Finding Articles about Music
Overview
Articles on musical topics can be found quickly and effectively in periodical indexes. Most indexes are now available electronically and the library keeps paper editions of most indexes as well. Some indexes deal exclusively with music, while others are more general but cover music significantly. Each tool has its own way of organizing information and each will have different strengths in its coverage of the literature.
Searching tips
When searching an index, bear the following points in mind:
Be flexible in the names of pieces, composers and other musical terms. For example, some indexes may index a piece by the title in the original language, where others may use both English and foreign titles. Also, some composer's names are handled differently according to the conventions of their country or by how they are translated into English; Stravinsky, for example, may be spelled Strawinsky, Stravinski, Stravinskii, etc.
Consider truncating some of your terms, and know how the index handles truncation. Searching “sonatas” in most indexes will only find English articles that discuss more than one sonata or sonatas in general. However, “sonat*” (RILM, RIPM, RISM, IIMP, JSTOR), “sonat?” (RILM, RIPM, RISM), or “sonat$” (Music Index) will result in “sonata,” “sonatas,” “sonate,” and “sonaten.”
Know how to combine terms. Most indexes allow you to combine terms using quotation marks. So a search for: Jacob's ladder will find articles wherever the two terms appear, where searching for "Jacob's ladder," will only find articles where the terms appear together in that order. Some indexes require that terms are combined with AND, OR or NOT (Boolean operators), such as Jacob's AND ladder.
Be aware how much of the article is being searched for your terms. Some indexes only search titles, while others search a title and an abstract, and others search the full text of the article.
All of the indexes have help screens to consult if you have trouble searching, or feel free to ask our reference desk for assistance.
A List of Periodical Indexes
The information below is a list of the most commonly used indexes for articles on music. Descriptions are provided to give a general sense of the strengths of the index, as well as any tips that might be particularly useful when using the index.
Music Indexes
RILM (1967 - present)
RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) covers the scholarly literature of music, including musicology, music theory, instruments and voice, dance, and music therapy. It also indexes some other fields as they relate to music, including librarianship, literature, dramatic arts, visual arts, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and physics. RILM indexes periodicals, books, bibliographies, catalogs, dissertations, films and videos, conference proceedings and more. RILM offers citations in over 100 languages, including original language titles, title translations in English, full bibliographic information, abstracts in English, and in-depth subject indexes. Also available in print.
Tips for searching RILM
- Truncate terms with * or ?.
- Wildcards are allowed (“te?t” will find “tet,” “text,” “tent,” and “test”).
- Keyword/phrase search allows combination terms AND, OR and NOT and the use of quotation marks to group terms.
Music Index (1979-present online; 1949-present in print)
Music Index indexes 700 primarily English language music periodicals from twenty countries. Includes information on classical and popular music and indexes articles, book reviews, music reviews, first performances and obituaries. Music Index links to the full text of articles found in JSTOR. Also available in print format.
Tips for searching Music Index
- Truncate terms with $.
- Wildcard character is ?.
- Terms are automatically joined with AND unless other combination terms are used (OR, NOT).
- Use Expert Mode for the best search results. An “expert” search can include a full citation, subject, author, article title, or journal name.
International Index to Music Periodicals (1996-present; some indexing back to 1874)
“IIMP Full Text draws its current content from more than 370 international music periodicals from over 20 countries, and also indexes feature music articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. IIMP Full Text covers nearly all aspects of the world of music, from the most scholarly studies to the latest crazes. Every IIMP Full Text record in the current file (1996 forward) contains an abstract.” Some journals are indexed back to 1874. To determine what periodicals are indexed, on the first screen of the database, click on the Title Lists button on the left side of the screen.
Tips for searching IIMP
- Truncate terms with *.
- Allows for Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and proximity searches. (“piano near.3 orchestra” searches for piano and orchestra within 3 words of each other in either order. “piano fby.3 orchestra” searches for piano followed by orchestra within 3 words.)
RIPM (1800-1950; Nineteenth-century in print version)
RIPM (Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals) began as a project to index significant European and North American Nineteenth-century music periodicals, but now has expanded into the twentieth-century in its online version. It contains about 450,000 entries. While the electronic version searches across all the journal titles, the print version indexes each journal title individually. Neither version offers abstracts or full text.
Tips for searching RIPM
- Truncate with *.
- Wildcard character is ?.
- Allows for Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), proximity searches (nearX and adjX), and ranges ( >, <, >=, <=, to, thru).
General Indexes
ERIC (1966-present)
ERIC is an index in the field of education, including music education and other areas. Periodicals, books, dissertations, etc. are indexed. “ERIC contains citations and abstracts of the international journal and report literature in education and related fields. Subjects include all aspects of education, including child development, classroom techniques, computer education, counseling and testing, administration, higher education, library science, and vocational and adult education. Sources include more than 980 journals, educational reports, project descriptions, curriculum guides, and dissertations.”
Tips for searching ERIC:
- To find specific terms to use in searching, view the thesaurus and index by clicking on those buttons at the top of the screen.
- Change display options to see more information about an item.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975-present)
Part of the Web of Knowledge (Web of Science)
A multidisciplinary database which indexes articles, reviews, letters, notes, corrections, and editorials from 1,100 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals. The index is searchable by title keyword, author and citation. A citation search allows the researcher to search citation data (the footnotes to individual articles), taking a known paper and finding others which cite it or finding all papers citing work by a specific author.
Tips for searching AHCI
- When the page opens, Web of Knowledge defaults to searching several citation databases (under Select Database(s) and Timespans). You may want to have only AHCI checked for your search.
- Truncate with * or $.
- Use ? for wildcard.
- Use Boolean combination terms (AND, OR, NOT) to search.
- “General search” allows more search options
- Look for help under the “Information for New Users” link.
Academic Search (1984 to present)
“Academic Search is a full text database of more than 1230 journals, plus an indexing and abstracting database of approximately 3000 journals. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Christian Science Monitor are also indexed...Dates vary, but many of the full-text titles go back to 1990. A business directory is also included.”
Tips for searching Academic Search
- Searches may be limited to retrieve only peer-reviewed titles (approximately 1700).
JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive
This is a full-text article archive. While not technically an index, using JSTOR's search feature can bring you quickly and directly to the full text of an article if it is available in JSTOR.