Music

Sub-headings:

Collectors & Collecting

Musicians & Composers

Opera

Performance

Music presented for the public's enjoyment.

Resources in this category:

African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/

"This collection consists of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. The collection includes many songs from the heyday of antebellum black face minstrelsy in the 1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period. Numerous titles are associated with the novel and the play Uncle Tom's Cabin. Civil War period music includes songs about African-American soldiers and the plight of the newly emancipated slave. Post-Civil War music reflects the problems of Reconstruction and the beginnings of urbanization and the northern migration of African Americans. African-American popular composers include James Bland, Ernest Hogan, Bob Cole, James Reese Europe, and Will Marion Cook. Twentieth century titles feature many photographs of African-American musical performers, often in costume. Unlike many other sorts of published works, sheet music can be produced rapidly in response to an event or public interest, and thus is a source of relatively unmediated and unrevised perspectives on quickly changing events and public attitudes. Particularly significant in this collection are the visual depictions of African Americans which provide much information about racial attitudes over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."

allmusic - AMG
http://www.allmusic.com/

Search this incredibly "comprehensive music reference" database by artist, album, song, label, style, and more. Read essays, reviews, and blog posts from AMG editorial staff and expert contributors. Learn about and listen to any music style's seminal artists and albums. Offers videos too.

American Music Resource
http://www.amrhome.net/

AMR contains 800+ bibliographies, lists and text files about all styles of American music and related issues. The collection is indexed by subject-name (i.e. the last names of composers) or topic-name (e.g. Electro-acoustic music). Site is under development.

Center for Black Music Research
http://www.colum.edu/cbmr/

Focuses on collecting, preserving, and making accessible information about the "black music experience throughout the world." Offers extensive definitions of musical styles, thorough bibliographies, a discography, and resources for teachers.

The Ceolas Celtic Music Archive
http://www.ceolas.org/ceolas.html

Information about Celtic/Irish music, including discographies of Celtic artists and upcoming tour schedules, and information about Celtic instruments.

Choral Public Domain Library
http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

"The largest website devoted exclusively to free choral sheet music. Begun in December 1998, the site has over 140 contributors and 3,200 scores." Search by title or composer, or browse in the following categories: chant, medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, early-20th, or modern.

Classical Music Home Page
http://www.classical.net/music/

"The purpose of this home page is to provide a point-of-entry into various informational files about classical music, as well as links to other interesting web sites." Sections include: Basic Repertoire List, Classical CD Buying Guide, Recommended Recordings, and Composer Data. Searchable.

Composer Biographies
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mn200/music/composers.html

A site of brief biographical sketches of some of the more well-known classical composers.

Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers
http://www.stevenestrella.com/composers/index.html

"A chronological listing of famous composers of Western Music. Each listing contains accurate birth and death dates and the country of origin. Several of the entries also are linked to biographical essays and other sites on the web." Organized by musical period and by composer name.

8notes.com
http://www.8notes.com/

An extensive collection of free, downloadable sheet music and lessons. Categorized by instrument and musical styles (popular, classical, film, christmas, etc.). Also includes short pieces and riffs. Site has a search function, chat forum, and newsletter.

Eric's Treasure Trove of Music
http://www.treasure-troves.com/music/

Contains detailed articles that explain concepts in music theory.

Essentials of Music
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/

Basic information about classical music. Biographies of seventy composers, overview of the six main periods in Western music, and a glossary of terms.

Folk Alley
http://www.folkalley.com/

Listen to streaming folk music 24 hours a day. This online radio station plays only folk, world, and acoustic music. Free registration is required.

Historic American Sheet Music Project
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm/

"The Historic American Sheet Music Project provides access to digital images of 3,042 pieces from the collection, published in America between 1850 and 1920."

Huapala: Hawaiian Music and Hula Archive
http://www.huapala.org/

An extensive collection of traditional Hawaiian song, dance, and tradition.

The Lied and Song Texts Page
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/

"WWW archive of thousands of texts to Kunstlieder and other art songs in Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish."

Making Music Magazine
http://www.makingmusicmag.com/

Making Music Magazine provides a space for adult amateur and recreational musicians with useful resources like a list of music festivals in the USA and tips for playing music.

Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/

A large collection of Ozark Mountain folk songs recorded between 1956 and 1976. They were collected by Max Hunter, a traveling salesman. The songs are available as printed lyrics or in audio format. Some include sheet music.

Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html

This site showcases Musica Antiqua's large replica instrument collection by supplying photos, descriptions, original quotes, additional sources, and sounds of the instruments used in performing early music.

MHN Instrument Encyclopedia
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/MHN/enclpdia.html

A Yahoo! Pick of the Week (10-26-98), the Instrument Encyclopedia "Begins with more than 140 artifacts from the Sterns Collection at the University of Michigan" and "features musical instruments from around the world." Searchable by name, geographic region, building materials used and the Sachs Hobostel classification scheme, the database provides users with instrument images, textual descriptions and an occasional sound file. Please Note: a frames-capable browser is required.

The Mozart Project
http://www.mozartproject.org/

Contains a biography of Mozart (with chronology and family tree), a listing of his compositions (by date and category), selected essays about him and his music, plus reviews of books on Mozart. Also includes links to more Mozart resources online.

The Muse's Muse
http://www.musesmuse.com/

A resource for songwriters with a monthly newsletter, articles, sample songs, a list of music organizations, and links to related sites.

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/smhtml/

"Consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra." Search by keyword or browse indexes of authors, titles, or subjects. The sheet music is viewable online as page images.

Music Publisher's Association of the United States
http://mpa.org/

"Are you looking for the publisher of a piece of music?" Music Publisher's Association's site serves as a guide to other databases that might help you find a piece of music's copyright information and publisher. Also discusses music copyrights and information for music educators.

PD Info: Public Domain Music
http://www.pdinfo.com/index.php

"A reference site to help the ordinary person identify public domain songs and public domain music... royalty free music you can use anywhere and any way you choose... performance, sing-along, film, video, advertising, business, or personal." Includes info on copyright and public domain, an FAQ, and a song list of titles in the public domain.

Pianonet.com
http://www.pianonet.com/

"As the official Web site of the National Piano Foundation, PianoNet is your comprehensive guide to everything about pianos‹their history, their manufacture, noted artists, important publications and more."

Sheet Music from Canada's Past
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sheetmusic/

"This site is a source of sheet music published in Canada before 1921, selected from the National Library of Canada's historical collection. This website currently features sheet music published before Confederation (1867) and during the era of the First World War (1914-1920), selected from the historical collection of the National Library of Canada. Future phases will include digitized sheet music published between 1867 and 1913." Scores can be searched or browsed, and are downloadable in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

Song Lyrics from Gracenote
http://www.gracenote.com/

Find out what those musicians are really singing about at Gracenote.com. Search by artist, album or track name, and check out the "Music Map" feature which shows the top ten singles and albums for the United States and scores of countries around the world.

Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html

"Covering a three-month period in 1939, the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip documents a wide variety of musical styles from eight different states." This online presentation provides access to over 600 audio recordings of folksongs, related photos and other graphic images, as well as transcribed, searchable text for all the print material in the Lomax collection.