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Online dictionaries & encyclopedias

Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window
Access Grove Music Online and other Oxford reference resources. Find music-related information, from definitions of terms to in-depth articles on scholarly topics. Covers classical music, opera, jazz, and popular music. Includes resources for further reading.
Limited to 11 simultaneous users.

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
A comprehensive English language source for information about world music and the field of ethnomusicology. Organized by geographical region. A print edition of this multi-volume encyclopedia is available at the Fine Arts Library.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable and browsable collection of authoritative references, including Britannica's latest article database, hundreds of articles not found in the print Britannica, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the Britannica Book of the Year, with thousands of links to other World Wide Web sites selected by Britannica editors.

Biographical databases

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Find biographies of current and historic people throughout history. Searchable by name, occupation, nationality, place of birth, and place of death.
Gale platform Listen feature instructions
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Access signed biographies of 50,000 men and women who have shaped British history from the earliest times up to the present. Searchable by name, full text, references, contributors, images, and may also be browsed alphabetically by name, or by themes.

Other important sources

Classical Music Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Find a variety of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music.
Alexander Street Accessibility Statement
African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window
Search or browse over 160 books on all aspects of African American music.
Alexander Street Accessibility Statement

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
A broad musical scope covering popular music of all genres and periods from 1900 to the present day, including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music
Harvard Dictionary of Music
One volume dictionary of musical terms. Useful for finding concise definitions. Does not include information on composers.
Oxford Bibliographies-Music
Comprehensive online music bibliographies of different composers, music genres, and countries.
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
Comprehensive and scholarly German language encyclopedia. New edition. Older edition at Music Reference ML 100.M92.

Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Companions to Music include comprehensive reference information on composers, instruments or musical topics.

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