A collection of important music reference works, including Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music.
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, catalogues, dissertations and other music publications, worldwide and in all languages, from 1830s to present.
Citations for academic and professional journal articles, magazines, and other publications on music-related topics.
Journal articles in almost every subject area, including some historical articles back to the 17th century.
A secondary source in academic research is a an article, report, etc. that is based on firsthand accounts or records of a thing being researched or studied but that is not itself a firsthand account. Often they are an analysis, critique, or interpretation of a primary source. This can look like many different things depending on what you are researching, but for music this means books, articles, or other academic writings that are in response to music and music related subjects. Examples include: An article about the religious influence of Haydn's The Creation oratorio, a review of a symphony performance, a book examining the collaboration between Margaret Allison Bonds and Langston Hughes.
You've been using secondary literature as your main sources to write papers since elementary school. The world of academic publishing has a wide variety of terms to describe these publications, and it can be helpful to distinguish between them. The following are terms you will see and should become familiar with:
| Monograph | A more specific term than book, referring specifically to a publication that is a complete whole, primarily prose, and usually on a single topic, as opposed to serials or reference books. |
| Serial / Periodical | A broader term indicating any publication that is ongoing. More specific types would be: magazine, journal, annual, yearbook, etc. (Though essentially the same, "serial" tends to be used by libraries, and "periodical" by publishers) |
| Festschrift | A book published in honor of an individual, usually containing essays related to their area of research/contribution. |
| Symposium / Conference Proceedings | Published volume of papers from a particular conference, symposium, or other scholarly event. Sometimes they have been revised, often they are printed as presented. |
| Special / Thematic / Separate Issue of Periodical | A periodical issue that is devoted to a single topic or is written by a single author. May be part of the normal publication or may be published separately as a book. These can be tricky as each one is different. |
| Reprint | Literally just a reprinting of a previously published item. May or may not be by the same publisher, and may or may not indicate how it was originally published. Be careful to distinguish reprints from revised editions. |
| Facsimile | An exact copy of something. Often used to describe copies of manuscripts or other primary sources. Often will contain commentary, translation, transcription, or other notes. For older books (published before 1800), many times it is published as a "facsimile" edition, but if it contains no new material it is simply a reprint. |
| Offprint | A part of a larger publication published separately. An essay may be published in a collection, and then printed on its own as a small booklet. For music, it is commonly seen with Monuments and Complete Editions: the individual pieces, performance parts, and study scores are offprints from the large, bound volumes. |
| Preprint | Anything released prior to official publication. Sometimes it contains all the same formatting and page numbers from the publisher, but in other cases it is simply basic formatted text. An item can be both a preprint and an offprint. |
For non academic secondary sources, you can search things like google, social media, blogs, and magazines, but for academic secondary sources we need to find resources that have been peer reviewed and published by academic presses or journals. Peer Review is the process used by scholarly journals and presses to evaluate the quality of articles they publish by having other academics read and critique the work before allowing it to publish.
Academic sources are often protected by pay walls and subscription fees, which is why you may not find many when searching google or even google scholar. The library subscribes to different databases, academic presses, and platforms to give you access to the scholarship you need to do your research, so it is best to utilize our databases and search tools when looking for anything academic. Below and on the left hand side you'll see some examples of the different databases, indexes, and search platforms we have available.
| CrossSearch | RILM | ProQuest Music (IIMP) | JSTOR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: |
Aggregated search engine - shows results from multiple different databases, catalogs, and other web sources |
Abstract & Index database - Gives you the abstract for academic sources and it's location online. | Abstract & Index database plus periodical archive - Gives you the abstract and location for academic sources plus an archive of published pieces. | Archival journal platform - Collects previously published academic works for preservation and access. |
| Content: | All HC subscribed and owned resources |
Scholarly music resources (journals, books, dissertations, etc.) *may contain resources not owned by the college. This would require borrowing through ILL |
Music periodicals, including scholarly journals, trade publications, and magazines |
Scholarly journals in all subjects |
| Search: | Metadata - Searches for articles using keywords and phrases attached to the article by library catalogers. | Metadata and abstracts -Searches for articles using keywords and phrases attached to the article by library catalogers. Also searches by words used in the abstract | Metadata and full-text -Searches for articles using keywords and phrases attached to the article by library catalogers. Also searches for keywords in text of the article. |
Metadata and full-text -Searches for articles using keywords and phrases attached to the article by library catalogers. Also searches for keywords in text of the article. |
| Coverage: | Variable - will cover a wide variety of subjects, not just music. | Primarily US/Europe All languages c. 1960- |
US/Europe English only Primarily c. 1970- (some titles earlier) |
US/Europe Primarily English Primarily 20th cty |
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, catalogues, dissertations and other music publications, worldwide and in all languages, from 1830s to present.
Citations for academic and professional journal articles, magazines, and other publications on music-related topics.
Journal articles in almost every subject area, including some historical articles back to the 17th century.
Reference this chart if you're ever unsure where to start!