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MUSC 385: Research, Issues, and Methodologies in Musicology

Book citation

How to analyze a book citation

Baird, Julianne. "The Bel Canto Singing Style." In A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-century Music, edited by Stewart Carter, 31-43. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.

The citation refers to a chapter in an edited book.

Tip: Search Omni by Title to see if Queen's Library has the book performer's guide to seventeenth century music.  Omit initial articles (the, an, a).  Ignore punctuation and case.

Finding Books

Search Omni, the catalogue of the Queen's University Library, by author, title, keyword, subject, or call number to find books and other materials in our collection.  Boolean searching can be very useful to find books on topics or information in other formats, especially if you don't know the correct subject heading, or specific author(s)or title(s).
 
Search by Boolean operators using AND|OR|NOT to combine terms
 
Narrow or refine search by adding other terms: e.g. 
 
      beethoven AND fidelio
      beethoven AND fidelio AND overture AND disc
 
Broaden search using the * symbol to truncate for variable word endings (e.g. nouns, adjectives, singular or plural) or by using OR between similar or possible terms nested in brackets: e.g. 
 
        tango* and politic* and (argentin* or uruguay*)
        tango* and (disc OR sound OR video*) (for music or dance on sound or videorecordings)
 
Use quotes around a phrase or concept: e.g. 
 
        "il pleure dans mon coeur" (for instrumental or song titles in scores and recordings)
         "world music*" (use ? truncation symbol for concepts expressed in singular or plural form)
 
Limit large result sets by library location or by using NOT: e.g.
 
         tango* (limit to Music Collection (in Stauffer Library) for music; to Stauffer Library for dance/interdisciplinary materials)
         beethoven and symphon* and "op. 68" NOT (disc OR sound) (to find books and/or scores only)         
 
From your results, select useful titles and click on the subjects assigned to find other books on your topic. 

Browsing by Call numbers

Browsing call numbers on shelves or online is another strategy for locating books on a topic that can lead to serendipitous discovery.

Useful call numbers for browsing topics in the discipline of musicology:

   ML112.8-158 (bibliography/discography: by topic, composer)
   ML159-360 (history & criticism, by country)
   ML410 (composer biography/criticism)
   ML460-1380 (instruments & instrumental music, by country)
   ML3470-3541 (Popular music, by country, special kinds and styles)
   ML3545-3776 (National music: blues, folk, jazz, ethnic, etc.) 
   ML3797 (Musicology: methods of historical research)

Key books for Musicology