Music - Fine Arts and Humanities - Augustana Library - Subject Guides at University of Alberta Libraries

Peer Reviewed Journals

To determine whether a journal is peer reviewed, search for it in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and look for the little referee symbol: .

Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory This link opens in a new window
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Articles - Music

Use the following databases to find scholarly articles, book chapters, and more.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window Published by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, New York. Contains records in over 100 languages; entries include original-language titles, title translations in English, full bibliographic information, and abstracts in English, as well as author, journal, and in-depth subject indexes.
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Over 500 scholarly journals are represented. Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, films, and videos are all covered by RILM. Concert reviews, recording notes, and pedagogical manuals are included if they are of scholarly interest. Includes RILM Retrospective Abstracts of Music Literature.
Music Index This link opens in a new window Also known as: |The Music Index| Indexes international music periodicals offering access to historiographic, ethnographic, and musicological data. Subjects covered include past and present personalities, the history of music, forms and types of music, musical instruments from the earliest times to modern electronic instruments, plus computer produced music.
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Canadian Music Periodical Index This link opens in a new window Provides bibliographic sources for information on all aspects of musical activity in Canada. Updated monthly.
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Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new window Contains full text articles and other information on and about rock music.
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Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Provides indexing and abstracts from sources covering film, theatre, dance, stagecraft, television, and more. Coverage ranges from 1864 to current. Full text is available for approximately 25% of the indexed journals.
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Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window Arts & Humanities Full Text contains full text of journal articles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
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Also know as: |Arts & Humanities Full Text|. Contains text in Ancient Greek, Arabic, Basque, Bengali, Bosnian, Cherokee, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French / Français, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Latin, Maori, Middle English, Middle French, Old English, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Scots, Serbian, Slavic, Slovenian, Spanish, Tagalog and Turkish languages.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Also known as: |Academic Search Premier| Academic Search Complete provides indexing and abstracts for a large number of scholarly journals in a variety of disciplines, and full text for a subset of these journals.
Contains text in Afrikaans, Albanian, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Flemish, French / Français, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Iranian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Modern Greek, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian and Urdu languages.

Background Information

Do you want to find biographical information about a musician, or an overview of a genre of music? These are examples of the types of information you can find using the resources below. For more resources, visit Finding Background Information.

Oxford Music Online (formerly Grove Music Online) This link opens in a new window Also known as: |The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Music Online| Encyclopedic coverage of music and musicians. Comprises Grove Music Online, the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music.
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Classical Music Reference Library This link opens in a new window This database brings together essential reference materials spanning the history of Western classical music. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, which are available for the first time in electronic form.
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Garland Encyclopedia of World Music This link opens in a new window The |Garland Encyclopedia of World Music| covers the music of all the world's peoples. The first release of the online version includes the complete contents of the the 10 volume print set. Future releases will contain more indexing as well as links to the associated audio examples for each volume.
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Gale Ebooks This link opens in a new window Also known as Gale Virtual Reference Library, this is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research
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Music Scores

In addition to the online collections below, you can search for music scores using the "Search the Library" box at library.ualberta.ca.

Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new window Classical Scores Library contains classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material. Users can access multiple types of scores across various composers, genres, and time periods. It contains full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, as well as piano reductions. All opera, vocal, and choral texts are rekeyed to allow for deep searching and textual analysis.
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Music and Dance Online: Scores Searches all of Alexander Street Press's music and dance collection for scores.
IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) The free public domain sheet music library.
Choral Public Domain Library One of the world's largest free sheet music sites.

Streaming Audio and Video

Search the following collections for audio and video music recordings. For more, visit the Audio & Video Resources Guide.

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window This international streaming audio collection features historical recordings of legendary performers as well as educational materials, 1200-present. The main Genres include: Classical, Jazz, Pop & Rock, Folk, Blues, Nostalgia, Gospel, Chinese, Instrumental, and Spoken Word. Using your CCID you can download the Mobile App to your personal device to create personal play lists.
Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window Classical Music Library provides streaming audio from a multi-label database of recordings. It is specifically designed for listening and learning in libraries.
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Smithsonian Global Sound This link opens in a new window Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides educators, students, and interested listeners with an unprecedented variety of online resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of diverse musical forms.
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It includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music recorded around the African continent by Dr. Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies.
Music and Dance Online This link opens in a new window This database consists of a catalog of music content designed for students, scholars, and patrons of the arts. The multimedia resource features works from partners, covers many genres, and encompasses a range of content formats including scores, reference, audio and video.
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Classical Music in Video This link opens in a new window Includes performances of all forms of classical music, including orchestral performances, chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers.
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Classical Performance in Video This link opens in a new window The database features international performance videos and documentaries covering many classical music genres from the Medieval times to the 21st century.
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medici.tv This link opens in a new window |medici| Medici.tv is an online platform for streaming classical music videos. The catalogue consists of approximately 1500 features related to baroque, classical, romantic, modern and contemporary music. Several types of program are available: operas, concerts, ballets, archives and documentaries, as well as hundreds of events which are broadcast live. Replays are available for several weeks after each live event.
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Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall This link opens in a new window Provides video streamed concerts from the Berliner Philharmoniker. Watch live broadcasts of 40 concerts per season or choose from the concert archive. Documentaries and films are also available.