Introduction
Handbooks, guides, and bibliographies about specific composers, genres, or instruments can be excellent tools for your research!
What are they?
- Thorough and comprehensive lists of the major scholarship about a specific topic.
Why use them?
- To help direct your reading and research so you know what's already been published about your topic.
- Remember: Although they are a great place to start, it is important to check when they were published because they may not be up to date on the most current research and scholarship.
Finding Handbooks & Guides Through the Library
Oxford Bibliographies (linked below) is a great online tool that collects peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on a variety of topics. Searching here to see what has been written about the topic you're researching is a great way gather background information and decide what sources to read next.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new windowOffers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a My OBO function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
You can also find handbooks, guides, and annotated bibliographies on a variety of topics through the library catalog. One particularly good series is Routledge Music Bibliographies (linked below), which has research guides on specific composers, musical styles, and instruments.
Selected Recommended Guides
We have collected several recommended guides below to get you started. These are great places to start your research as they can lead you to other books about your chosen song or topic.
To find similar materials in the Library catalog, search for your topic AND "research guide", "bibliography", "biobibliography", or "handbook" for the specific composer or type of music you are researching.
Researching the Song by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML102.S6 E46Researching the Song serves as an invaluable guide for performers, teachers, and enthusiasts to the art song repertoire. Its more than 2,000 carefully researched entries supply information on most of the mythological, historical, geographical, and literary references contained in western art song.
Choral Music: A Research and Information Guide by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML128.C48 S53 2019Choral Music: A Research and Information Guide, Third Edition, offers a comprehensive guide to the literature on choral music in the Western tradition. Clearly annotated bibliographic entries guide readers to resources on key topics within choral music, individual choral composers, regional and sacred choral traditions, choral techniques, choral music education, genre studies, and more, providing an essential reference for researchers and practitioners. Also available online.
The Musical: A Research and Information Guide by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML128.M78 E94This research guide includes more than 1,400 annotated entries related to the genre as it appears on stage and screen. It includes reference works, monographs, articles, anthologies, and websites related to the musical. Separate sections are devoted to sub-genres (such as operetta and megamusical), non-English language musical genres in the U.S., traditions outside the U.S., individual shows, creators, performers, and performance.
Opera: A Research and Information Guide by Call Number: Online and Reference Non-circulating ML128.O4 M27O62001Users will find the core literature on the operas of 320 individual composers and details of operatic life in 43 countries. All relevant works through to November 1999 have been considered, covering more than fifteen years of literature since the first edition was published.
Library Resources for Singers, Coaches, and Accompanists by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML128.V7 M37Designed to aid the student, librarian, teacher, or professional singer, this annotated bibliography provides access to more than 500 books, journals, and electronic resources. Included as well are chapters listing dictionaries and encyclopedias for opera and musical theater, biographical sources, guides to vocal literature and repertoire, and resources for vocal pedagogy and for the stage. Equally helpful are sources that list plots and synopses, translations, diction, travel and education.
The art song : a research and information guide by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML128.S3 S33
