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Music 301: History of Music Before 1750

The Guide to Library Research provides an introduction to the search process, including an overview of "Scholarly" and "Popular" Publications.

Finding & Using Books

McCain Library has a wide range of print materials, including reference materials, scholarly books, and journals, that can be of use when preparing for your class presentations. You can search the online catalog, SOPHIA. Start with a keyword search. You may want to further focus your search with subject headings that are listed in the information for books of interest to you. Example subject headings that would apply to this class are:

Music -- Europe -- 17th century -- History and criticism

Music -- History and criticism -- Early works to 1800

Music -- Italy -- 17th century -- History and criticism

You can also physically browse the collection; the Library of Congress call number "M" corresponds with music related materials. You can find these on the Ground floor of the library. You'll find music-oriented history & criticism in the ML section.

Reference Books

Check out the M & ML sections in the Reference collection as well, on the 1st floor of the library. Some important reference books you'll find here are:

A dictionary of early music : from the troubadours to Monteverdi, Ref. ML100 .R695

The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, Ref. ML100 .N48 1980, v. 1-10

The New Harvard dictionary of music, Ref. ML100 .N485 1986

The New Oxford history of music, Ref. ML160 .N44, v. 1-8

The Oxford history of western music, Ref. ML160 .T18 2005

Audiovisual Materials

The library has a wide array of sound recordings, as well as listening equipment, on the Ground floor. You can search the collection by entering your keywords & limiting your search with such criteria as language, location, or publication date from SOPHIA's Advanced Search page.

Audio materials of interest:

Music of the Middle Ages, (LP) M M973 pcs/vo/sl v.1-4

A treasury of early music : an anthology of masterworks of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque, (cd) M .P249 pcs/ch- instr/ se v.1-4

General Databases for Journal Articles

These general databases cover scholarly & popular publications. Most articles are available full-text.

Academic Search Complete

Research Library (at ProQuest)

Specialized Databases

Music databases:

GroveMusic: an integrated music resource on the web, including the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (second edition).

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature published by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, New York, contains records in over 200 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.

Arts & Humanities databases:

Arts & Humanities Search: indexes the world's leading arts and humanities journals & selected articles from social science and science journals, includes articles, bibliographies, editorials, letters, reviews, and more.

JSTOR: full-text access to back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. The complete back files of these journals have been digitized, many of which began in the 1800s.

Humanities Abstracts: citations to articles and book reviews in approximately 350 general-interest periodicals and periodicals in the humanities, including literature and history.

Project Muse: full-text access to 220 quality journal titles from 37 scholarly publishers. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, gender studies, and many others.

Another useful database:

WorldCat: find books & publications owned by databases worldwide. See below for information about Interlibrary Loaning procedures.

Finding a Full-Text article from a citation

If the database you are searching does not include the full-text of your article, search the Journal/Article Locator.

The journal/article locator will also tell you if we have a publication in library print or microfilm collections. If we have access to the publication, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan, or, check to see if another local library that you can visit owns it.

Does McCain Library have this journal? Is it full-text?

If the database you are searching does not include your journal or article, search the Journal/Article Locator.

This will show you if we have your journal through any database. The journal/article locator will also tell you if we have a publication in our print or microfilm collections. If we don't have access to the publication, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan, or, check to see if another local library that you can visit owns it.

Other local libraries may have books in their collections on your topic. Try searching their catalogs for relevant materials.

Creating a Bibliography: Relatively New Software at ASC

RefWorks: Useful web-based tool that allows researchers to import references from online databases. You can use these references in writing your papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds. The tutorial and Quick Start Guide are both very well-done; they are available under "About Us" link in RefWorks.

Please Note: RefWorks is an excellent tool & can create bibliographies in many formats. They do not claim 100% accuracy though; it is still your responsibilty to ensure entries are in the proper citation format. Please proofread!

For additional assistance, please contact the McCain Library Scottie Research & Rescue Desk in person, by phone (404-471-6096), email, or IM us at asclibrarian (AOL & Yahoo).