Dictionaries, encyclopedias and other A-Z reference works
Reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks are useful for definitions of terms and for brief factual information. Dictionaries and encyclopedias will provide you with:
- definitions of terms and concepts
- articles on genres, styles and musical forms
- articles on composers, performers, music of particular countries, musical instruments and musical works
This page has a selection of dictionaries and encyclopedias. To find further examples use the library 'Search'. Type your topic keyword/s for example: music dictionaries or popular music encyclopedias or jazz encyclopedias.
The Oxford Music Bibliographies feature peer reviewed annotated bibliographies which are also a useful reference resource. For example: Baroque music, Jazz, Medieval music, Romanticism as well as Rap/Hip Hop, Salsa, Sonata, Symphony and Video Game Music.
The African American almanac has a comprehensive article on Blues and Jazz, which which is part of the Gale Reference Library.
Online encyclopedias
- Music online. Garland encyclopedia of world music This link opens in a new windowEach volume in this encyclopedia contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage and culture, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include detailed photographs that show musicians, musical instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. There is a index for genres, subjects, instruments, places, musicians, ensembles, and cultural groups, as well as links to the associated audio examples.
It is possible to go directly to particular regions as illustrated in a selection here:
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Vol. 4 by Call Number: Online and printPublication Date: 2017Covers all the nations of modern Southeast Asia: Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in thirty-five articles, written by twenty-seven expert contributors.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Vol. 7 by Call Number: Online and printPublication Date: 2017This volume explores not only the close ties that link the cultures and musics of East and Northeast Asia, but also the distinctive features that separate them.
Music around the world: a global encyclopedia [3 Volumes] by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2020Offers multidisciplinary perspectives on the music of countries and ethnic groups from around the worlds: the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific. Entries are arranged alphabetically. A preface explains the scope of the encyclopedia, followed by a brief history of traditional music and important current influences of music in each particular world region.
More encyclopedias on databases
- Oxford music online This link opens in a new windowOxford Music Online enables the user to search Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music in one location. It has comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship. The comprehensive articles with bibliographies can lead you to further sources on specific topics. In addition to updated articles from the original Grove dictionary, new articles are published each month.
- MGG online This link opens in a new windowThis German-language music encyclopedia, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, has biblioographies which include scholarly English sources. It offers in-depth articles on every aspect of music as well as many related areas such as literature, philosophy, and the visual arts.
Encyclopedias on specific subjects
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2018A comprehensive reference tool with entries including issues of style, techniques and practices, the history and development of musical instruments, and the work of performers, scholars, theorists, composers and editors. More than 100 leading experts provide a geographically varied survey of both theory and practice.
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2013-A reference resource for scholars of global hymnody, with information on the hymns of many countries and languages, and a strong emphasis on the historical as well as the contemporary. It provides information on the hymn tunes and their composers as well as the authors of the words and translators. There are also historical articles on national and denominational hymnody, breviaries, missals, primers, psalters, sequences and other forms of sacred song.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4th edition by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2006This authoritative biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists covers popular music from 1900 to the present, including folk, blues, world music, rock, heavy metal, techno, reggae, and hip hop. In addition to thousands of biographical entries, this A-Z reference also includes entries covering popular music genres, trends, styles, record labels, venues, and festivals. Key dates, biographies, and further reading are provided for artists covered, along with complete discographies that include record labels, release dates, and a 5-star album rating system.
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 3 by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781501324437Publication Date: 2005The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World is authored by top contributors from around the world. Each volume includes discussions on cultural, historical and geographic origins; technical musical characteristics; instrumentation and historical development and paths and modes of dissemination. It also covers influence of technology, the music industry and political and economic circumstances; changing stylistic features; notable and influential performers; and relationships to other genres and sub-genres.
The Harvard Dictionary of Music by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2014This classic reference work, the best one-volume music dictionary available, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition. Combining authoritative scholarship and lucid, lively prose, the Fourth Edition of The Harvard Dictionary of Music is the essential guide for musicians, students, and everyone who appreciates music.
Popular Music Culture by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2022An A-Z survey of key ideas and concepts in popular music culture, examining the social and cultural aspects of popular music. This new edition expands on the foundations of popular music culture, tracing the impact of digital technology and changes in the way in which music is created, manufactured, marketed and consumed. The concept of metagenres remains a central part of the book. New or expanded entries include: Charts, Digital music culture, Country music, Education, Ethnicity, Race, Gender, Grime, Heritage, History, Indie, Synth pop, Policy, Punk rock and Streaming.
Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 1999The Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century is an alphabetically arranged encyclopedia of all aspects of music in various parts of the world during the 20th century. It covers the major musical styles--concert music, jazz, pop, rock, etc., and such key genres as opera, orchestral music, be-bop, blues, country, etc. Articles on individuals provide biographical information on their life and works, and explore the contribution each has made in the field.
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (2nd ed.) by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2014A good introduction to organology, the systematic study of the history, design and technology, and functions of musical instruments of all times and places. It the cultural role of instruments issues, the human body as instrument, and people whose work has shaped the modern understanding of instruments. There are over 600 images and 190 musical examples.
Jazz
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2003-The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition is the largest, most comprehensive and accurate reference work on jazz ever published with articles on every aspect of the field, from jazz groups, composers and arrangers to instruments, terms, record labels and venues.
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz by Call Number: 781.65 F288B 1999Publication Date: 1999Arranged alphabetically according to last name, each entry of this book chronologically lists the highlights of 3.300 jazz musicians from around the world. For example, Duke Ellington at The Cotton Club from 1927 to 1931 and Miles Davis's first meeting with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. By 1945, the nineteen-year-old Davis had left Juilliard to play with Parker on 52nd Street. Knowledge of such professional alliances, chronicled in this book are central to tracing the development of significant jazz movements, such as the "cool jazz" that became one of the hallmarks of Miles Davis.
Ragtime by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0883781751Publication Date: 2007Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography is the definitive reference work for this important popular form of music that flourished from the 1890s through the 1920s, and was one of the key predecessors of jazz. There are entries on all the important composers and performers, and descriptions of their works as well as rare photographs taken from the original sheets, newspapers, and other archival sources.
Jazz Encyclopedia by Call Number: 781.6503 C771J 2005Publication Date: 2006Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia is not merely an A-Z guide to the artists and bands who have shaped jazz, but it also tracks the history of jazz and its changing styles. Whether you're trying to find out why Louis Armstrong was called Satchmo (his nickname as a kid was Satchelmouth), what bebop is, or the difference between Gil Evans and Bill Evans - this book has all the answers.
Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: from the End of World War I to the Great Crash by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2008This illustrated encyclopedia offers in-depth coverage of one of the most fascinating and widely studied periods in American history. Extending from the end of World War I in 1918 to the great Wall Street crash in 1929, the Jazz age was a time of frenetic energy and unprecedented historical developments, ranging from the League of Nations, woman suffrage, Prohibition, the Red Scare, the Ku Klux Klan, the Lindberg flight, and the Scopes trial, to the rise of organized crime, motion pictures, and celebrity culture."Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age" provides information on the politics, economics, society, and culture of the era in rich detail. The entries cover themes, personalities, institutions, ideas, events, trends, and more; and special features such as sidebars and photos help bring the era vividly to life.
Interdisciplinary Encyclopedias
A Dictionary of Critical Theory 2nd Edition by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2018This seconf edition covers the whole range of critical theory, including the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, cultural studies, gender studies, film studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, and socio-political critical theory, globalization and race studies, to queer theory and feminism. Entries clearly explain complex theoretical discourses such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism. There are biographies of hundreds of important figures in the field, with feature entries for those who have heavily influenced areas of the discipline, such as Derrida and Deleuze including notable figures such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
A Concise Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2019The distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz provides an A-Z cultural dictionary which covers major trends in music, dance, theatre, film, visual art, sculpture, and performance art, as well as architecture and science. The author is a published poet, filmmaker, video and radio artist, and creator of multimedia works. Who is a world-renowned authority on the avant-garde arts and the author of over 25 critical works.
Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2014The interdisciplinary nature of the work provides a starting place to situate the status of music within the social sciences in fields such as anthropology, communications, psychology, linguistics, sociology, sports, political science and economics, as well as biology and the health sciences. It examines how music affects human beings and their interactions in and with the world. There are approximately 450 illustrated articles, arranged in A-to-Z which provide the social and behavioural context for examining the importance of music in society. Entries are authored and signed by experts in the field and conclude with references and further readings, as well as cross references to related entries.
Famous German Encyclopedia of Music in History (MGG)
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart : allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik.
Bibliographies include English sources.
