Music

This listing of instrument makers provides information about their locations, dates, historical notes, contact information, trade exhibitions, bibliographies where applicable, and etc. are given. Particularly useful for illustrations of makers’ marks, this is the eighth edition of this title. The 2nd and 5th editions (An Index of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers) are located in Ablah library, 2nd floor (ML404.L3).

An older publication, this 3 volume work is still the foremost reference for scholarly, in-depth articles on musical instruments. This resource is another excellent source with which to begin one’s research. Like other Grove products, the bibliographies found at the ends of articles are particularly helpful. A second copy is available to check out from Ablah Library, second floor. Many articles are also available through Oxford Music Online.

This is a pictorial guide to musical instruments, providing basic information, and international coverage.

This is an annotated bibliography to books, recordings, videos, and websites on choral music. This is an excellent tool for researchers, and scholars in sorting through the massive amount of available material on the topic.

This title examines choral music and practice in the Western world from the Medieval era to the 21st century, focusing mostly on familiar figures like Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Britten. But its scope is considerably broader, and it includes all sorts of music-religious, secular, and popular-from sources throughout the world. It contains a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, and more than 1,000 cross-referenced dictionary entries on important composers, genres, conductors, institutions, styles, and technical terms of choral music.

This is a guide to repertoire by era/language, and by vocal type/language, along with a listing of folk songs and with an index of composers. Entries contain a compass, tessitura, vocal type and descriptive remarks.

In five volumes, volume I covers works for coloratura soprano, lyric soprano and dramatic soprano; volume II, works for mezzo soprano and contralto; volume III, works for lyric and dramatic tenor; volume IV, works for baritone and bass; and volume V provides program notes. Copies of volumes I-IV and a previous edition are also available to check out from Ablah Library, 2nd floor.

Arranged by composer, each entry provides biographical information; a listing of works for the voice including publication information, vocal type(s) and concise description; and a bibliography.

This annotated guide to solo literature, covers the thirteenth century to 1970s. A single work, bound in 2 volumes, find here sections by nationality, opera excerpts by vocal type, florid songs, traditional songs and spirituals. A opy of volume 2, is also located in Ablah Library, 2nd floor.

This is a guide, in 2 volumes, to vocal repertoire, specifically geared to instructors. An index to well over 100 collections with indications of key and range for each song entry.

Find here access to the works of women composers. With lists of composers, operas, Cantatas, oratorios, masses, song cycles, collections, works with instruments, and dramatic scenes.

Steven Rickards has provided a reference listing of over 600 entries, compiling and cataloging information about repertoire composed specifically for the countertenor from 1950 to 2000. Rickards collects works from 30 countries with texts in 31 languages--including early forms of Akkadian, English, Flemish, French, and Greek--representing over 350 composers. Each entry presents significant data, including the composer's name, birth/death dates, and nationality; the title, medium, date, and duration of the composition; the instrumentation, voicing, range, and tessitura of the piece; and the author and language of the text. Additionally, the who, when, and where of the premier; whether the piece was commissioned or not, and, if so, by whom; and the publisher and availability of the piece.

The Madrigal: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography of scholarship on virtually all aspects of madrigal composition, production, and consumption. It contains 1,237 entries for items in English, French, German, and Italian.

The book presents imaginative advice and practical techniques for producing successful recitals and kindling audience excitement. Every aspect of the recital is covered, from building programs and the use of acting skills to the relationship between the singer and the accompanist. The comprehensive repertoire lists are particularly useful.

Art Song in the United States, 1759-2011 covers songs for solo voice and piano by American composers from the mid-18th through the early 21st centuries. The book is structured as an annotated bibliography with approximately 2,850 numbered entries listed alphabetically by composer and title and indexed in various ways to help singers locate the particular song they require for practice or performance. Users will find critical data on the poet, publisher and copyright date, key, vocal range, vocal tessitura, meter(s), tempo, length, difficulty of vocal line and piano score, most suitable voice type, mood and subject of the text, and brief description of the vocal line and piano score. It also includes commentary on special difficulties for performers and possible uses of the song in programming. In addition, individual titles of composite works are given, and those that appear in collections are indexed to the list of collections in the front matter. Composer, poet, special characteristics/subject, and title indexes--and even discographic lists recordings where available--all aid researchers in finding songs.

An index to themes (with words) of vocal music, with incepits for clear identification. Transpose the theme in question to the key of “C” major or minor and match the letters of the notes to the letter sequence in the back of the book, which acts as an index to the themes listed by composer in the main portion of the book. There is also an index of 1st lines. Can’t remember that tune, but you can hum it? This is a good place to look.

This work indexes over 800 books and journals containing folk songs.

This is a set of indices bound together in a single volume to art songs and arias, folk songs, carols and sea chanties, found in collections published from approximately 1940-1957. When looking up the song/aria title, make sure you are looking in the correct index section by consulting the table of contents. A second copy is available to check out from Ablah Library, second floor.

A 2 volume index to pop, rock and folk songs in collections, listings include songwriter credits and dates. This also provides indexes to first line, composer and performer.

Though this is primarily an index of art songs, this also covers anthologies of folk songs, sea chanteys, Christmas carols, sacred songs and school/college songs. Be sure to check both the main section as well as the supplement section, though both are bound together. An additional copy is found in Ablah Library, 2nd floor.

This 2 volume work indexes songs in over 2000 collections, of all genres. The 2nd volume provides an index by composer and a listing of operas, musicals, movies and etc., with their associated song titles. This work is handy for its coverage of more recently published collections than the DeCharms, "Songs in Collections."

In 3 volumes, this set provides concise background information by song title. This also holds a chronological listing of songs and a list of songwriters.

Also known as the “up-down book,” this volume attempts to answer the question: “What is the name of that tune” by reducing the opening melody to a directional pattern of notes. In 3 sections covering classical tunes, popular tunes and national anthems. If you can hum it and its listed here, you can find it.

A main volume and 3 separate supplemental volumes, this is an index to popular songs by title, first line of song and first line of chorus. As the supplements index different collections, one may need to check through each supplement. Each volume also contains an index by composer and lyricist. This only covers song collections published between 1940 and 1987.

This indexes song collections published from 1854 to 1992. Look up the song title and locate the anthologies in which it is contained.

This is an index to 18 song anthologies in the Music Library collection. Use this to find the printed music for anthologies not having their detailed table of contents listed in the WSU online catalog. Also find here an index by name. A second copy is also available on the 2nd floor of Ablah Library.

This indexes over 100 songbooks published between 1933 and 1962, specifically intending to cover collections most commonly held by libraries. This is one of several places to search for printed popular music.

In 10 volumes, this is a good place to begin seeking information on folk and non-western music. The set consists of: v. 1. Africa; v. 2. South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, v. 3. United States and Canada, v. 4. Southeast Asia, v. 5. South Asia: the Indian subcontinent, v.6. Middle East, v. 7. East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea, v. 8. Europe, v. 9. Australia and the Pacific Islands, v. 10. The World's Music: General Perspectives and Reference Tools. Accompanying audio CDs are available from the service desk of the Music Library.

These 2 volumes contain music and words (transliteration and English translations) to national anthems of the world. More recent than National Anthems of the World, this also contains quick country facts and sometimes notes with historical background. For copies of national anthems to check out see also National Anthems of the World M1627.N269, in the scores section of the Music Library.

This 2 volume work describes the history, society, culture, and events characteristic of folk songs in all fifty states. Entries focus on songs concerning the life and times of the people of each state. Topics range from the major historical events, such as the Boston Tea Party, the attack on Fort Sumter, and the California Gold Rush, to regionally important events such as disasters and murders, labor problems, occupational songs, ethnic conflicts. Some of the songs will be widely recognized, such as Casey Jones, Marching Through Georgia, or Sweet Betsy from Pike. Others, less familiar, have not been reprinted since their original publication, but deserve to be studied because of what they tell about the people of these United States, their loves, labors, and losses, and their responses to events. The collection is organized by regions, starting with New England and ending with the states bordering the Pacific Ocean, and by states within each region. For each state there are from four to fifteen songs presented, with an average of 10 songs per state. For each song, a full text is reprinted, followed by discussion of the song in its historical context. Folksongs, such as those discussed here, are an important tool for historians and cultural historians because they sample experiences of the past at a different level from that of contemporary newspaper accounts and academic histories. These songs, in a sense, are history writ small.

Folksingers and folksongs in America; a handbook of biography, bibliography, and discography
A bit of everything, this contains biographical entries of singers (notable for their involvement on a grass-roots level), annotated bibliographies of song collections, sections of other bibliographical resources and a discography.

Though somewhat dated, these four volumes contain articles not found in The Grove Dictionary of Music, and concentrating specifically on music in the United States. A set is available to check out from the Ablah Library, 2nd floor.
NOTE: Access to revised/updated Grove Dictionary of American Music is soon to be available through the Library subscription to "Oxford Music Online."

This provides biographical information on women songwriters in various genres, but has a chapter specific to folk music.

This volume covers all styles and eras of music in Australia, with entries of terms, people, works, subjects, brief bibliographies and photos.

Another good place to check for biographical information on performing musicians of British origin. This reprint of the 1897 work covers Britain and its colonies.

This reference seeks to identify and briefly annotate a wide range of subjects relating to English musical culture, largely from the early 15th century through 1958, dates that reflect the coalescence of an identifiable English style in the early Renaissance and the death of the iconic Ralph Vaughan Williams in the mid-20th century. In this title find a chronological table of important events, an introductory essay on the history of English music, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on people, venues, repertory, genre, and sources.

For all things relating to music in Canada, a guide to all kinds of music: popular, folk, religious, concert, and other forms. It provides more than 3700 articles in all, with more than 500 pictures of people, places, scores, concert programs, and sheet music. Ablah Library holds an earlier edition.

This book includes biographies of singers, pianists, organists, instrumentalists, conductors, composers and conservatorium directors of Australia.

Biographical entries for authors, composers and publishers associated with the ACUM performing rights organization of Israel.

This reprint of the 1857 biographical dictionary of Polish and Slavic composers, also contains a history of Polish music and musical instruments.

Provided here are entries for over 2000 composers born in Russia or the provinces, containing biographical information, works lists and bibliographies.

Find here a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on every major composer in Russia s history, as well as several leading composers of today, such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Rodion Shchedrin, Leonid Desyatnikov, Elena Firsova, and Pavel Karmanov. It also includes the patrons and institutions that commissioned works by those composers and the choreographers and dancers who helped shape the great ballet masterpieces.

Find here biographical entries of Scottish musicians from 1400 through the 1960s.

Though dated, this work brings together the people, groups, instruments and concepts of the folk music movement.

This is a biographical dictionary with lengthy articles on musical personalities and bands, a listing of awards and a bibliography.

Approximately 1,000 key song recordings from 1889 to the present are explored in full, unveiling the stories behind the songs, the recordings, the performers, and the songwriters.

Volumes 3 and 4 of the The Encyclopedia of More Great Popular Song Recordings provides the stories behind approximately 1,700 more of the greatest song recordings in the history of the music industry, from 1890 to today. In this survey, all genres of popular music are covered, from pop, rock, soul, and country to jazz, blues, classic vocals, hip-hop, folk, gospel, and ethnic/world music.

In 8 volumes, this work is an extensive compilation of biographical articles on groups and artists in popular music (folk musicians are also entered here). The latest edition is located in the music library, while the 2nd edition lives in Ablah Library, 2nd floor, available for checking out.