Guides: Music literature full-text and bibliographic databases: Music literature full-text and bibliographic databases

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Welcome! Use this guide to find literature about music for your research projects and assignments: full-text journal articles, article abstracts, e-books, digital collections, and more

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Music literature full-text and bibliographic databases

Core databases for finding music literature, including journal articles:

Music Periodicals Database (formerly IIMP - International Index to Music Periodicals)
- Guide to scholarly and popular music journals for a wide range of subjects
- Emphasis on articles from 1996 to the present; indexing for certain journals from 1874
- Includes full-text content for many journals
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text
Comprehensive scholarly bibliography of writings on music, international in scope, from 1900 to the present. Covers a wide range of publications: journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, and essay collections. Includes full-text content from many leading journals, magazines, and newsletters.
Music Index
- Guide to music periodicals and literature
- Coverage includes articles about music, musicians, instruments, and the music industry (popular and classical)
- Good for finding reviews of books, recordings, and performances; news articles; and obituaries
- Some digital content (1970 to present)
JSTOR: Advanced Search (or Basic Search)

General, interdisciplinary, and specialty databases for finding music literature:

AES: Audio Engineering Society
Albert Schatz Collection of Opera Libretti (Library of Congress)
Bibliographie des Musikschrifttums Online
Canadian Music Periodical Index
- Find citations to articles from hundreds of Canadian music journals, newsletters, and magazines
- Discover articles on musical activity in Canada, from the late-19th century to 2010
Concert Programmes
- Search this database to find locations and descriptions of collections of concert programs held in European libraries, archives and museums.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive
- Archival research resource for studying history of the film and entertainment industries
- Coverage: 1880-2000
Europeana
France: Musiques, Cultures, 1789-1918
Gallica, la bibliothèque numérique de la Bibliothèque nationale de France
- Excellent resource for historical and archival research
- Provides access to public-domain digital documents held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
- Wide variety of formats included: books, newspapers, periodicals, scores, sound recordings, images, and more
Google Scholar
- Configure Google Scholar to access articles available through the Library.
Hathi Trust
Internet Archive
Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century (Alexander Street Press)
- Collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s
- Contains local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements
Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres
Oxford Bibliographies: Music
Peer-reviewed and annotated book-length bibliographies.
Oxford Handbooks Online: Music
RIdIM (Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale)
RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text (1760-1966)
Rock's Back Pages Library