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Music

Major Research Tools

  • Audio collection documenting the history of African American music. Covers jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, narratives and other genres. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

  • Database of American roots music, including country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, and shape note singing. Songs are categorized by historical event as well as musicians, genres, etc. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

  • Database of classical music plus biographical information on composers. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

  • Audio collection of music from around the world. Includes reggae, worldbeat, Indian classical, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, and more. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

  • Audio collection covering all types of jazz. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

  • Interface for simultaneously searching four of Skillman's music listening databases: American Song, Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, and Jazz Music Library.

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    Authoritative reference works on music, including Grove Music Online.

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    Collection of dictionaries and other reference works on music, theater, and dance from Oxford University Press.

  • Index

    Coverage: 1967-present

    Indexes the scholarly literature of music from Amadeus to Zevon.

  • Music from the Smithsonian Folkways collection and from other music archives around the world. Strong in American folk and other "roots" music. Includes spoken word recordings, such as poets reading their works. Streaming audio is freely available to Lafayette users. Register to create and store personal playlists or download music for a fee.

Other Suggested Research Tools

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    A collection of stock arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. Also includes digitized sets of parts and pre-1923 recordings for selected arrangements, songs, and composers.

  • Database of recorded music. Includes discographies, some biographies, essays, genre guides, and music "maps" (genre timelines delineated by key artists).

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    Digital archive of sheet music for popular American songs published from 1885 to 1953.

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    Indexes information on arias from over 170 operas, with original texts, translations, and MIDI files.

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    Indexes classical and opera music used in feature films by film title and composer.

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    Digital collection of musical and spoken cylinder recordings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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    Index

    An electronic version of the print compilation (Skillman Ref. ML128.I65 B3) which identfies a musical theme by the first few notes. Searchable by composer, category of music, or by note, it plays and identifies the first few measures of a theme. Quicktime is required.

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    Index to recorded folk music, searchable by title keyword and performer. Related and alternate titles and melodies are cross-referenced.

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    Encyclopedia of GLBT art, literature, film, music, and popular culture.

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    A searchable archive of reviews of classical music recordings in Gramophone Magazine from 1923 to the present. Requires free registration.

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    English translations of the vocal works of J.S. Bach with background information on the literary sources and performance history of each work.

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    Articles, music criticism, and interviews with jazz personalities and others recalling the jazz culture of Chicago's South Side, also called Bronzeville.

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    Gateway

    An extensive listing of Web resources about Jewish music.

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    An archive of texts of Lieder and other art songs, searchable by composer, poet, first line, title, or language. Also includes translations.

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    Information on all performances of the Metropolitan Opera from it's opening in 1883 to the present.

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    Gateway

    A history of musical theater.

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    Collection of several hundred classical music scores in various text formats. Browse by composer, instrument, or musical style or search by keyword.

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    Gateway

    Database of information on opera, including synopses, libretti, source texts, performance histories, discographies, and reviews. Provides information on composers, librettists, and opera companies and links to other opera Web sites.

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    Collection of primary and secondary materials related to the development of jazz from 1895 to 1929. Features more than 200 sound files of jazz recordings along with biographical essays, band histories, discographies, filmographies, and photographs.

  • Data

    Data on music sales and purchasing trends. From the Recording Industry Association of American

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    Index

    Digitized sheet music from a consortium of libraries including the Library of Congress, UCLA, Indiana University, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins University.

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    Provides discographic information on commercially-released show music recordings from the late 19th century to the present.

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    Wesleyan University's collection of images and audio and video clips of musical instruments from around the world.