LibGuides: Music Library Guide : Articles, Journals &amp; Databases

Print Periodicals at the W.H. Bell Music Library

At UCT Libraries we have periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers) in both print and electronic format.

To find print periodicals, use Primo. The periodicals are physically housed in three different areas. Here’s where to find them:

The most recent ones are in the New Periodicals display on the Lower Level of the W.H. Bell Music Library;
The last couple years' issues are kept at the Loans Desk;
Older, bound volumes are housed in our store and should be requested at the Loans Desk.

This is a list of our current print subscriptions:

SAMUS: South African Music Studies

Articles, Journals and Databases FAQs

What is a journal?

A journal is like an academic magazine where scholars have written articles about their research. Essentially, a journal is a collection of articles.

What is the difference between a book and a journal article?

A book is a longer, and a usually more comprehensive text on a subject.

Journal articles are shorter, and more specific. They are published more frequently and so have more up-to-date information than books do.

Why use journals?

They are usually more up to date than books.
As most of them have been checked by other academics (i.e. peer reviewed), they are more reliable than general web articles and newspaper articles.
They are shorter to read than books.

What is a database?

A databases collects, organises, and indexes information from journals, books, book chapters, theses and dissertations, magazines, newspapers, and other sources. UCT Libraries subscribe to many databases covering a wide range of subject areas.

You can search a database by typing in keywords that describe your topic. The database will provide you with information about journal articles and other materials on the topic, and most will link you to full text articles in our electronic journals.

Search for articles using Primo

Recommended Databases for Music

African American Music Reference (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
... will contain 50,000 pages of text and 17,000 pages of liner notes that offers the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.
American Song (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
A history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past.The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more.

Content from African American Music is now a part of American Song, including 17,000 tracks from the original interface, plus 18,000 newly released tracks.
Classical Music in Video
... will contain 1,000 hours of classical music performances and masterclasses captured on video—approximately 1,500 performances in all. The collection will contain performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.
Classical Music Library (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Classical Music Library is the world's largest multi-label database of Classical music recordings for listening and learning in libraries.
Classical Music Reference Library (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Classical Music Reference Library brings together more than 40,000 pages of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, which are available for the first time in electronic form.
Classical Scores Library (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Classical Scores Library contains pages of the most important classical scores and manuscripts, allowing for the study and analysis of more than 25,000 scores.
Contemporary World Music (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Directory of Open Access Journals
The directory contains information about open access journals, i.e. quality controlled scientific and scholarly electronic journals that are freely available on the web. The service will continue to grow as new journals are identified.
Early Music Online
This collection holds digitised images of some of the world's oldest surviving volumes of printed music. Early Music Online is the result of a pilot project in which more than 300 volumes of 16th-century music from the British Library were digitised from microfilm.
EBSCOhost
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
'The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online' is the first comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. More than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, make this the most complete body of work focused on world music.
Google Scholar
Grove Music Online
Up to six UCT staff or students at a time.
Index to Printed Music - via EBSCOhost
The IPM is the only electronic resource for finding individual pieces of music published in standard scholarly editions, such as composers’ collected works, published in sets and series, organized by composer, geographical area, or by time or style period. With over 307,000 index records, the database contains detailed indexing including, but not limited to, composers, editors, poets, librettists, performing force (medium), format, genres, musical incipits (for identification), etc.
Jazz Music Library (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
The Nov 2011 release includes 8,470 albums and 103,028 tracks, growing regularly.
JSTOR
JSTOR provides access to a number of older journal articles.
Music & Performing Arts (from Alexander Street Press)
Databases included: Dance in video, Opera in video, American song, Classical music library, Contemporary world music, Jazz music library, Smithsonian global sound, African American music reference, Classical music reference library, The Garland encyclopedia of world music online, Classical scores library, Classical Music in Video.
Music Periodicals Database
Music Periodicals Database (formerly IIMP Full Text) is a music journal resource with more than half a million indexed articles, plus detailed abstracts and full text from 1874 to current, covering the scholarly to the popular.
Opera in Video (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)
Opera in Video contains some of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
This release includes 291 works, equaling 500 hours.
Oxford History of Western Music / Richard Taruskin
The Oxford History of Western Music online offers an unmatched account of the evolution of Western classical music by one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists of our time, Richard Taruskin. Since its original publication in print Taruskin's landmark study has received universal acclaim and numerous awards.
Oxford Music Online
Up to six UCT staff or students can access this at a time.
Performing Arts Database
Formerly known as IIPA Full Text, this is a performing arts journal resource with nearly 350,000 indexed articles, plus detailed abstracts and full text from 1864 to current, covering film, theatre and dance.
ProQuest
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature - via EBSCOhost
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, published by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), is the premier international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines from 1967 through the present.

RILM contains nearly 500,000 records in over 214 languages from 151 countries; entries include full bibliographic information, original-language titles and abstracts, including those in non-roman writing systems, with English translations, as well as author, journal
RISM: International Inventory of Musical Sources
This database offers around 700,000 mainly manuscript sources, catalogued in detail according to academic criteria. The manuscripts are currently stored in hundreds of libraries and archives around the world.
Smithsonian Global Sound (part of the Music Online collection from Alexander Street Press)

Music Library Guide : Articles, Journals & Databases

Print Periodicals at the W.H. Bell Music Library

Articles, Journals and Databases FAQs

Search for articles using Primo

Recommended Databases for Music

A-Z Databases List

Alexander Street

How to Search