Websites

ACE Title Search. ASCAP: Useful for copyright information. “The Database contains information on all compositions in the ASCAP repertory which have appeared in any of ASCAP’s domestic surveys, including foreign compositions licensed by ASCAP in the United States.”

The Aria Database: “. . . a diverse collection of information on over 1000 operatic arias. Designed for singers and non-singers alike, the Database includes translations and aria texts of most arias as well as a collection of MIDI files of operatic arias and ensembles.”

Baroque Guitar: A Web page dealing with sources of guitar music from the 17th century; written by Dr. Gary R. Boye, Music Librarian at Appalachian State University.

BMI.com Repertoire: More copyright information; for songs licensed under Broadcast Music Incorporated.

Concert Programmes Database: An index of over 5,000 concert programs from 53 institutions.

Historic American Sheet Music: Access to digital images of more than 3,000 pieces of sheet music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920; from Duke University.

Hymn Tune Index: By Nicholas Temperley, the HTI database “contains all hymn tunes printed anywhere in the world with English-language texts up to 1820, and their publication history up to that date.”

Internet Broadway Database: A comprehensive history of Broadway from the Broadway League. Theater programs, newspaper and magazine reports, interviews.

Institute for Composer Diversity: From SUNY Fredonia, a database of music by underrepresented composers with extensive search options.

The Lied and Art Songs Text Page: “. . . an archive of 26,348 texts used in Lieder and other classical Art Songs as well as in many choral works and other types of classical vocal pieces. The collection currently includes 38,801 settings and 6,315 translations to English, Italian, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and other languages.”

Music by Black Composers: Focusing on classical music from Africa and the African Diaspora, MBC contains historical information as well as repertoire directories and bibliographies.

Musica, The Virtual Choral Library: “The site contains a virtual library of 150,000 pieces of choral music, with comprehensive descriptions and multimedia links, and information on 27,000 composers.” Note that a free individual registration by the user is required.

MusRef: A Guide to More than 7,400 Print and Internet Resources.

OPERA America: Information about the contemporary opera scene in the United States

OperaGlass: From Stanford University; especially useful for opera libretti.

Philharmonia Orchestra: The Sound Exchange: Audiovisual files for each instrument of the orchestra with detailed explanations/demonstrations by world class performers; other information about the orchestra . . .

Public Domain Information Project: Information on copyright; list of music currently considered to be in the public domain.

Music for the Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela (1470–1799): This is a local Web page written by Dr. Gary R. Boye, Music Librarian at Appalachian State University.

SongHelix: From the University of Utah, a database of art songs by poet, subject, and a wide array of other search facets, including composers from underrepresented groups.

Themefinder: Developed through Stanford University and Ohio State University, Themefinder allows users to search for musical incipits (beginnings) of musical works.

Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century: Digitized papers of the Redpath Chautauqua Bureau from the 1870s into the early 1930s.

UT Song Index: “This database provides access to about 50,000 songs in more than 1,500 published song anthologies owned by the George F. DeVine Music Library at the University of Tennessee, located in Knoxville. Use this citation index to determine which anthologies contain the song(s) you need. You will not find the music or the words here, just the call number and book title.”

Why Use Uniform Titles? Uniform titles are an important but misunderstood part of searching for music in any library catalog. The concepts are common-sense and simple, but the implications are great. This site from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln covers the basics.