MU/FYE104 World Music: Music Databases

Databases by Subject

Databases by Title

Find Journals

Searches for Full Text

If a database doesn't give you the full text of article, just click on the Tutt Link logo.

Tutt Link will search to see if the article is available

Footnotes and bibliographies are a quick way to find related materials and track the names of popular authors.

Text Databases

• The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (online version here) takes a cultural approach to its focus on the music of all the world's peoples. Each volume is arranged topically, regionally, or by ethnic group, and is complemented by an extensive index. See the print volume 2 for information on Brazilian music.

• Grove Music Online  Use this resource to locate background and specific information on specific types of music (search by the name of the composer if you know it, or by the genre of music). Contains good bibliographies and links to other Internet resources. Provides sources on classical music, ethnomusicology, opera, jazz, and much more.

•  Music Index  Use this resource to gather citations to national/international journal articles, book reviews, etc, with an extensive coverage of music topics. It contains access to over 700 music journals; many of them will have links to full text you can print.

• JSTOR is a scholarly journal archives with many music titles. Although many journals in JSTOR are archives only, JSTOR is now starting to host current content (the most recent issues). It's best not to limit your search to music journals; you will find articles about music in journals principally devoted to other disciplines.

• RILM covers all types of publications on music, in all media: books, journals, online resources, research-based sound recordings and films, dissertations, and more (see a complete list of document types). Publications represented in RILM originate from 151 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe.  Articles in many languages with English titles.  Not much full text, but very comprehensive coverage-and articles may be linked to other sources for full text-otherwise you can order through interlibrary loan.  Try this!

If you are doing some interdisciplinary work involving music, you may want to check out suggested databases for other disciplines.  Additionally, look at the JOURNALS tab in this guide to search individual journals related to your topics. 

Also, check out Academic Search Complete. Coverage: 1865 - current. It's a large database with extensive full text access to journals, in addition to abstracts and indexing. Subject coverage is general and broad. If you click on Choose Databases at the top of the search fields you can select many database to search at once.

Streamed Audio Databases

Streamed audio databases provide sound recordings 24/7 on and off campus. These include:

American Song, Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, Database of Recorded American Music, Jazz Music Library, and Smithsonian Global Sound.

The Music Library also has a large CD collection; you'll find many musical genres available for checkout.

The right keywords help to effectively search catalogs, databases, and the Internet.

• Start by compiling a list of keywords that represent each concept of your topic.

• Use more specific terms when searching databases versus catalogs.

• Try boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to link your terms together into a single search.

• Look for additional terms in your search results. Add these to your list.

• Search Google Books for keywords in the title, table of contents, subject headings, and text of books.

You may need to do multiple searches in each database to research your topic. However, with patient and persistence, you'll find relevant material.

Use all variations of a keyword.

The Library of Congress Authorities and Vocabularies thesaurus will help you find variations of keywords and subject headings.