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    Round Up: Music

    by Meghan Kowalski on 2025-05-28T08:00:00-04:00 | 0 Comments

    Whether you're analyzing a symphony, composing a score, or exploring the cultural history of jazz, having access to the right resources can transform your study of music from an academic requirement into a rich, rewarding journey. In this post, we’ve gathered some of our top resources to help you dive deeper into the world of music, from theory and performance to history and technology. Whatever your focus, there’s something here to inspire your next project or performance.

     

    Databases

    Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
    • Full Text Available

    This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theater, and Cultural Studies.

    Archive of Popular American Music This link opens in a new window
     
    The Digital Archive of Popular American Music is an initiative designed to provide access to digital versions of the sheet music, and performances of the songs covering the history of popular music in the United States from 1790 to the present that are now in the public domain.
    Ebony Music This link opens in a new window
     
    This database is solely on piano music by Black composers. This is an ongoing and on-growing database that represents only a fraction of all the piano music that has been composed by Black composers. Even so, our team works to provide the largest database dedicated to promoting the piano music of Black composers. You will find information regarding where to purchase the music, recordings (when available), publishing information, pedagogical notes, and teaching demonstrations (when available).
    Petrucci Music Library This link opens in a new window
     
    Petrucci Music Library is a collaborative virtual library of public domain music scores. It currently includes more than twenty thousand works from three thousand composers, with new works added every month. The site boasts the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (1851-99), Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Corelli, Faure, Sibelius, Schumann, and a large percentage of Franz Liszt, among others.
     

    Books

    Cover ArtWhy Music Matters by David Hesmondhalgh
     
    In what ways might music enrich the lives of people and of societies? What prevents it from doing so? Why Music Matters explores the role of music in our lives, and investigates the social and political significance of music in modern societies. First book of its kind to explore music through a variety of theories and approaches and unite these theories using one authoritative voice Combines a broad yet theoretically sophisticated approach to music and society with real clarity and accessibility A historically and sociologically informed understanding of music in relation to questions of social power and inequality By drawing on both popular and academic talk about a range of musical forms and practices, readers will engage with a wide musical terrain and a wealth of case studies
     
    Cover ArtCommunity Music Today by Kari K. Veblen (Editor); Stephen J. Messenger (Editor); Marissa Silverman (Editor); David J. Elliott (Editor)
     
    Community Music Today highlights community music workers who constantly improvise and reinvent to lead through music and other expressive media. It answers the perennial question "What is community music?" through a broad, international palette of contextual shades, hues, tones, and colors. With over fifty musician/educators participating, the book explores community music in global contexts, interconnections, and marginalized communities, as well as artistry and social justice in performing ensembles. This book is both a response to and a testimony of what music is and can do, music's place in people's lives, and the many ways it unites and marks communities. As documented in case studies, community music workers may be musicians, teachers, researchers, and activists, responding to the particular situations in which they find themselves. Their voices are the threads of the multifaceted tapestry of musical practices at play in formal, informal, nonformal, incidental, and accidental happenings of community music.
     
    Cover ArtEthno Music Gatherings by Lee Higgins (Editor); Sarah Jane Gibson (Editor)
     
    A close look at a long-running international music program. This book presents key findings from a four-year project that sought to understand Ethno, an organized residential folk, world, and traditional music program for young people ranging in age from eighteen to thirty. First held in Sweden in 1990, Ethno now hosts gatherings in more than forty countries. The authors examine the complexity of an Ethno music experience with three focuses: pedagogy and professional development, participant experience, and impact beyond the gathering. Drawing on data from participant observations, interviews, social media analysis, onsite and video observations, surveys, and questionnaires, the authors ask critical questions concerning Ethno's history, ethos, pedagogy, and philosophical ideals. Considering its history and current practices, the following themes are explored: non-formal music making, personal authenticity, holistic praxis, musical possible selves, intercultural music exchange, sustainability, social media engagement, song sharing, and future practices. As a collection of integrated thought, the book's purpose is to illuminate new understandings of what Ethno does and in so doing present synergies and divergencies with the wider field of music education.
     
    Cover ArtThe Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music by Robert Philip
     
    An invaluable guide for lovers of classical music designed to enhance their enjoyment of the core orchestral repertoire from 1700 to 1950
     
     
     
     
    Cover ArtKnow What I Mean? by Michael Eric Dyson
     
    Whether along race, class, or generational lines, hip-hop music has been a source of controversy since the beats got too big and the voices too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has condemned and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed the Hip-Hop Intellectual by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Michael Eric Dyson tackles the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip-hop culture. "Know What I Mean?" addresses the creative expression of degraded youth; the vexed gender relations that have made rap music a lightning rod for pundits; the commercial explosion that has made an art form a victim of its success; and the political elements that have been submerged in the most popular form of hip hops."
     

    Websites

    • American Composers Alliance - American Composers Alliance (ACA) strives to encourage performances of American concert music by keeping the music in print and easily available for the long term future. In accordance with the original goals of the organization in the 1930s, ACA believes that composers should receive credit and payment when their music is used. We make the process easier for performing artists who need to obtain this music, and we encourage professional courtesy and respect for the creators of this music.
    • American Composers Forum - The American Composers Forum cultivates an ecosystem where living music creators, and their music, are a vibrant and integral part of human culture. Through grant and mentorship support, publications, hosted gatherings, and leadership, ACF connects with composing and performing artists and organizations who reflect the diversity of our world and fosters generations of music creators, performers, advocates, and listeners.
    • American Musicological Society - The American Musicological Society was founded in 1934 to advance research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship. 3,600 individuals and 1,100 institutional subscribers from over forty nations participate in the Society.
    • American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 427,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASCAP also represents hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide.
    • Music Analysis - This website contains a set of tools for music analysis: one for the analysis of twelve-tone music and one for the identification of scales, modes, and interval cycles/cyclic pitch collections.
    • Printable Sheet Music - This website lets you print of free, blank sheet music.
    • Society for Music Analysis - The Society for Music Analysis (SMA) is a UK-based international organisation dedicated to music theory and analysis.
    • Society for Music Perception and Cognition - The Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) is a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of music cognition.
    • Society for Music Theory - The Society for Music Theory (SMT) promotes music theory as both a scholarly and a pedagogical discipline.
    • Teoria - A resource for music theory reference, tutorials, and training.Podcasts

     

    Podcasts

     

    Want more? Check out our Music research guide.

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