Course resource help for Music

This list contains details of electronic databases available to Oxford Brookes staff and students on the web. Databases allow you to search for references for journal articles and other publications and sources in your subject area. Some databases provide an indexing service only, some also provide abstracts (summaries) and others are full text.  For more information on using these services see the How to search catalogues and databases page. The Library also provides direct access to many full text electronic journals. 

 

RILM abstracts of music literature

Covers the whole range of musical literature, indexing books and other resources as well as journal articles. 

JSTOR

This database provides an archive of full-text articles from a wide range of academic journals, including some key music journals. JSTOR does not give access to issues which are less than 3-5 years old but is very useful for older journal articles.

Performing Arts Periodicals Database

A key database for Film but also includes articles on computer games and television.

Rock's Backpages

Rock's Backpages is a database of rock music writing and journalism, with material dating from the early 1960s to the present day. It offers full text access to articles, reviews, and interviews. The database also includes Mp3 audio files of interviews.

Oxford Music Online

Contains the online version of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a comprehensive music encyclopedia.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

An illustrated collection of articles providing the life stories of over 50,000 people who have shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to those who died in recent years. Includes composers, musicians, singers and conductors.

Naxos Music Library

A classical music listening service

British Library Sounds

Recordings available for listening and downloading. Classical music includes Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Haydn and Mozart. The world and traditional music section is particularly strong on African and Asian music but also includes English folk music. The spoken word collection includes interviews with musicians; other resources include soundscapes and the history of recorded sound.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)

This service gives you access to thousands of recorded radio and TV programmes including, for example, Radio 1 and Radio 3.  It allows you to record programmes which will then be stored on the database. On the database choose Archive to search for programmes. You can also search for playlists and create your own.

The John Johnson Collection

18th, 19th and early 20th century ephemera that includes playbills, sheet music covers, programs, press releases and portrait prints.

Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers

Access to the full text of a wide variety of national and regional British newspapers from the 19th century.

Nineteenth century UK periodicals, series 1

Access to digital editions of nearly 100 periodicals, including many full runs, published between 1800 and 1900. Series 1 relates to new readerships and covers titles aimed at women and children as well as topics such as sport and leisure, humour and satire. The associated Topic Guide includes a chronology and useful essays on the relevant readership groups and subject themes.

The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003)

Full text facsimile, good for reviews, advertisements and obituaries.

Seventeenth-eighteenth century Burney Collection newspapers

17th and 18th century pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers published in England, Ireland and Scotland, plus a selection of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. Newspapers include the London Chronicle, the London Morning Penny Post and the British Chronicle.

Times Digital Archive

The complete digital edition of The Times newspaper, 1785-2019, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations

Academic Search Complete

A multi-disciplinary database offering full text access to more than 4,470 scholarly publications including 20 key music journals.

Art Full Text

Covers all aspects of contemporary art, including the performing arts, music and film. It includes ejournal articles from 1997 onwards and also provides links to other ejournal articles.

British Education Index

Covers mostly British and European Education journals, as well as some research reports and conference papers. Lots of the articles (not all) have the full text available.

Communication & Mass Media Complete

Undoubtedly one of the most important databases for Communication, Media and Culture. The database covers subjects such as advertising, broadcasting, communication, cultural studies, film, journalism, language and linguistics, mass media, radio, rhetoric and television.

Factiva

An international newspaper database.

Historical Abstracts

Covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada), with references to articles, books and other publications from 1950 onwards; contains quite extensive abstracts for most entries; and links to journal articles.

Lexis+

This legal database gives full-text access to UK national and regional newspapers including the Guardian, Independent,Times and Daily Telegraph. Click on Contents underneath the search box on the homepage, and choose Newspapers.

A number of journals relevant to Music are available online. Use the Journal titles tab from the Library homepage to search for a specific journal. Alternatively you can browse an alphabetical list of journals 

E-journals can also be found by searching LibrarySearch. If you are looking for journal articles on a specific topic the best place to start is by using an electronic database. See the Databases section above.

There are a number of music resources available on the internet, and a few selected sites are listed below.

Online scores

IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library - a large virtual library of music scores which are in the public domain (some of the scores are not available in the UK).

Boosey & Hawkes Online Scores (requires registration)

Specific types of music - a selection of web sites

Sound and Music - for contemporary British music

Operabase - information about more than 27.000 operas performed since 2002

Soundtrack.net - the art of film and television music - film and television soundtrack information and reviews

English Folk Dance and Song Society

Libraries

Cecilia - a searchable guide to music collections in archives, libraries and museums in the UK and Ireland.

British Library Sound Archive - national collection of sound recordings 

Oxford Music Library - printed music, books, CDs, DVDs and performance sets. Part of the public library service.

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library

Other resources

BBC Music

Concert Programmes Database - a database of collections of concert programmes held in European libraries, archives and museums

Encore! - union catalogue of sets of performance music in UK libraries 

Europeana Music - explore 324,662 music recordings, pieces of sheet music and other music items from across Europe

The Festival Calendar - guide to UK summer music festivals

Julian Wagstaff Online Catalogue - recordings, scores, instrumental parts, press reviews and programme notes for the publicly available works of this composer.

Live Music Exchange - live music research hub

Musical Instrument Museums Online - information on musical instruments held in public collections worldwide

Music-scores.com - a classical sheet music service

Open Research Library - a single access point for open access e-books from a range of publishers. Particularly good for the arts and humanities.

The Full English - digital archive of English traditional music and dance 

 

Naxos Music Library (NML) is the world´s largest online classical music library. Currently, it offers streaming access to more than 187,400 CDs with more than 2,878,400 tracks of both standard and rare repertoire. An average of 1,150 new CDs are added to the library every month. It is a scholarly resource that also includes background information such as libretti and synopses, work analyses and details and over 40,000 composer and artist biographies.

You will need a password to access the Naxos Music Library. Passwords are given only to music students and staff. The password will be changed frequently - contact Saffron Shore at sshore@brookes.ac.uk if you need to know what the current password is.

Please remember to log out every time you finish using the service. If you do not click on the logout button, you may have problems accessing the service again.

Only four people may access the Naxos Music Library at any one time. Please use the service for academic purposes only during semesters.

NML can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, anytime. With the iPhone/iPod and Android mobile apps, subscribers can also access the service on the go, and the HTLM5 player can stream music though the standard internet connection of most phones and tablets. Once logged in to NML select the Mobile App tab for more information.

 

Citing the sources you have used in your research (also called referencing) is an essential part of your academic work. The Music Department does not prescribe one system for the MA, and you may continue to use any recognised system you are currently skilled in using. If you are unsure, the Music Department recommends that you follow the MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) Style.

• The MHRA Style Guide for references and presentation can be downloaded from the Web pages of the Modern Humanities Research Association.

EndNote

EndNote is a reference management software package which can help anyone, including those working at undergraduate level, with studying, research and creating bibliographies. It allows you to create your own database of references (known as a "library") which you can then search, edit and format automatically in different output styles for your bibliographies. You can enter references manually into Endnote or import them directly from databases using import filters.

There are two versions of EndNote: EndNote Web is free to all members of Oxford Brookes, you just need to register. You can access your EndNote Web library from wherever you are. EndNote desktop (software version) is available on all Brookes PCs. Staff can have it loaded on to their office PC and it is also available to buy for home use.

See our EndNote web pages for more information on accessing and using EndNote.

Once you have compiled your EndNote Library you will be able to create your bibliography automatically as you write your Word document. This bibliography can be formatted in your chosen style e.g. MHRA. You can also do this with the desktop version. Note that the MHRA Style is called Modern Humanities Res Assn within EndNote.