Instrument Resource Guide Overview
Welcome to the Music & Performing Arts Library (MPAL) Woodwind Resource Guide!
While this guide is not a complete bibliography of materials related to the study and practice of woodwind 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 MaterialsA guide to searching for and distinguishing between different musical formats using the library catalog.
General Woodwind Resources
Woodwind Instruments and Their History by Call Number: ML931 B35W6D6This book combines a discussion of design and construction with a detailed history of the evolution of woodwinds from earliest times to the present. Part One introduces the woodwinds, describing their basic components, construction, variations, and idiosyncrasies as well as playing technique, matters of acoustics and pitch, and types of reeds. Part Two traces a variety of technical changes, particularly in terms of recent processes of mechanization.
Woodwind research guide : a selective bibliography of materials pertaining to the literature, development, and acoustics of woodwind instruments by Call Number: ML128.W5 M37A bibliography of books, articles and dissertations covering the woodwind families.
Wind Chamber Music: for two to sixteen winds : an annotated guide by Call Number: Reference Non-circulating ; ML128.W5 S43Written by one of the foremost authorities on woodwind chamber music, this comprehensive, annotated guide lists more than 2,500 chamber pieces. Information is provided about each composition including composer name, nationality, birth and death dates; title, arranger, composition or copyright date, publisher, instrumentation, length, difficulty level; and general information about the composition or the composer.
Credits
This guide was authored by Ritse Adefolalu, MPAL Graduate Assistant, Fall 2016. Additional edits and content were added by Cory Davis, MPAL Graduate Assistant, Spring 2019.