Archive of World Music
The Archive of World Music, a collection of the Loeb Music Library, was established in 1976 by Professor John Ward and in 1992, with the appointment of Kay Kaufman Shelemay as Harvard's first senior professor of ethnomusicology. It is devoted to the acquisition of archival field recordings of musics world-wide as well as to commercial sound recordings, videos, and DVDs of ethnomusicological interest.
Encyclopedias
- Garland Encyclopedia of World MusicGreat For: in-depth articles on musical cultures around the world
Format: online, full-text pdf of printed volumes (Seeger Room ML100 .G16 1998) - African American Music ReferenceGreat For: reference works and other text resources (biographies, chronologies, lyrics, liner notes, discographies) documenting the African American experience through music
Format: online, full-text - Bloomsbury Music and SoundGreat For: discussions on cultural, historical and geographic origins; the music industry and political and economic circumstances; notable and influential performers; relationships to other genres. Includes the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and the 33 1/3 book series.
Format: online with new articles added regularly, full-text (print edition: Aldrich Room ML102 .P66 C66 2003)
Bibliographies
- Oxford Bibliographies: MusicGreat For: extensive, annotated bibliographies on a selection of subjects in musicology and ethnomusicology
Format: online
Audio and Video
- Naxos Music Library WorldWorld music from the catalogues of Smithsonian Folkways, ARC Music, Nonesuch, and other labels.
- Ethnographic Sound Archives OnlineHistoric field recordings along with their supporting field notes, photographs, and related interviews.
- Ethnomusicology: Global Field RecordingsContains over 60 field collections from ethnomusicologists, produced in collaboration with the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
- Ethnographic Video OnlineFilms covering every region of the world by documentary filmmakers of the 20th century, including interviews, previously unreleased raw footage, field notes, and study guides.
- Smithsonian Global SoundIncludes recordings from Smithsonian Folkways, the International Library of African Music, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology.
Beyond the Music Library
Libraries and museums around campus hold ethnographic collections. Here are further places to look.
- Tozzer LibraryCollects comprehensively in all subfields of anthropology, with a special emphasis on materials relating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
- Widener Library Judaica CollectionMaterials covering all aspects of Jewish life and culture in every place and period, with particularly comprehensive coverage of Jewish life and culture in the State of Israel.
- The Milman Parry Collection of Oral LiteratureThe largest single repository of South Slavic heroic songs in the world. Available online: selected audio recordings, text files of oral literature, and photographs collected by Professors Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord.
- The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and EthnologyEstablished in 1866 as one of the first museums of anthropology, the Peabody Museum currently cares for a large and historic collection of anthropological materials from across the globe.
