Guides: MUS 354/MUS 355: Music History and Literature: Getting Started

Helpful Databases

Grove Music Online
Access to more than 60,000 signed articles and 30,000 biographies contributed by over 6,000 scholars from around the world. Includes the full texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition (2002), as well as numerous subsequent updates and emendations.
Oxford History of Western Music Online
Offers an account of the evolution of Western classical music by one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists of our time, Richard Taruskin. The full text, which was printed in five thick volumes in print, is now available in an interactive digital format.
Music Index
A comprehensive guide to music periodicals and literature featuring digitized content from 1970 to present, Music Index contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts of articles about music, musicians and the music industry for more than 480 periodicals. It also provides selective coverage for more than 200 periodicals.
JSTOR
Access the journal archives Arts & Sciences I, II, III, IV, VI, & VII and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform; book chapters and journal articles are cross-searchable. JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Access to nearly 3 million searchable citations, the most comprehensive collection of doctoral dissertations and master's theses in the world. Dissertations from 1980 forward include 350-word abstracts and Master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Full text for most dissertations since 1997 with 1.2 million full text dissertations available for download in PDF format. Approximately 70,000 new dissertations and theses are added each year. Coverage from 1743 to the present.
Project MUSE
Project MUSE offers full-text current and archival articles from 600+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
Profiling milestones and movements in the arts, literature, music and religion from a specific period, each volume in this set helps students and researchers understand the various disciplines of the humanities in relation to each other, as well as to history and culture. An overview of the period and a chronology of major world events begin each volume.

Guide to the Stacks

Books and printed music are arranged according to the Library of Congress' Classification System:

M = Printed music/scores (organized by instrument/genre)
ML = Books about music and musicians
MT = Books on music theory, pedagogy, and technique

Call numbers of non-circulating reference books begin with "REF", while call numbers for oversized books begin with "Oversize" and are located in a special section in the stacks.

The best search tool for all books, articles, and media (sound recordings and DVDs) is the Pepperdine Library Catalog. Enter a keyword, title, author, performer, or composer and then narrow your search results (to article, musical score, DVD, etc.) using the "Narrow by Format" box to the left on the search results page.

Most journal articles and periodicals are now online, although a few are among the bound periodicals and microfilm in Payson Library, with back years stored in the Calabasas facility. You can search the catalog by subject, ex., SU:music periodicals or su:Music Instruction and study Periodicals

Sound & Video Recordings

Naxos Music Library
Access to over 1.45 million tracks of music from the Naxos and other independent music labels; includes background information such as complete linear notes.
Classical Music Library
Access to streaming music consisting of 47,839 albums, equalling over 712,700 classical music recordings. Includes the Music Library Association listing of essential sound recordings, recordings of music written from the earliest times (e.g., Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Includes program notes, composer biographies, and images cross-referenced to the recordings plus links to Grove Music Online.

Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Streaming video titles spanning subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.
medici.tv This link opens in a new window
Education videos on classical music, opera, and dance, plus live event broadcasts.

Library of Congress films/videos on Music

Sheet Music Online

IMSLP: International Music Score Library Project This link opens in a new window
Contains all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music without charge.

Boosey & Hawkes Online Scores
Boosey & Hawkes Online Scores allows you to view selected works from the B&H catalogue in an online display. The service requires free registration.
CANTUS: A Database for Ecclesiastical Chant
CANTUS is a database of Latin ecclesiastical chant, the earliest written musical repertory of any significant size. The texts are almost all in Latin, and the majority of them are drawn from the Bible, very often from the book of Psalms.
Bach Digital
The Bach Archiv's Library in Leipzig provides access to online music, manuscripts, and catalogs of Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers in the Bach family.