Armacost Library: MUS 300: Music History: Finding repertoire

Strategy 1: Find performers and recordings

You can discover composers and works through performers and ensembles specializing in early music, or through recently released recordings.

Try searching online for early music performers or ensembles and check their social media presence. For example, the renowned San Francisco early music ensemble Voices of Music recently tweeted about Nicola Porpora and included a link to a recording.

Search for recordings of early music online or in Naxos Music Library. For example, this Porpora piece is also in Naxos:

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical music albums from the Naxos family of record labels, delivered through streaming audio. View recent additions to the Library. Access is limited to fifteen concurrent users.

Strategy 2: Search the news

News articles and concert or recording reviews written by music journalists are another way to learn about previously unfamiliar composers.

Search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo let you limit your results to view News articles. These results include publicity for upcoming concerts as well as stories about performers and ensembles - all of which could contain names of lesser-known period composers (as well as the usual big names, so be patient and keep looking)

If you run into online paywalls, try searching for the full text of your article in a library news database.

In this example, a Google search for "lute composers" turned up a news item from a British classical-music radio station, announcing an upcoming broadcast devoted to lute music by little-known composers.

Strategy 3: Consult published lists

Books in Armacost Library are excellent sources for names and biographical information on early music composers.

The Recent Researches series of scholarly scores publishes authoritative texts of music manuscripts by Renaissance and Baroque composers (as well as more recent periods). These are excellent scores to choose for your assignment!

Use printed bibliographies to discover lesser-known composers and masterworks beyond the core concert and recital repertoire. These books appear in the library catalog with the subject heading [genre] -- Bibliographies.

Several examples of printed music bibliographies in the library collection are presented here.

Alternatively, use Advanced Search to search subject headings related to musical genres or historical periods, such as:

motets

madrigals

part songs

suites

Renaissance music

Baroque music

This strategy will get you books of scholarly commentary as well as musical scores. Use the Resource Type limiter as needed.

In this example, a subject search for "madrigals" limited to scores turns up several Recent Researches volumes. Here's an example:

Giovanni Maria Nanino - Complete Madrigals, Part 2 by Giovanni Maria Nanino (Composed by); Christina Boenicke (Editor); Anthony Newcomb (Editor)
Call Number: M2 .R2385 v.162
ISBN: 9780895798190
Publication Date: 2015
Giovanni Maria Nanino (1543/44¿1607) was one of the most important musicians of late-sixteenth-century Rome. It is especially in the madrigal that one can admire Nanino's ability to bring together traditional stylistic elements of the mid-century madrigal with elements of the modern styles of the early seicento. This volume includes the book of madrigals published in 1581 with Annibale Stabile, together with those madrigals by Nanino published only in anthologies in the years 1574-86.

Examples from Armacost Library

Organ and Harpsichord Music by Women Composers by Adel Heinrich
Call Number: Ref ML128.O6 O73 1991
ISBN: 0313268029
Publication Date: 1991
This reference work catalogs music for organ and harpsichord written by more than 700 women composers from 40 countries. Compiler Adel Heinrich has expanded the organ and harpsichord repertoire to include choir and instruments accompanying organ and harpsichord. ... There is also a chronological listing of composers by country.
Lute, Vihuela, Guitar to 1800 by David Lyons
Call Number: Ref ML128.S7 L9
ISBN: 0911722936
Publication Date: 1978
Bibliography of works related to the instruments mentioned in the title. Also includes sections on composers, performers, manuscripts and musical forms. Table of contents, introduction and list of abbreviations. 1735 entries. Index of authors. Addenda contains 231 additional entries, also with index of authors.
Organ Literature by Corliss Richard Arnold
Call Number: Ref ML600 .A76 1995
ISBN: 0810829657
Publication Date: 1995
This third edition is a basic textbook on the development of pipe organ composition in geographically diverse schools. Its nineteen chapters include charts of organ composers and a historical background of contemporary events and figures for each organ composition school.
A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater, 1590-1750 by Robert Weaver; Norma Weaver
Call Number: Ref ML1733.8.F5 W4
ISBN: 0911772839
Publication Date: 1978
Extensive historical survey covers the times of Francesco I, 1736-65; Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1765-90; the reign of Ferdinando II and the French occupation, 1791-1800; and the theatrical customs of the period. A chronology of music in the theater, an index by category, and bibliography complete the work.

MUS 300: Music History: Finding repertoire

This page will help you...

Strategy 1: Find performers and recordings

Strategy 2: Search the news

Strategy 3: Consult published lists

Examples from Armacost Library

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