Resources by Subject: Music

Reference Books for Music Research

The books listed here are all located in the Bothell/CCC Reference Stacks on the 1st floor of the Campus Library. To browse our excellent music reference collection, check the "ML" shelf of the reference section!

For information about a musician, composer, work, period or term:
New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (also online - UW Restricted) ML100 .N48 1980
The Oxford Dictionary of Music (Concise version available online - UW Restricted) ML100 .K35 1985
The Harvard Dictionary of Music and Musicians ML100 .H37 2004

The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music

ML100 .N88 1991
The Oxford Companion to Music (also online - UW Restricted) ML100 .S3709 1983
World Musicians

ML385 .W67 1999

 
For information on musical instruments:
The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments ML102 .I5 N48 1993
 
For information on specific genres of music:
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World ML102 .P66 C66 2003
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music ML102 .P66 G84 2006
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music ML100 .G16 1998
New Grove Dictionary of American Music ML101 .U6 N48 1986
Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia ML102 .P66 H57 2002
Encyclopedia of Country Music ML102 .C7 E54 2004
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition ML102 .J3 N48 2001
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ML102 .O6 N5 1992
The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll ML102 .R6 R64 2001
The Oxford Companion to Music (also online - UW Restricted) ML100 .O94 2002
The Harvard Dictionary of Music ML100 .H37 2003
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World ML102 .P66 C66 2003
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music ML102 .P66 V572 2002
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Seventies Music ML 102 .P66 V574 2002
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music ML102 .P66 V574 2003
Raggae and Caribbean Music ML102 .P66 T46 2002
The American Musical Film Song Encyclopedia ML102 .M68 H57 1999
Folk and Blues: the encyclopedia ML102 .F66 S74 2001
The All Music Guide to the Blues ML156.4 .B6 A45 2003
Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: a charted history ML128 .S3 G3 2000
The Oxford Companion to Jazz ML3507 .O94 2000
Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture ML102 .R27 B96 2006
American Musical Traditions ML3551 .A53 2001
The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock ML3470 .C36 2001
   
For information on specific eras in music history:
A Chronicle of American Music, 1700-1995 ML200 .H15 1996
An Eighteenth-Century Musical Chronicle : Events 1750-1799 ML195 .H28 1990
A Nineteenth-Century Musical Chronicle : Events 1800-1899 ML196 .H34 1989
A Twentieth-Century Musical Chronicle : Events 1900-1988 ML197 .H15 1989
   
Popular Culture sources including musicians and music:
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (also online - UW Restricted) E169.1 S764 2000
Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture E169.1 G7555 2002
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture E169.12 E49 2001
Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture E184.S75 E59 2004
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (also online - UW Restricted) E184 .A1 G14 2000
 
Maintainer of this guide: Leslie Bussert, Ethics & Humanities Librarian