Research Guides: Music: Articles

Key Musicology Journals

Key Music Article Databases

Publication coverage: 1970 - present (some backfile indexing for 1962-1969)

Articles from over 700 international music periodicals. Includes book, music recording, and performance reviews. Access to historiographic, ethnographic and musicological information. Topics include music personages, the history of music, forms and types of music, musical instruments from the earliest times to modern electronic instruments, and computer-produced music.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature Access limit of 4 simultaneous users

Publication coverage: 1967 - present

Comprehensive, scholarly, international index to music literature, from Western and Eastern classical to pop, folk, and jazz.

Classical Scores Library:

Classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material. Publication coverage: 15th - 21st centuries.

Naxos Music Library; 100 user limit;

24,000 music recordings. NOTE: Check system requirements and settings.

Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries: 5 user limit;

Audio files for recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and more.

Related Databases

Academic Search Complete (multidisciplinary index to peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, monographs and reports. Approximately 50% of journal titles contain full-text articles)

ATLA Religion Database (topics include world religions, and religious perspectives on social issues)

Gender Studies Database (interdisciplinary topics related to gender studies, including music)

IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (areas include anthropology, art, cultural studies, gender studies, geography, race and ethnic studies, religious studies, sociology)

International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance (selective articles with full-text)

JSTOR (electronic journal archive providing access to entire "backrun" of many core academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, business, and law, from v. 1 to within 2-5 years of current volume).

Political Studies @ ProQuest (searches 4 political studies databases, including IBSS, PAIS, Worldwide Political Abstracts, ProQuest Political Science)

Sociology @ ProQuest (searches 3 sociology databases simultaneously, including Sociological Abstracts, IBSS and ProQuest Sociology)

Canadian Content

Canadian Opera Resource: search for composer or librettist names, themes (eg. LGBTQ2S+, “woman creator”, “woman composer”, or “woman librettist”, by voice type (eg. arias for baritones), by duration, with a score for purchase.

Encyclopedia of Music in Canada: Part of the Canadian Encyclopedia

Canadian Music Periodical Index: Citations to articles on music in Canada dating from the late-19th century to the present day.

America: History and Life (covers also native populations in Canada, U.S., Mexico)

B ibliography of Indigenous Peoples of North America (covers native North American culture, history, and life)

Finding Newspaper Reviews

From the library home page, the Search Tools tab leads to finding different types of information such as images, grey literature, videos, and newspapers. The Newspapers Guide leads you to current and historical newspapers where you can search for performer reviews.

You can also search directly within Omni by completing a search and then selecting Newspapers search under the filter for Resource Type on the left-hand side.