Guides: Music dictionaries and encyclopedias: Music dictionaries and encyclopedias

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Welcome! Use this guide to find background information from dictionaries and encyclopedias for your research projects and assignments.

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Music dictionaries and encyclopedias

Dictionary of Opera Characters, 2nd ed.
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
Encyclopédie de la musique au Canada
Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music
Grove Music Online
- Foremost English-language scholarly encyclopedia of music and musicians
- Extensive articles and bibliographies written by subject experts
- Includes detailed works lists for certain composers: useful for confirming the identity of pieces and for finding individual pieces within composers' complete works sets held by the Library
- Includes access to New Grove Dictionary of Opera and New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd edition)
Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music
Harvard Dictionary of Music
MGG Online (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart)
- Comprehensive German-language encyclopedia
- Provides in-depth articles on many aspects of music and related areas
- Features all content from the 2nd edition as well as current updates and additions
- Integrated translation available
New Penguin Dictionary of Music
Oxford Music Online
OnMusic Dictionary (Successor of the former Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary)