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Writing Citations in Music

Book with One Author

Book with single author (MLA 5.5.2)
Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book, Publisher. Date of Publication.


Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues and Concepts. University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Book with Multiple Authors

Book with editor or translator as author (MLA 5.5.3)
Author Last Name, Author First Name, eds. OR trans. Title of book. Publisher, Date of Publication.


Wierzbicki, James Eugene., et al., editors. The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. Routledge, 2012.

Book with an Editor or Translator

Book with multiple authors (MLA 5.5.4)
Author Last Name, Author First Name and Author First Name Author Last Name. Title of book. Publisher, Date of Publication.


Hepokoski, James, and Warren Darcy. Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth Century Sonata. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Book With an Author AND an Editor or Translator

Book with both an author AND an editor or translator (MLA 5.5.6)
Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book. Translated OR Edited by First Name Last Name, Publisher, Date of Publication.


Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. Translated by Roy E. Carter, University of California Press, 1978.,

Book that is a Volume

Book that is a Volume
Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Reference Work. Volume, Publisher, Date of Publication, page numbers (only include if the encyclopedia is not in alphabetical order).


Marissen, Michael, editor. Bach Perspectives. Volume 8, University of Nebraska Press, 2011. Print.

Book that is Part of a Series

Book that is in a Series
Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Reference Work. Edited by Names of Editors, volume, Publisher, Date of Publication. Title of the Series.


Auner, Joseph. Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Edited by Walter Frisch, volume 6, W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. Western Music in Context: A Norton History.

Book that is an Edition

Book that is an Edition
Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book. Edition, Publisher, Date of Publication.


Burkholder, J. Peter, et al. A History of Western Music. 9th edition, W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.

Chapter or Part of a Book (MLA 5.5.6)

Chapter or other parts of a book  (MLA 5.5.6)
Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Book chapter." Title of book. Translated OR edited by First Name Last Name, Publisher, Date of Publication, page range.


Weber, William. "The History of Musical Canon." Rethinking Music. Edited by Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist, Oxford University Press, 1999, 336-355.

Electronic Book

Electronic Books

Electronic books are treated similarly to print books. The only difference is that after the citation you include the URL or DOI someone can use to access it.