Skip to Main Content
UCF Libraries Home

Music

Basic Music Databases

Use the following electronic and print indexes to find articles about music topics. In some instances, books, essays in books, and performance and book reviews also may be found in these sources.
 
Full text of core research journals (including almost 600 titles in music) from the year of their inception, many dating back to the early 1900s. JSTOR frequently does NOT cover the last three to five years of journals.
 
Music Index
Online version (1970+)
Main Library ARC General Collection ML 118 .M84 (1949-1972)
Indexes more than 640 international music periodicals. Coverage is broad and includes classical, world, and popular music. It also has reviews of recordings and performances.
 
Abstracts are drawn from articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festschriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, reviews, etc.

Other Relevant Databases and Indexes

Database that abstracts and indexes over 3,200 scholarly journals, and offers full text (often dating back to 1990) for over 1,000 journals. A number of music journals are covered, such as American Music, Computer Music Journal, Musical Quarterly, Opera News, and PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. To find recording or performance reviews, select "Entertainment Review" in the Document Type box.
 
The major source for anthropological literature. Useful for coverage of topics related to the cultural and ethnic aspects of music.
 
APA PsycINFO (1887+)
Major source for abstracts of psychology literature. Useful for coverage of topics related to the psychology of music.
 
Indexes articles, books, and book reviews from more than 1,100 art and humanities journals. This database's primary use is to track citations to the works of a specific author through the "Cited Ref Search" feature.
 
ERIC (1966+)
This is the primary database in the field of education and should be consulted for music education and music therapy topics. It indexes scholarly journals as well as ERIC documents.
 
Indexes essays in books and other publications, with emphasis on coverage of the arts and humanities: art, art history and criticism, graphic arts, industrial design, music, television and video, and motion pictures.
 
This general database covers the humanities and sciences. It has references and full text articles from many music journals such as Nineteenth Century Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, Billboard, Ethnomusicology and also general publications such as Time.
 
Provides multidisciplinary and multilingual coverage of humanities and social sciences, including music. This database is a continuation of the older print index Bulletin signalétique.
 
An electronic database of citations to articles appearing in more than 400 English-language periodicals dealing with the humanities, including music. To find recording or performance reviews, select the appropriate review type in the Document Type box. 
 
Index to Record Reviews: Based on Material Originally Published in Notes, The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association between 1949 and 1977
Main Library Reference ML 156.9 .M89 1978
Index to Record Reviews, 1978-1983
Main Library Reference ML 156.9 .M89 1985
Index to Record Reviews, 1984-1987
Main Library Reference ML 156.9 .M89 1989
Index to CD and Record Reviews, 1987-1997
Main Library Reference ML 156.9 .P35 1998
A cumulation, with three supplements, of the quarterly column in the periodical Notes. A guidebook to a huge body of critical writings about music recordings from about 50 periodicals and other sources.
 
"A fully indexed, cross-referenced and annotated databank of over 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries....contains more than 400 full-text titles, including more than 130 full-text journals...and more than 270 full-text books & monographs" (publisher's description).
 
Nexis Uni  (coverage varies)
A full text database containing access to more than 7,000 English language newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services, and broadcast transcripts. The database also offers international resources in French, Italian, and German. A good source to get reviews of recent performances and recordings. To find music reviews, in the search box type the title of the book (in quotation marks), the author (if known), and the word review, as in this example: "Lion King" Tim Rice review.
 
Main Library Reference AI 21 .N44 (1851-2005)
The online versions provide the full image of articles published in the Times from its first issue in 1851. It is searchable by keyword, author, article title, and first paragraph (abstract), and includes illustrations and advertisements. The print New York Times Index provides detailed subject indexing with plentiful cross-references; it also serves as an independent index to dates and a guide to reporting of contemporaneous events in other newspapers.
 
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1900+)
Online version (1890-1982)
Main Library Reference AI 3 .R48 (1900-2010)
Provides access to the contents of over 300 popular English-language magazines and journals. To find recording or performance reviews in the online version, select the appropriate review type in the Document Type box. The printed volumes have the advantage of uniform subject headings and detailed sub-headings.
 
Major source for abstracts of sociological literature. Useful for coverage of topics related to the sociological and cultural aspects of music.