Music: Home
Guide to library resources for Music
Resources for Music
Welcome to the subject guide for Music. On this page you'll find a list of specialist databases for music which are available via the Library in addition to the books and journals you find when searching the Library's holdings. If you are looking for music scores use the tab along the top of the screen to find more details
New Music books in the Library
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Music Resources
Below is a list of music databases. Use these to find articles from journals and professional publications, detailed essays from books and reference works, biographies and primary source material.
- The Cambridge Companions to Music This link opens in a new windowcontains information on a range of topics about composers, instruments and musical instruments. Includes a series of specially-commissioned essays offering comprehensive coverage
- Cambridge Histories: Music and TheatreMulti-volume reference collection covering a wide range of topics relating to music including Nineteenth-Century Music, World Music and Music Performance
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowNCCO includes British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture. This archival collection features a wide range of primary sources related to the arts in the Victorian era, from playbills and scripts to operas and complete scores
- Open Music Library This link opens in a new windowAn extensive index of open digital resources for the study of music
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Musicauthoritative research guides with articles on a range of music topics and recommendations on the best works in the discipline including books, chapters and websites
- Oxford History of Western Musicthe evolution of Western music from the earliest notations through to the late twentieth century. This resource also provides links through to relevant content on Grove Music Online.
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowsearchable access to the entire text of Grove Music Online, the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music, as well as timelines, biographies, guides, images and other research resources. Updated regularly
- RILM (Repertoire International de Literature Musical) Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new windowa music bibliography covering traditional, popular and classical music. Subject include ethnomusicology, composition, music analysis, music perception and performance practice.
- Rock's backpages This link opens in a new windowRock and Roll library. Provides over 22,000 searchable, full-text articles, interviews and reviews from the world's best music writers and critics, from the late 1950s to the present day. Also includes MP3 audio files of original artist interviews. Updated weekly
Music & Sound Databases
- Box of Broadcasts This link opens in a new windowBoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education; Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and an extensive archive of tv and radio broadcasts. You can create and share playlists and clips. NB: BoB is NOT AVAILABLE outside the UK.
- British Library Sounds This link opens in a new windowListen to a selection from the British Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings, which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sound
- Early Music SourcesA useful website for accessing a range of resources relating to music in the 15th - 20th Century. Includes a series of YouTube lectures on different topics relating to early music
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new windowdigital sound database - 'the world's most comprehensive collection of classical music online' - containing the complete Naxos, Marco Polo and Da Capo catalogues and titles from 50 other labels; allows streamed access to over 75,000 CDs with more than 1 million tracks. Over 800 CDs are added monthly; 7 concurrent-user access
- Opera in Video This link opens in a new windowfive hundred hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries featuring some of the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses
Image Databases
- ARTstor Digital Library This link opens in a new windowImages of musical scores, manuscripts, composers, performers, instruments, set designs, and venues such as concert halls and opera houses, as well as plentiful examples of musical iconography, represent music through the ages.
- Early Music Onlinedigitised images of more than 300 volumes of 16th-century music from the British Library
- ImageQuest This link opens in a new windowRights-cleared images for educational purposes includes images from Lebrecht Music and Art Photo Library, Bridgeman Art Library and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Use the cite option under the image to credit photos)
Concert adverts, programs and reviews
The Library has access to a number of useful sources for finding adverts, programs and reviews relating to concerts and music festivals.
19th Century
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCC0)Includes British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture - primary source material relating to Victorian era including scores, opera, concert programs and reviews
- 19th Century British Newspapersa collection of 48 newspapers specially selected by the British Library to represent nineteenth century Britain
- Historical NewspapersUse this guide to find additional newspaper sources including the archives of the Illustrated London News, Guardian, Observer, Times and Scotsman
- The John Johnson Collection: an archive of printed ephemera This link opens in a new windowThis collection from The Bodleian Library includes a 19th Century entertainment category which can be narrowed down to music titles and musicians and opera singers. Includes theatre programme and sheet music covers.
20th and 21st Century
- FT.com This link opens in a new windowUse the Arts section of the FT.com to find reviews of live music events including concerts and opera and new albums
- The Listener Historical Archive This link opens in a new windowThe Listener (1929-1991) was the weekly newspaper published by the BBC and is one of the few records and means of accessing the content of many early broadcasts. As well as commenting on and expanding on the intellectual broadcasts of the week, The Listener also previewed major literary and musical programmes
- Rock's backpages This link opens in a new windowIncludes interviews and reviews by music writers and critics from late 1950s to the present day
- NewspapersUse this guide to find additional newspaper archives covering 20th and 21st century
Subject Guide
Hilda McNae
Contact:
Senior Librarian (Academic Liaison)
University of St Andrews Library, KY16 9TR
Tel: 01334 462298
University of St Andrews Library, KY16 9TR
Tel: 01334 462298
Music Collections
- Finzi CollectionHeld in Special Collections this collection includes books, scores and manuscripts from the library of the English composer Gerald Finzi .
- National Library of Scotland - Music CollectionInformation about the Books, printed music and sound recordings held at the NLS
- British Library - Music CollectionInformation about the collection of printed and manuscript music, music recordings, concert programmes, books and periodicals held in the BL. Covers all types of music in a variety of formats.