Research Guides: Music: Reference Sources

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013) (UHM users only) Grove Dictionary of American Music is a comprehensive reference publication on American Music. Articles range from small definitions of dance styles and musical terms to mid-length biographies of important performers, composers and music patrons, to longer examinations of larger subjects such as the history of jazz, musical instruments, music education in the United States, and the American history of the orchestra.
Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (2014) (UHM users only) Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments is a comprehensive reference publication on musical instruments. The second edition includes greatly expanded coverage of instruments from around the world and their builders, with special attention given to electronic and experimental instruments, the human body as an instrument, the history and techniques of instrument design and manufacture, performance practice, and the scholars who have shaped our current understanding of musical instruments.
Handbook of Music Terms (1967) (printed book)
The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1975) (UHM users only)
A Musician's Dictionary (1997) (printed book)
The Oxford Companion to Music (2011) (UHM users only)
The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology (2015) (printed book)