Guides: Citation guide for music: Chicago style

Chicago style

The Chicago style is one of the commonly used citation formats in music, especially musicology and music theory. The information here is based on the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS18) published in 2024.

Book Cover of Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition, 2024)

Two systems

There are two systems in the Chicago style, both requiring in-text citations and a reference list / bibliography.

(1) Author-Date

In the text, sources are placed in parentheses with the author's last name and the publication year
Reference list appears at the end of the paper
See examples in Author-Date style

(2) Notes and Bibliography

In the text, a cited source is indicated by a superscript number
Sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes
Bibliography appears at the end of the paper
See examples in Notes and Bibliography style

An in-text citation is the reference provided within the body of the text.

(1) In the Author-Date system, it comprises:

the author's last name
year of publication
page number

Examples:

Performing with George Szell could be both exhilarating and terrifying (Fleisher and Midgett 2023, 105).

As Fleisher and Midgett (2023, 105) state, "Playing the piano is a joy, but it can also be a sheer terror."

(2) In the Notes and Bibliography system, the in-text citation is similar to the entry in the bibliography. When the source is cited again, use a shortened citation.

Example:

Performing with George Szell could be both exhilarating and terrifying.¹... As Fleisher and Midgett state, "playing the piano is a joy, but it can also be a sheer terror."²

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1. Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette, My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music, 2nd ed. (Doubleday, 2023), 105.

2. Fleisher and Midgette, My Nine Lives, 105.

A Reference List / Bibliography is a list of sources cited in the document. It is placed at the end of the paper. The format of a reference list entry is slightly different between the two systems.

(1) Author-Date

The author's first name is spelled out.
The first author's name is inverted: Last name, First name. However, subsequent authors' names are written in the regular order: First name Last name.
The book title is italicized and in headline-style capitalization (or title case).
For an edition other than the first, indicate the edition number after the title.

Elements of a book citation in Author-Date system (CMOS18)