Welcome!
This guide provides quick access to Harvard Library resources that will be most helpful for research in Music 195: Women Creators in Music. Look here for links to encyclopedias and bibliographies, tips on finding articles, and tools to help you credit your sources and save you time.
Would you like personalized help? Contact the class librarian by emailing, scheduling a virtual research consultation, or using the chat button on this guide:
Biographies
- Oxford Music Online: Women ComposersQuick links to Oxford Music/Grove Music biographical articles on women composers; the standard - but far from comprehensive - English-language music encyclopedia. Use this link for the full encyclopedia.
- RILM Music EncyclopediasA full-text, international collection of music encyclopedias; many are older and/or not updated, but this collection is good for supplementing Oxford/Grove. Includes the International encyclopedia of women composers (1987).
- Composer Diversity DatabaseA database of composers' websites, focused on women and composers of color. Maintained by the Institute for Composer Diversity. See also the Institute's Research Resources, for a bibliography and statistics on orchestra programming.
Women in Music: An Encyclopedic Biobibliography by Call Number: Loeb Music Aldrich Room ML103.H6 1993Publication Date: 1993Use this index to find out which reference books to check for articles about a specific person; then refer to HOLLIS to find our copies.
Annotated Bibliographies
Bibliographies like these save you time by giving you an annotated list of citations to check. Once you've found a book, article, or composition that interests you in one of these bibliographies, search for it in HOLLIS to find our copy.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Women in MusicAn annotated bibliography of scholarly sources for work on women in music (including biographical, historical, and theoretical studies). Note: last updated in 2011.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Gender and Sexuality in MusicAn annotated bibliography of queer, feminist, and intersectional theory and scholarship on music, gender, and sexuality; more recently updated (2017) and more expansive in scope than the Women in Music bibliography.
- Kassia Database: A Database of Art Songs by WomenSearchable by song and composer characteristics, including range/difficulty, language, era, poet, and composer nationality.
Articles
- HOLLISHOLLIS is Harvard's main library catalog, and a great place to start: use it to find books, articles, scores, recordings, and more in one search.
When you know the discipline you want to search, a database devoted to it gives you more ways to target your search (with keywords for time period, music genre, etc.), plus results you won't see anywhere else. These are our top picks, but Harvard licenses many hundreds of databases, so please get in touch for a personalized recommendation!
Note: check out the Decoding a Database handout for tips on how to quickly familiarize yourself with a new database,
- RILM Abstracts of Music LiteratureAn international bibliography of music articles, collections, and books covering 10,000+ journals from the 1800s to the present. Especially good for finding book chapters and conference proceedings in addition to journal articles.
- Music Periodicals DatabaseCovers the full spectrum of subjects and all aspects of music, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition.
- Gender WatchFull text of scholarly journals, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, and NGO, government and special reports related to gender.
- Women's Studies InternationalArticles from journals on women's studies and feminist research.
- Diversity - Alexander Street Press CollectionDocumentaries, interviews, biographies, performances, and lectures relevant to Asian studies, black studies, LGBT studies, North American Indian studies, and women's studies.
- Sociological AbstractsA core resource for researchers, professionals, and students in sociology, social planning/policy, and related disciplines.
Online Scores and Recordings
- IMSLPIMSLP (The International Music Score Library Project) holds thousands of digitized scores from collections around the world. Use Harvard's subscription to skip wait times for downloads.
- Online Scores: Classical Scores LibraryFull, study, piano, and vocal scores of music from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.
- BabelScoresOnline music library featuring creative contemporary composers from the last decades.
- Online Audio: Naxos Music LibraryClassical, world, jazz, and folk recordings, with biographical information, opera synopses and libretti, glossaries and pronunciation guides.
- Music OnlineSound and video recordings, digital scores, and reference books: everything from documentaries to world music to opera. Great for interdisciplinary topics, and for quickly finding a wide variety of high-quality performances online.
- medici.tvA collection of classical music videos, including concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries, and artist profiles. Some performances are available as live webcasts and for a limited time through delayed streaming.
Cite Your Sources
Save yourself time and keep your research organized with a citation management program like Zotero:
- Collect the information you'll need to cite your sources (author, title, publication year, etc.) with one click
- Quickly create citations and bibliographies in almost any citation style
- Organize, tag, and annotate your sources
Harvard librarians teach classes in the basics of Zotero. Learn more and check the class schedules.
- Chicago Manual of StyleThe full text of the 18th edition, plus quick style guides and FAQs.
- Harvard Guide to Using SourcesWriting and citation guidelines from the Harvard Writing Program.
- Senior Thesis Style GuideExcerpts from the Music Department's citation style guide for senior theses.
