LibGuides: Music Research Guide: Finding Books

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Books, eBooks, and other Library materials can be searched using the Online Catalog. You can search the catalog by Subject such as Musical Instruction. Books on music can be found in the M section of the library stacks. There are two main categories of books: general and reference. General books (located in the "Stacks" on the lower floor) can be checked out and are often used for more in-depth research. Reference books (located on the upper floor) do not circulate but can be useful for acquiring an overview on a topic.

Course Reserves

The Library maintains a collection of instructor reserve materials. These consist of textbooks, videos, and supplemental course materials that instructors have put in the Library for student use. To find what materials are available for Music, search Course Reserves in the Online Catalog. It is best to search by "Course Number" (ex. MUSC 100) in that an instructor other than yours may have placed an item on reserve. Materials can be requested at the Periodicals counter and generally must be used in the Library on a two-hour loan period. Photocopy machines are available for 10¢ a copy.

A few selected Library general and reference titles for Music are listed below.

All You Need to Know about the Music Business by Donald S. Passman; Randy Glass (Illustrator)
Call Number: ML3790 .P35 2006
Publication Date: 2006
Veteran music lawyer Donald Passman is in the thick of this transformation and understands that anyone involved in the music business is feeling the deep, far-reaching effects of it. This latest edition will lead novices and experts alike through the fundamental practices as well as the new, uncharted territory of one of this country's most dynamic industries.
Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers by Hal Leonard Corp. Staff; Willis C. Patterson
Call Number: M1619 .A72 1977
Publication Date: 1984
(Vocal Collection). Contents: For You There is No Song (Leslie Adams) * Early in the Mornin' (David Baker) * A Good Assassination Should Be Quiet (David Baker) * Status Symbol (David Baker) * Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man; Dream Variations; I, Too (Margaret Bonds) * The Barrier (Charles Brown) and more!
Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge by Clinton Heylin
Call Number: ML3534 .H479 2007
Publication Date: 2007
Babylon's Burning is a groundbreaking, definitive account of punk rock, one of the most influential and lasting music movements in history--a movement that ironically was built on self-annihilation. Babylon's Burning is the brilliant, exhaustively researched story that once and for all defines what Punk is and is not.
Basic Music Theory by Jonathan Harnum
Call Number: MT7 .H25 2001
Publication Date: 2005
Basic Music Theory takes you through the sometimes confusing world of written music with a clear, concise style that is at times funny and always friendly. The book is written by an experienced teacher using methods refined over more than ten years in his private teaching studio and in schools
Before Elvis: A Prehistory of Rock 'N' Roll by Larry Birnbaum
Call Number: ML3477 .B47 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll surveys the origins of rock 'n' roll from the minstrel era to the emergence of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Unlike other histories of rock, Before Elvis offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. *Also available as an eBook
The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk by James J. Fuld
Call Number: ML113 .F8 1995
Publication Date: 1995
Well-researched compilation of music information, analyzes nearly 1,000 of the world's most familiar melodies -- composers, lyricists, copyright date, first lines of music, lyrics, and other data. Includes 30 black-and-white illustrations.
Classic FM Guide to Classical Music: The Essential Companion to Composers and their Music by Jeremy Nicholas
Call Number: ML390 .N53 1997
Publication Date: 1997
This is a guide to classical music, covering charts, a history of music, and composers. It is arranged alphabetically, discussing the composer's biography, musical influences and type of music, followed by a list of essential works. Charts are provided to help place artists in their society and period, as well as making the links between the composers.
Companion to Baroque Music by Julie A. Sadie
Call Number: ML193 .C56 1998
Publication Date: 1998
The Companion to Baroque Music is an illuminating survey of musical life in Europe and the New World from 1600 to 1750. With informative essays on the social, national, geographical, and cultural contexts of the music and musicians of the period.
Country Music Originals: The Legends & the Lost by Tony Russell
Call Number: ML394 .R87 2007
Publication Date: 2007
In this sparkling collection, "roots" music authority Tony Russell offers vivid portraits of the men and women who created country music, the artists whose lives and songs formed the rich tradition from which Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Dixie Chicks, and so many others have drawn their inspiration.
Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America by Elaine Keillor; Tim Archambault; John M. H. Kelly
Call Number: Ref. ML102 .N37 K45 2013
Publication Date: 2013
This book is a one-stop reference resource for the vast variety of musical expressions of the First Peoples' cultures of North America, both past and present.
Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present by Cecelia Hopkins Porter
Call Number: ML82 .P675 2012
Publication Date: 2012
Representing a historical cross-section of performance and training in Western music since the seventeenth century, Five Lives in Music brings to light the private and performance lives of five remarkable women musicians and composers. *Also available as an eBook
From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and their Music by Helen Walker-Hill
Call Number: ML390 .W16 2007
Publication Date: 2007
Exploding the assumption that black women's only important musical contributions have been in folk, jazz, and popHelen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry by Robert Burnett
Call Number: ML3790 .B85 1995
Publication Date: 1996
The Global Jukebox is the first comprehensive study of the international music industry at a time of great change, as the entertainment industry acknowledges its ever growing global audience. Robert Burnett provides an international overview of the music business and its future prospects in the UK, Northern Europe and the United States and Canada.
God Save the Queens by Kathy Iandoli
Call Number: ML3531 .I26 2019
Publication Date: 2019
God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop--from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more.
The Great American Songbook - The Singers: Music and Lyrics for 100 Standards from the Golden Age of the American Song: Piano, Vocal, Guitar. by Hal Leonard Corp. Staff (Created by)
Call Number: M1630.18 .G747 2007
Publication Date: 2007
This folio features 100 classics by various artists, like Louis Armstrong, Hammerstein, Cole Porter and many, many more.
Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from its Natural Origins to its Modern Expression by W. A. Mathieu
Call Number: MT50 .M48 1997
Publication Date: 1997
An exploration of musical harmony from its ancient fundamentals to its most complex modern progressions, addressing how and why it resonates emotionally and spiritually in the individual.
The History of Rock and Roll by Ed Ward
Call Number: ML3534 .W32 2016
Publication Date: 2016
Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative--from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963.
A History of Singing by John Potter; Neil Sorrell
Call Number: AVAILABLE SOON
Publication Date: 2012
Why do we sing and what first drove early humans to sing? How might they have sung and how might those styles have survived to the present day? This history addresses these questions and many more, examining singing as a historical and cross-cultural phenomenon.
How to Read Music by Roger Evans
Call Number: MT35 .E88 1978
Publication Date: 1995
A basic primer for anyone without musical training who wishes to learn to read musical scores when singing or taking up an instrument. The book explains how notes are named and written; how to read melody, interpret time signatures, keys, sharps, flats, and naturals; how to read tempo; and how to play chords.
Masterpieces of Music Before 1750: An Anthology of Musical Examples from Gregorian Chant to J. S. Bach by Carl Parrish and John F. Ohl
Call Number: ML160 .P37
Publication Date: 1951
Outstanding collection of musical examples — chants, motets, chansons, madrigals, more — illustrating the general course of musical style from the early Middle Ages to the mid-18th century. Works by Lassus, Josquin des Prez, Schutz, Handel, Bach, many others. Notes identify place of composition in history of music and suggest useful methods of analysis.
Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music by David Sulzer
Call Number: ML3805 .S62 2021
Publication Date: 2021
This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music in a way that readers without scientific background can follow. David Sulzer, also known in the musical world as Dave Soldier, explains why the perception of music encompasses the physics of sound, the functions of the ear and deep-brain auditory pathways, and the physiology of emotion.
Music: A Subversive History by Ted Gioia
Call Number: ML3916 .G59 2019
Publication Date: 2019
Gioia tells a 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how social outcasts have repeatedly become trailblazers of musical expression.
The Musical Instrument Desk Reference by Michael J. Pagliaro
Call Number: ML460 .P313 2012
Publication Date: 2012
The Musical Instrument Desk Reference includes general information on fingering, the anatomy of musical instruments, sound production, amplification, and control, as well as the science of sound. --from publisher description.
Musical Revolutions by Stuart Isacoff
Call Number: ML160 .I83 2022
Publication Date: 2022
A fascinating journey that begins with the origins of musical notation and travels through the centuries reaching all the way to our time.
Music as an Art by Roger Scruton
Call Number: ML3845 .S3976 M87 2018
Publication Date: 2018
As Scruton shows in Music as an Art, we live at a critical time for classical music, and this book is an important contribution to the debate, of which we stand in need, concerning the place of music in Western civilization.
Music Innovators by Salem Press Editors
Call Number: Ref. ML394 .M87 2016 Vols. 1-3
Publication Date: 2016
Keeping in mind the long history of music and its powerful effect on the human social and cultural psyche, this brand-new volume in the Innovators series profiles the most innovative and important individuals in music history. Innovators in Music spans three large volumes, examining over 350 individuals and personalities who had an influential impact on the music industry. *Also available online
Music in the Baroque Era by Manfred F. Bukofzer
Call Number: ML193 .B8
Publication Date: 1947
An analysis of the Baroque style of music and its inventive forms of expression, such as the opera, from 1600 to 1750.
Music in the Romantic Period by F. E. Kirby
Call Number: MT6.5 .M89 1986
Publication Date: 1986
The book features 58 separate works by 25 different composers reflecting all important genres of the period: Symphony, symphonic poem, overture, concerto, variation, string quartet, piano quintet, piano & organ music, song, & opera.
New Historical Anthology of Music by Women by James R. Briscoe (Editor)
Call Number: M2 .N46 2004
Publication Date: 2004
New Historical Anthology of Music by Women updates the extremely popular collection with 55 compositions by 46 women composers from the ancient Greeks to the present. Each work is introduced by an informative essay by a specialist in the field, with recommendations for further reading, listening, and performing.
Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music by Royal S. Brown
Call Number: ML2075 .B76 1994
Publication Date: 1994
Since the days of silent films, music has been integral to the cinematic experience, serving, variously, to allay audiences' fears of the dark and to heighten a film's emotional impact. Yet viewers are often unaware of its presence. In this bold, insightful book, film and music scholar and critic Royal S. Brown invites readers not only to "hear" the film score, but to understand it in relation to what they "see."
The Oxford Companion to Music by Alison Latham (Editor)
Call Number: Ref. ML100 .S37 2002
Publication Date: 2002
More than 8,000 articles sweep across an extraordinary range of subjects: composers, performers, conductors, individual works, instruments and notation, forms and genres. From the study of music--theory, aesthetics, scholarship--to the way it is performed and disseminated, the Companion provides comprehensive, accessible coverage of music in all its artistic, historical, cultural, and social dimensions.
Rhythm Reading by Daniel Kazez
Call Number: MT42 .K3 1997
Publication Date: 1997
Each pattern is introduced in a step-by-step process that encourages students to read rhythms not as individual notes but as groups of notes. These groups then recur throughout the text in a variety of carefully graded exercises.
The Rise of Music in the Ancient World by Curt Sachs
Call Number: ML162 .S14 2008
Publication Date: 2008
In this groundbreaking, all-encompassing work, an eminent musicologist explores the evolution of music. It ranges from the ecstatic singing and Shaman songs of early civilizations to the development of more structured styles in Egypt, East Asia, India, Greece, Rome, the Middle East, and Europe.
Story Behind the Protest Song by Hardeep Phull
Call Number: ML3551.5 .P58 2008
Publication Date: 2008
Protest songs are united by the fact they all have something to say, something to dispute, or something to rile against, whether it be political, social, or personal. Story Behind the Protest Song features 50 of the most influential musical protests and statements recorded to date, providing pop-culture viewpoints on some of the most tumultuous times in modern history. *Also available as an eBook
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America by Dick Weissman
Call Number: ML3917 .U6 W45 2010
Publication Date: 2010
A comprehensive guide to the relationship between American music and politics from music expert Weissman. Unprecedented in its approach, the book offers a multidisciplinary discussion that illuminates how social events impact music as well as how music impacts social events.
Voices of Forgotten Worlds: Traditional Music of Indigenous People by United Nations Staff; Decade of Indigenous People Staff
Call Number: ML3545 .V65 1993
Publication Date: 1993
This book and accompanying CD provide samples of various groups and locations all over the world. The range is from Tuvan throat singers, Inuit songs, the Australian Aborigne digeridoo, three Native American pieces among others, but there is something from every geographical area and musical style.
Women and Music by Karin Anna Pendle (Editor)
Call Number: ML82 .W6 2001
Publication Date: 2001
This updated, expanded, and reorganized edition of Women and Music features even more women composers, performers, and patrons, even more musical contexts, and an expanded view of women in music outside Europe and North America.
Women Composers: Composers Born Before 1599 by Martha F. Schleifer (Editor); Sylvia Glickman (Editor)
Call Number: M2 .W651 1996
Publication Date: 1996
This work represents a comprehensive historical overview of music created by women from the 9th to the 20th century. Each volume features 10-25 complete musical scores or complete movements from multi-movement compositions, many of which have been previously difficult to access.
Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950 by Jane Bowers (Editor); Judith Tick (Editor)
Call Number: Available Soon
Publication Date: 1985
This book presents biographies of outstanding performers and composers, as well as analyses of women musicians as a class, and provides examples of music from all periods including medieval chant, Renaissance song, Baroque opera, German lieder, and twentieth-century composition.
The Word Rhythm Dictionary: A Resource for Writers, Rappers, Poets, and Lyricists by Timothy Polashek
Call Number: PE1583 .P65 2014
Publication Date: 2014
This is an eminently practical reference work for all wordsmiths looking to add musicality to their writing. Users of this dictionary can alphabetically look up words in the General Index to find collections of words that have the same rhythm as the original word and are readily useable in ways that are familiar to us in everything from vers libre poetry to the lyrics and music of Bob Dylan and hip hop groups.
Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting by Pat Pattison
Call Number: MT67 .P383 2009
Publication Date: 2010
Provides effective tools for everything from generating ideas, to understanding the form and function of a song, to fine-tuning lyrics.

Developing Musicianship Through Aural Skills by Kent D. Cleland; Mary Dobrea-Grindahl; Mary Dobrea-Grindahl
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2013
Developing Musicianship Through Aural Skillsis a comprehensive method for learning to hear, sing, understand, and use the foundations of music as a part of an integrated and holistic curriculum for training professional musicians. Each chapter is organized to take advantage of how our minds and instincts naturally hear and understand music.
Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music by William Phillips; Brian Cogan
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2009
Providing an extensive overview of the music, fashion, films, and philosophies behind the movement, this encyclopedia chronicles the history and development of heavy metal, including sub-movements such as death metal, speed metal, grindcore, and hair metal.
Film Music: A Very Short Introduction by Kathryn Marie Kalinak
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
Today film music has become its own industry, indispensable to the marketability of movies around the world. Film Music: A Very Short Introduction is a compact, lucid, and thoroughly engaging overview written by one of the leading authorities on the subject.
Foundation of Music Fundamentals by Sumy Takesue
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
The music examples range from Stevie Wonder songs to Beethoven symphonies, from rhythmically challenging African songs and syncopated Brazilian chorosongs, to humorous Filipino ballads and Schubert lieder.
Guitar Gods: the 25 Players Who Made Rock History by Bob Gulla
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2008
Guitar Gods showcases the 25 players who made the greatest impact on rock's long and winding history. Meet rock and roll's party crashers. They are the guitar-wielding heroes who came into an established musical framework, rearranged the furniture, tipped over a few chairs, and ditched - leaving the stragglers to pick up the pieces. *Also available in Print
The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation by Reiland Rabaka
Call Number: Proquest eBook
Publication Date: 2013
The Hip Hop Movement offers a critical theory and alternative history of rap music and hip hop culture by examining their roots in the popular musics and popular cultures of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. The Hip Hop Movement explores what each of these musics and movements contributed to rap, neo-soul, hip hop culture, and the broader Hip Hop Movement.
Icons of R&B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of Artists who Revolutionized Rhythm by Bob Gulla (Editor)
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2007
Drawn from a mosaic of influences, including folk, gospel, and blues, R & B represents both everything that came before and nothing that was heard before. So much of today's music is derived directly from the highly influential and critically important sounds of R & B that without it we would have never known the classic soul of the late '50s and '60s, the glory days of the genre.
An Introduction to Music Technology by Dan Hosken; Daniel W. Hosken
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
An Introduction to Music Technology provides a clear and concise overview of the essential elements of music technology for today's musician. It is designed to provide music students with the background necessary to apply technology in their creating, teaching, and performing.
Jazz Notes: Interviews Across the Generations by Sanford Josephson
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2009
Meet the greatest musicians in the history of jazz. From Hoagy Carmichael to David Sanborn, these interviews and their subjects reflect the diverse appeal and deep roots of a truly American art form.
Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion by James E. Perone
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2008
Author James Perone here chronicles the development of British rock, from the 1950s imitators of Elvis Presley and other American rockabilly artists, to the new blends of rockabilly, R&B, Motown, and electric blues that defined the British Invasion as we recognize it today.
Musicals in Film: a Guide to the Genre by Thomas S. Hischak
Call Number: Gale eBooks
Publication Date: 2016
This comprehensive guide covers movie musicals from their introduction with the 1927 film The Jazz Singer through 2015 releases. In all, it describes 125 movies, opening up the world of this popular form of entertainment to preteens, teens, and adults alike.
Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Jr Russell Murray (Editor); Russell E. Murray; Cynthia J. Cyrus; Susan Forscher Weiss (Editor)
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
What were the methods and educational philosophies of music teachers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? What did students study? What were the motivations of teacher and student? Contributors to this volume address these topics and other including gender, social status, and the role of the Church to better understand the identities of music teachers and students from 650 to 1650.
The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It by Philip Ball
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
In The Music Instinct, award-winning writer Philip Ball provides the first comprehensive, accessible survey of what is known--and still unknown--about how music works its magic, and why, as much as eating and sleeping, it seems indispensable to humanity.
Music Is History by Questlove
Call Number: Overdrive eBook
Publication Date: 2021
Music Is History combines Questlove's deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years.
Music of the Postwar Era by Don Tyler
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2007
At the end of WWII, themes in music shifted from soldiers' experiences at war to coming home, marrying their sweethearts, and returning to civilian life. The music itself also shifted, with crooners such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra replacing the Big Bands of years past. Country music, jazz, and gospel continued to evolve, and rhythm and blues and the new rock and roll were also popular during this time.
Singing Out: an Oral History of America's Folk Music Revivals by David King Dunaway, Molly Beer
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2010
Intimate, anecdotal, and spell-binding, Singing Out offers a fascinating oral history of the North American folk music revivals and folk music. Culled from more than 150 interviews recorded from 1976 to 2006, this captivating story spans seven decades.
Women Icons of Popular Music: the Rebels, Rockers, and Renegades [2 Volumes] by Carrie Havranek (Editor)
Call Number: Ebsco eBook
Publication Date: 2008
Women Icons of Popular Music puts the limelight on 24 legendary artists who challenged the status quo and dramatically expanded the possibilities of women in the highly competitive music world.