Choosing a database can be overwhelming! Here are a few best bets with a brief description of their specialties and strengths. If you're researching a topic that crosses multiple disciplines (like world music or acoustics and physics of music) check out our page on Interdisciplinary Resources for additional recommendations. As always, if you're not sure where to start, ask a librarian!
Here are a few quick tips for navigating our list of recommended databases:
For a more exhaustive list than the one below, check out the full list of music databases UIUC subscribes to.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a comprehensive bibliography on writings about music featuring citations, abstracts and indexes. It covers nearly one and a half million publications from around the world on traditional music, popular music, jazz, classical music and related subjects. Coverage begins in the early 19th century and extends to the present.
Contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for every aspect of the classical and popular world of music including musicological and organological topics, as well as book reviews, record reviews, first performances, and obituaries from more than 850 music periodicals from over 40 countries.
An index to more than eighty historical music periodicals in thirteen languages, published primarily in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (RIPM is the acronym for Répertoire international de la presse musicale.)
Check out our video for a walk through of our different music-specific databases and how to navigate them!