MUSIC
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Data Key
 Contain Some Downloadable Data |  Selected Full Text in Adobe PDF Format
 Selected Peer Reviewed articles |  U.S. Government Site|  Tips on searching
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The Coleman Library has a significant amount of materials in the area of music biography, including books, articles, and online resources. Below is a partial list of available resources. If you have any questions or cannot find information on your subject, ask a librarian at the Reference Desk or email us via Ask a Librarian on the library homepage (www.pvamu edu/library).
We also have many specialized books devoted to musicians within specific genres (e.g., gospel, jazz, rock), so it’s a good idea to look through the M (music) section in the reference shelves for more materials that aren’t on this list.
Books
Use the online catalog (https://voyager-pv.tamu.edu/) to locate books in the library. You might want to start with general subject terms such as:
Arrangement (Music)
Chamber music
Composition (Music)
Instrumentation and orchestration
You can also look under various composers, such as:
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750.
Chopin, Freìdeìric, 1810-1849
Davis, Miles
Shakur, Tupac, 1971-
Or genres:
Gospel music
Gregorian chants History and criticism
Hip-hop
Contemporary Musicians
Ref ML 385 C615
Good source for living pop, rap, reggae, and other active singers and instrumentalists
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Ref ML 100 N48 2001
This 29 volume set primarily covers classical and jazz musicians; good source for dead classical composers
Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Ref ML102 P66 G84 1995
Excellent 8 volume source for obscure and/or forgotten popular performers and groups in the 20th Century
International Dictionary of Black Composers
Ref ML 390 I58 1999
Best source for biographical information on African American and other black composers
Current Biography
Ref CT 100 C8
Articles and photos on international celebrities active from 1945 to the present; good source for personal data (e.g., family, hobbies)
| Blues / Dick Weissman ; foreword by Craig Morrison. New York, NY : Facts On File, c2006. Location: Reference Call Number: ML102.B6 W45 2006 |
Weissman, Dick. |
Jazz / Thom Holmes ; foreword by William Duckworth. New York, NY : Facts On File, c2006.
Location: Reference Call Number: ML102.J3 H65 2006 |
Holmes, Thom. |
Free jazz and free improvisation : an encyclopedia / Todd S. Jenkins. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2004.
Location: Reference Call Number: ML102.J3 J46 2004 |
Jenkins, Todd S., 1968- |
Caribbean popular music : an encyclopedia of reggae, mento, ska, rock steady, and dancehall / David V. Moskowitz. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.
Location: Reference Call Number: ML102.P66 M67 2005 |
Moskowitz, David Vlado. |
Encyclopedia of rap and hip-hop culture / Yvonne Bynoe. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.
Location: Reference Call Number: ML102.R27 B96 2006 |
Bynoe, Yvonne. |
Baker's biographical dictionary of popular musicians since 1990 / 2004
Library Location: Reference
Call Number: ML102.P66 B35 2004 |
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Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians. 2000
Library Location: Reference
Call Number: ML 105 B16 2001 |
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| Ref ML106.U3 B87 2005 Dictionary of American classical composers / Neil Butterworth. |
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| Ref ML102.M88 G3 2001 Encyclopedia of the musical theatre / Kurt Gänzl. |
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| Ref ML128.P63 B55 2001 American song : the complete companion to Tin Pan Alley song / Ken Bloom. |
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Databases
Academic Search Complete – general interest database includes articles from many popular magazines, including Ebony and Newsweek; includes a large image database of photographs of musicians
JStor - Short for “Journal Storage,” this database indexes many periodicals all the way back to their first issue. Contains such journals as Callaloo, Journal of Black Studies, African American Review and Transition
Periodicals Archive Online – Full Text includes complete articles from such journals as Current Musicology, Musical Quarterly, and Opera Quarterly
International Index to Black Periodicals – draws its content from 150+ international scholarly and popular periodicals in black studies; 40 core journals are full text
African American Biographical Database – photos and full text sketches of famous and obscure African Americans in all fields living from 1790-1950
Discovering Multimedia Collection - Click on “multimedia” and then enter “African-American musicians” as a subject search
Wilson OmniFile - After choosing the subject areas on the left hand side (holding down the ‘control’ key lets you choose more than one at a time), enter “African American music” in the three search boxes
Online Collections and Web Sites
Archives of African American Music and Culture http://www.indiana.edu/~aaamc/
The “links” page is a good starting point for all genres of music, from classical to hip-hop
Google Music Directory
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Ethnicity/African/African-American/Arts_and_Culture/Music/
Subject guide to thousands of African American websites on all genres of music
Afrocentric Voices in “Classical” Music
http://www.africanvoices.com/
Website devoted to African American performers and composers and on the vocal music forms they influenced, especially opera, art songs, and concert-performance spirituals
African American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/aasmhome.html
Part of the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project, this collection features 1305 reproductions of sheet music by African American composers of the period; the section of the development of the African American musical theatre is particularly interesting
SingingFish
http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp
“Singingfish is the premier audio/video search engine, and Singingfish.com is the place for consumers to find, explore, and experience the universe of free media” Search for both contemporary and classical musicians and songs.
Internet Search Engines
Maintained by Steve Shaw; Last revised 4/3/2008 keh
