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Recommended Databases
- Music Online: African American Music Reference (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new windowThousands of essays, images, liner notes and more covering blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. Includes biographies of 185 African American composers.
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new windowNaxos Music Library is the world´s largest online classical music library. While the collection primarily consists of classical pieces, it also includes a selection of jazz, world, and pop/rock music. Text resources, including overviews of music history, program notes for recordings, and the complete libretti of operas, are also available. Follow these instructions to create your own playlists in Naxos Music Library.
Note: This resource is limited to 5 simultaneous users.
Ethnomusicology Websites
- Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent"Brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary resources: research and teaching materials collected by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to these fields held by the U. of Wis."
- Atlas of Plucked InstrumentsBased on a large private collection of plucked stringed musical instruments (plus additional material from books and websites), this ATLAS will give you information about almost all the different plucked instruments still in use.
- Center for Black Music ResearchThis Web site of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago, offers some resources useful to students beginning research on the music of Africa or the black diaspora.
- Cultural EquityThe Association for Cultural Equity (ACE), housed at the Fine Arts Campus of New York City's Hunter College, was chartered as a charitable organization in the State of New York in 1983. It was founded by Alan Lomax to explore and preserve the world's expressive traditions with humanistic commitment and scientific engagement.
- Ethnomusicology, Folk Music, and World MusicLinks to sites related to ethnomusicology provided and maintained by the University of Washington.
- Folk Music Index"An online bibliographic database that compiles citations of print and recorded sources for folks music ... the focus is North American and Anglo folk traditions ...Searching is limited to simple keywords for either performers or music titles; results appear in a search frame. Browsing ... is available by title or performer. (from V.J. Novara, CHOICE)
- Global Music Archive"A multimedia reference archive and resource center providing access to sound recordings and images related to indigenous music from communities in Africa and the Americans." [Choice]
- IITMA: Irish Traditional Music Archive"A national public reference archive and resource centre for
the traditional song, instrumental music and dance of Ireland." - Music and Dance of AfricaAfrican Studies page maintained by Columbia University Libraries; provides links to numerous academic and popular websites relating to African studies/culture.
- National Geographic Musical JourneysNational Geographic has assembled a comprehensive databse of world music materials on National Geographic World Music. It offers a world music glossary, directory, podcasts, song samples and a country-by-country guide to music.
- Smithsonian FolkwaysIncludes liner notes and audio samples from all musical and spoken word recordings issued by Folkways and its affiliates. Site also includes complete audio for selected songs of more recent releases and short video presentations.
- Society for EthnomusicologyGood link to sources relating to various aspects of ethnomusicology; includes access to issues of the Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
General World Music Reference
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World / John Shepherd, David Horn and Dave Laing
REF ML 102 .P66 C66 2003 v.1-10
Ethnomusicology: A Research and Information Guide / Jennifer C. Post
Online Book
Ethnomusicology and Folk Music: An International Bibliography of Dissertations and Theses / F. Gillis and A.P. Merriam, comp.
ML 128 .E8 G5
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
REF ML 100 .G16 1998 v.1-10 (and online)
Reference Materials in Ethnomusicology / Bruno Nettl
REF ML 128 .M8 N5 1967
World Music: The Rough Guide / Simon Broughton
REF ML 3545 .W66 1994
American Folk Music Reference
A Bibliography of North American Folklore and Folksong / Charles Haywood
REF COMPACT Z 5984 .U5 H3
North American Indian Music: A Guide to Published Sources and Selected Recordings / Richard Keeling
ML 128 .F75 K44 1997
Notes and Sources for Folk Songs of the Catskills / Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, & Norman Studer
ML 128 .F74 C4 1982
The Folk Music Sourcebook / Larry Sandberg
OVERSIZE ML 19 .S26
Asian Music References
Ancient and Oriental Music / Egon Wellesz
ML 160 .N44 v.1
China: A Journey into its Musical Art / Sin-yan Shen
ML 336 .S463 2000
Hmong Music in Vietnam / Hồng Tha
ML 345 .V5 H66 1995
An Introduction to Indian Music / B. Chaitanya Deva
ML 338 .D495 I6
Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia / William P. Malm
ML 330 .M3
Music in Mainland Southeast Asia: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture / Gavin Douglas
ML 330 .D68 2009
Music in South India: The Karṇāṭak Concert Tradition and Beyond / T. Viswanathan, Matthew Harp Allen
ML 338 .V57 2004
The Music of Hindostan (1914) / A.H. Fox Strangways
ML 338 .F79
Understanding Indian Music / Baburao Joshi
ML 338 .J68
The Yellow Bell: A Brief Sketch of the History of Chinese Music / Chao-Mei-Pa, Meibo Zhao
ML 336 .C46
Eurpopean Folk Music References
Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch: ursprünglich herausgegeben von Hermann und Moritz Schauenburg
M 1961 .S31 1958
The Companion to Irish Traditional Music / Fintan Vallely, ed.
Online Book
Flamenco, Body and Soul: An Aficionado's Introduction / Juan Serrano, Jose Elgorriaga
ML 3712 .S5 1990
Hebridean Folksongs: A Collection of Waulking Songs / Donald MacCormick
M 1746 .M126 H4
Music and German National Identity / Celia Applegate and Pamela Potter, eds.
ML 275 .M933 2002
The Oxford Book of Sea Songs / Roy Palmer
M 1977 .S2 O95 1986
African-American Reference
Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians / Eileen Southern
REF ML 105 .S67 1982
Black American Music: Past and Present / Hildred Roach
ML 3556 .R58 1992
Black Music in America: A Bibliography / J. Skowronski.
REF ML 128 .B45 S6
Lift Every Voice: The History of African American Music / Burton W. Peretti
ML 3556 .P45 2009
The Music of Black Americans: A History / Eileen Southern
ML 3556 .S74 1997
The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States / Samuel A. Floyd, Jr.
ML 3556 .F65 1995
Repercussions: A Celebration of African-American Music / Geoffrey Haydon and Dennis Marks, eds.
ML 3556 .R38 1985
Source Book of African and Afro-American Materials for Music Educators / J.A. Standifer, Barbara Reeder
ML 120 .A35 S76
Spirituals: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography for Research and Performance / Kathleen A. Abromeit
REF ML 3556 .A27 2015
African Music Reference
The African Imagination in Music / Kofi Agawu
ML3760 .A42 2016
Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians / Eileen Southern
REF ML 105 .S67 1982
The Music of Africa / J. H. Kwabena Nketia
ML350.N595 M9
South African Music: A Century of Traditions in Transformation / Carol A. Muller
ML350 .M85 2004
Latin & South American Music References
El cantar folklórico de Puerto Rico: Estudio y florilegio / Marcelino J. Canino Salgado
PQ7430 .C36
Culture at the Cutting Edge: Caribbean Popular Music
Online Book
Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents / Bruno Nettl
ML 3549 .N5
From Tejano to Tango: Latin American Popular Music / Walter Aaron Clark, ed.
ML 3475 .F76 2002
The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music / Dale A. Olsen and Daniel E. Sheehy, eds.
ML 199 .G36 2000
A Guide to the Music of Latin America / Gilbert Chase
ML 120 .S7 C47 1962
Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic History / Malena Kuss, ed.
ML 199 .M858 2004
Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions / John M. Schechter, ed.
ML199 .M86 1999
Music of Latin America / Nicolas Slonimsky
ML 199 .S55
Origins of Cuban Music and Dance: Changüí / Benjamin Lapidus
ML 3486 .C82 L37 2008
Native American Music References
A Cry from the Earth: Music of the North American Indians / John Bierhorst
ML 3557 .B53 1992
The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet / Brian Wright-McLeod
REF ML156.4.I5 W75 2005
Song of the Sky: Versions of Native American Song-Poems / Brian Swann
PS 3569 .W256 S66 1993