Music History

In addition to ebooks you can access through the catalog, the library holds many print books of interest to students of music history. Most of these books are in the ML section on the third floor. Some specific locations are: 

• biographies of composers, ML410,
• biographies and memoirs of performers, ML416-429,
• books about performance practice, ML430-457,
• historical studies by period, ML162-197,
• historical studies by region or country, ML200-350,
• histories of musical instruments and instrumental music, ML460-1093, and
• histories of vocal music, ML1400-3275. 

We also have a good selection of books about popular music, jazz, and traditional music (ML3470-3776).

We have a wide range of reference works of use to students of music history. They are located on the fourth floor of the library. Some highlights include:

• Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians--trace the development of the study of music history across three print editions of this classic reference work (1954, 1980, and 2000; Ref ML100) and Oxford Music Online
• Facsimiles of the original manuscripts of many important musical works (Ref ML96.5)
• Thematic catalogs and bio-bibliographies of composers (Ref ML134)
• Critical editions of collected works of composers (Ref M3)
• Critical editions of musical works organized by location or time period (Ref M2)