Music: Reference Sources

by Jennifer C. Post. New York: Routledge, 2004. A comprehensive, annotated bibliography on the topic.

By Pauline Shaw Bayne and published by Scarecrow Press, 2008, this guide covers how to find research resources as well as how best to write about music topics, complete with sample writing.

Sampsel, Laurie J. Music Research: A Handbook. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

edited by Kay Ann Hartwig.

This database includes the following sources:

Grove Music Online:

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (2001)
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992)
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed. (2002)
Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin, 4th ed. (2006)
The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed. (2013)
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd ed. (2014)

It also includes:

The Oxford Companion to Music (revised 2011)
The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. (2006)

By Mark C. Ely and Amy E. Rashkin and published by GIA Publications, 2005, this comprehensive dictionary of music education includes an extensive bibliography in the back to accompany the definitions within.

Edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1986. WOO Reference This 4-volume, authoritative encyclopedia serves as a worthy supplement to the standard New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Edited by Barry Kernfeld. 2nd ed. New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc., 2001. This 3-volume, authoritative encyclopedia serves as a worthy supplement to the standard New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Edited by Stanley Sadie; executive editor, John Tyrrell. 2nd ed. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 2001. This well-respected, scholarly, multi-volume encyclopedia is often the first place to check on music history topics. Articles are signed with comprehensive bibliographies, discographies, and lists of musical scores.

8th edition. Nicolas Slonimsky, editor emeritus. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001. This 6-volume, biographical dictionary has earned it's name as a standard in the field of music and is often consulted first for biographical information, along with the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.