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Welcome
Where the Music Things Are
Nearly all of our books on music are at the J.N. Desmarais Library. All of our music scores are kept at the Music Resource Centre (MRC), School of Education, where the Department of Music is located. Compact discs, audio cassettes and videos are also kept at the MRC. The exception is the vinyl recordings, which are on the 3rd floor of the Desmarais Library.
Contacts
In the library: The Library User Assistance Desk to your immediate left as you enter the library is a good place to start.
By email: Contact the librarian responsible for your subject area.
By telephone: 705-675-4800
The Essentials
Dictionaries
Harvard Dictionary of Music. 2003. Print. Excellent resource for definitions of musical terms.
Oxford Music Online. Choose Oxford Dictionary of Music or Oxford Companion to Music for capsule definitions of terms, genres and composer biographies.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. 2nd ed. 1992. Print and online. Indispensable resource for Canadian music.
Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 1998. Print. Useful for its performer biographies and recordings.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Print. Excellent coverage of musical traditions worldwide, with an accompanying set of CDs.
Oxford Music Online. Grove Music Online is the most important resource for music.
New Grove Dictionary of Music. 2001. Print.
Oxford Companion to Music. Brief descriptions of terms, genres, and composer biographies.
Histories
Oxford History of Western Music. 2005. Print. Outstanding survey authored by historian Richard Taruskin.
New Oxford History of Music. 1955-90. Print. Authoritative survey.
Music Librarian
My music background
I have been the music librarian at Laurentian University since 1985. I am a member of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (CAML). Until this past year, I was the books/recordings review editor of CAML Review and formerly was the general editor. I have an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto as well as an arts degree in history and a master's in library science. I serve on the board of the 5-Penny New Music Concerts. From 1996 to 2014, I was the program notes writer for the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra.
Get articles
Music - Related Resources
Music indexes and abstracts
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. 1967- Online.
JSTOR. Online. Full-text journals, including for music. Embargo of three to five years.
The Music Index. 1949-78. Print.
Canadian Music Periodical Index. To 2012. Online
Get recordings & scores
Canadian Contemporary Music
Centrestreams has broadcast and concert recordings for free listening online. You must create an account first with the Canadian Music Centre.
Search Tips
Often the piece is contained in larger collections of similar works. For instance, if you are looking for Beethoven's Third Symphony, enter in the search box: Beethoven symphonies. That way you would retrieve all recordings and scores of Beethoven's symphonies. Beethoven's Third is also known as the Eroica, so you will retrieve some scores and recordings by using the keyword, Eroica.
You can search only for scores, recordings and videos. Click on the advanced search and then click on Item Types to choose such media as Notated music (scores), Musical sound recordings, or Projected medium (video).
You can search by location. The CDs at the Music Resource Centre (MRC) while the J.N. Desmarais Library (JND) has vinyl LPs. If you want to find only the CD, choose Music Resource Centre instead of Laurentian University from the Basic Menu.
Get style manuals
Style Manuals and Writing
The Music program recommends the Chicago Manual of Style and Turabian's Manual for Writers. The other books listed below are also excellent for writing and style.
How to Write About Music: The RILM Manual of Style. Print. 2nd ed. 2005.
Writing About Music. Print. 4th ed. 2009.
Chicago Manual of Style. Print. 17th ed. 2017.
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. By Kate Turabian and others. Print. 8th ed. 2013.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). Online.
Track your research
Zotero, a free, browser-based citation manager, is the recommended tool to collect, organize, cite and share your research.