LibGuides: String Resource Guide: Guide Overview

Instrument Resource Guide Overview

Welcome to the Music & Performing Arts Library (MPAL) String Resource Guide!

While this guide is not a complete bibliography of materials related to the study and practice of string instruments, it does contain a representative selection of the types of resources that will likely prove indispensable for performers, researchers, and educators alike. We hope it can serve as a valuable starting and/or reference point for your information seeking needs.

Use the tabs on the left to navigate between the pages of the guide. Each instrument page also contains several sub-pages which are listed when the cursor is held over the instrument's tab, as well as after you've navigated into the instrument's page.

Finding Materials

All items listed within this instrument guide are available through either the Music and Performing Arts Library or UIUC's Online Collection. Information on holdings and availability of specific items can be found using the library's online catalog. If you need assistance finding any materials or navigating the Library, don't hesitate to ask at the service desk.

For more tips and strategies to help you find scores and recordings as well as information about our streaming media resources, be sure to explore our Finding Music Materials guide (linked below). For additional resource and how-to guides, you can browse the full list of MPAL library guides.

Finding Music Materials
A guide to searching for and distinguishing between different musical formats using the library catalog.

General String Resources

The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet by Robin Stowell (Editor)
Call Number: ML1160 C36S7
This Companion offers a concise and authoritative survey of the string quartet by eleven chamber music specialists. Its fifteen carefully structured chapters provide coverage of a stimulating range of perspectives previously unavailable in one volume. It focuses on four main areas: the social and musical background to the quartet's development; the most celebrated ensembles; string quartet playing, including aspects of contemporary and historical performing practice; and the mainstream repertory, including significant 'mixed ensemble' compositions involving string quartet.
The History of Music in Fifty Instruments by Philip Wilkinson
Call Number: ML460 .W55H5 2014
The 400-year story of music told by the instruments that make an orchestra. The History of Music in 50 Instruments outlines musical history in well-written nuggets of information. Profiling one instrument at a time, it describes the history of music since the 1700s, when orchestras first took the formal shape familiar to us. The concise text explains the role of each instrument in the orchestra and its importance in the development of music in general.
Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom by Karel Butz
Call Number: Online Resource
Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom describes a fully pragmatic pedagogical approach toward developing complete musicianship in beginning through advanced level string players by incorporating the ideas of Mimi Zweig, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki.