscripts on this website. We also provide a home for scholarly resources and editions, undertake digital restoration of damaged manuscripts and documents, publish high-quality facsimiles, and offer our expertise as consultants.
- Digital Scores and Libretti from Harvard UniversityHundreds of digital scores and libretti from the Harvard Library collections, including first and early editions and manuscript copies of music from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by J.S. Bach and Bach family members, Mozart, Schubert and other composers, as well as multiple versions of nineteenth century opera scores, seminal works of musical modernism, and music of the Second Viennese School.
- Institute for Composer DiversityThe Institute for Composer Diversity, winner of the 2018 ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Media/Internet Award and housed at the State University of New York at Fredonia, is dedicated to the celebration, education, and advocacy of music created by composers from historically underrepresented groups through online tools, research-based resources, and sponsored initiatives. The Composer Diversity Database allows users to discover almost 4000 composers from underrepresented groups. You can search by composer name, living or deceased, specifically for women or non-binary composers, common large and small ensemble genres, racial, ethnic, or cultural demographics, and by location (city, state, and country).
- Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Digitized VersionThe digitized version offers the musical text and the critical commentaries of the entire Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, edited by the Internationale Stiftung Mozart in cooperation with the Mozart cities of Augsburg, Salzburg, and Vienna. The printed edition has been published by Bärenreiter-Verlag (www.mozart-portal.de and www.baerenreiter.com). Some restrictions apply to the reproduction of images of source materials, particularly in the supplement to the edition.
- A.P. Schmidt Company ArchivesThe collection is particularly rich in music manuscripts by women, including works by Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (identified as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach in the collection), Gena Branscombe, Mable Daniels, Helen Francis Hood, Cora W. Jenkins, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Marion Osgood (composer, violinist, and director of Marion Osgood’s Ladies, the first professional women’s orchestra in the United States), Edna Rosalind Park, Anna Priscilla Risher, Clara Kathleen Rogers, Mary Turner Salter, Mabel Madison Watson, and Mildred Weston, among others.
- Schumann AutographsBonn University Library holds an extensive collection of music autographs and letters from Clara and Robert Schumann. The Schumann autographs are freely accessible, the use is free of charge.
- Sheet Music ConsortiumThe Sheet Music Consortium provides tools and services that promote access to and use of online sheet music collections by scholars, students, and the general public.
- Sibley Digital Scores from the Eastman School of MusicOver 18,000 public domain scores digitized with the support of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
- Sheet Music of the Musical TheaterSheet Music of the Musical Theater is a collection of more than 16,000 pieces of sheet music published between 1880 and 1922. These songs were taken from musicals, revues and operettas primarily of the American and British stage. They are arranged for piano and voice, sometimes simultaneously in arrangements for lower and higher voice. Sheet music was the primary method by which the public learned about the latest songs, only much later supplanted by recordings and radio. Composers and lyricists from the famous to the obscure can be found in this collection, and the songs portray the culture and history of more than 100 years ago in unique and valuable ways.
E-books
Our e-book collection is constantly growing. What is listed below is intended only as a sample of the types of material available. Please login to libraries.ou.edu to access E-books.