Home » Education & Career » Music Education » Music Libraries on the Internet

Music Libraries on the Internet

© Deborah Jeter

I suppose at first glance, I might be tempted to run in the other direction at the sight of this week's title, because usually when I think of libraries, I think "BO-RING." But there have been a few interested patrons of Suite 101 and some of the music lists that I subscribe to that wanted more info on research areas on the internet. This is my attempt to fulfill those requests. I was pleasantly surprised by some of these sites and I hope you will be too.

To begin, let's go to the Library of Congress. Take a look at The Jazz Film Series. Here you will find free programs offered at the Mary Pickford Theater. Since many of us don't live in the area of the Library of Congress, those free programs will do us little good. So why not dig a little deeper with me to see what IS available for our "local" use?

(Note: all links to individual musicians are images and not information. The information about these musicians can be accessed in the first link of each paragraph.)

Here is the Performing Arts Reading Room. You will find illustrations of Irving Berlin, Serge Koussevitzky, Anton von Webern, Igor Stravinsky and many more.

Proceed now to Foundations for Music. "Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's legacy lies not only in the Foundation, auditorium, and concerts, but also in the collections she presented to the Library of original manuscripts and papers that she had received through her philanthropic activities."

The Music of Americans is also a good place to research George Gershwin, George M. Cohan, and John Philip Sousa to name only a few.

There is a quote on the Music of Americans page that reads, "The Music Division's collection of American popular music is strong from the beginnings" (whatever you may define those beginnings to be); for European and Latin American popular music its collection is strong from the 1920s on. Thus, if you are interested in what Josephine Baker sang in Paris — or Charles Trenet, or Jacques Brel — the Library of Congress is your best American source."

The Collection of Musical Instruments shows period pieces and also has information on The Thai Collection, The Cremonese Collection and other special collections.

The University of Utah's music library section has some great tips on where and how to start a Classical CD Collection. From this page, I found an interactive site called, Classical Insites which is well worth checking out. They currently have an article on the death of Solti, which is very interesting. There is an extremely informative section on The Periods of Music History and a Bernstein Studio Section.

The copyright of the article Music Libraries on the Internet in Music Education is owned by . Permission to republish Music Libraries on the Internet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.