MUSC: Research in Music: Books & Background Info

[MUSC]

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Oxford Music Online
- This link opens in a new window
Oxford Music Online allows you to search across top music reference sources, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Here you'll find detailed composer biographies, historical background, analysis, works lists, and more.

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Musics offers a comprehensive view of music as a vital part of the social and cultural life of people around the world. Expert contributors have conducted fieldwork in the communities they profile, and their firsthand experience is reflected in the immediacy of their observations. Each volume emphasizes the contexts of musical performance and presents the fresh insights and analyses of musicologists and anthropologists of diverse national origins.
The Harvard Dictionary of Music
A classic reference work that includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles covering popular music, jazz, and rock.
Encyclopedias
Find background and introductory research in key encyclopedias such as Oxford Reference Online, Sage Knowledge, and Gale Reference Collection.

Books and E-Books

Library Catalog
- This link opens in a new window
Find print and electronic books available from USU Libraries, as well as videos and other materials.

Use the library catalog to find books and e-books on your topic by selecting the appropriate Material Types for the resource you are looking for:

Composer biographies are in the ML410 class, mostly alphabetized by composer last name if you'd like to browse the shelves. You can quickly look up the biographies we have of a composer by searching Composers -- Biography as a Subject along with the last name of your composer as a keyword. Here's an example of one biography we have:

For more help, check out this guide to finding books in the catalog.

Music Reference Sources

Via MusRef (an online project from BYU compiling music reference resources), these links explain "the most common types of sources encountered in music reference. Each essay briefly describes the reference source’s general purposes, common features and characteristics, and concludes with a list of selected examples."

You can use MusRef to help you identify bio-bibliographies, discographies, thematic catalogs, and other research resources for your topic.

MusRef
"More than 11,000 bibliographies and reference sources (both print and online), approximately 2,200 of which are annotated with critiques on use, coverage, organization, and pros and cons."

Research Methods

Music Research: A Handbook
By Laurie J. Sampsel. Published 2019.
Writing in Music: A Brief Guide
By Lynne Rogers, Karen M. Bottge, and Sara Haefeli. Published 2020.
The Craft of Research
By Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. Fitzgerald. Published 2016.

APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology
In three volumes, this handbook provides information on tools used in psychology research design, measurement, and analysis. These volumes describe many techniques psychologists and others have developed to help understand why humans, think, feel, and behave the way they do.
SAGE Research Methods
Links over 100,000 pages of SAGE's book, journal, and reference content with advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings.