Footnotes

You may choose to use either footnotes (references that appear at the foot of the page) or endnotes (references appended to the end of your essay). Footnotes are, however, easier for the reader and most modern word processing packages handle them with ease. Footnote numbering should be continuous throughout the essay, rather than restarting on each page.

Footnotes and endnotes should read as a single sentence. The preferred footnote style for music history essays is described in detail in Appendix B of the MLA Handbook 4th ed. Click to see the appropriate footnote citations for the following sources:

Book
Chapter in an edited book
Journal article
Newspapers
Theses and Dissertations
Scores and Collected Editions
Internet sites
Discography
Subsequent footnotes

Book

The first, full reference for a book should contain the following information:

author: full name of author(s) or editor(s) (first name as given on title page, followed by surname)
title: full title of book, including subtitle if there is one, in italics
edition, if not the first edition
volume number of a multivolume work
publication data: (city: publisher, date of publication)
page number or numbers, if applicable

For foreign publications, the English form of the place of publication should be given where one exists: eg. Vienna rather than Wien.

¹ Charles Rosen, The Romantic Generation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995) 45.

² Nicholas Anderson, Baroque Music: From Monteverdi to Handel (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994) 36-38.

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

See MLA App. B.1.5.a.

Chapter in a Book

For such sources the following information is required:

author: full name of author(s) of chapter or essay
title of chapter: in inverted commas
title of book: in italics
full name of editor(s) of collection
publication data: (city: publisher, date of publication)
page number(s)

^{Pages are referred to by number alone; the abbreviations p. and
pp. should not be used.}

¹Richard D. P. Jones, 'The Keyboard Works: Bach as Teacher and Virtuoso', The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt (Cambridge: CUP, 1997) 138-40.

New Grove Articles are treated as works in an anthology, although volume numbers are not required as the articles are arranged alphabetically. You should, however, still site the particular page you are referring to in a multi-page article:

²Jim Samson, 'Romantic', New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001) 600.

or, if you consulted the online version:

3 Jim Samson, 'Romantic', Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macey, accessed 24 February 2002, <http://www.grovemusic.com/grovemusic/home>.

(See below for more information on citing online sources)

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

See MLA App. B.1.5.e.

Journal Article

The first, full reference to an article in a journal or periodical should include the following, in the order shown:

author's name
title of article: in inverted commas
title of journal or periodical: in italics
volume or issue number: in Arabic, not Roman numerals
year of publication
page number(s)

¹Daniel Heartz, 'From Garrick to Gluck: The Reform of Theatre & Opera in the Mid-Eighteenth Century', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 94 (1967-68): 112.

Note: issue numbers or months are only required where each issue is paginated separately:

² Joe K. Law, '"I Must Get a Better Composer...But How?": The Early Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten', Opera Quarterly 9.2 (1992): 47.

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

See MLA App. B.1.6.

Newspapers

For most references to newspapers one only needs to cite the name of the paper, the date and the page number(s). However, the citation should include the author's name and the title of the article if these are given.

⁶Dorian Le Gallienne, 'Beethoven Gave Energetic Start', Age 16 May 1963.

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

See MLA App. B.1.6.e.

Theses and Dissertations

The first, full reference to a thesis or dissertation includes the following items:

author's name
title: in inverted commas if unpublished
type of thesis: MA, Ph.D., etc.
academic institution
date
page(s), if applicable

³ Michael Christoforidis, 'Aspects of the creative process in Manuel de Falla's El retablo Maese Pedro and Concerto', PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, 1997, 64.

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

See MLA App. B.1.6.w.

Scores and Collected Editions

The principals of footnoting are basically the same for editions of musical works:

composer: full name
title of publication in italics
full name of editor(s)
publication data: (city: publisher, date of publication)
page number(s)

⁴Heinrich Schutz, St John Passion, ed. Peter Pears and Imogen Holst (London: Oxford University Press, c. 1963) 9.

If you are referring to individual works within a collection they should be cited like a chapter in a book:

⁵ Fanny Hensel, 'Allegro con spirito', Songs for Pianoforte, 1836-1837, ed. Camilla Cui (Madison, Wisc.: A-R Editions, 1994) 36-45.

The principle is the same for early editions, although the editor is often omitted:

⁶ Ludwig Senfl, Magnificat octo tonorum (Nüremberg: Hieronymus Formschneider, 1537).

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

Internet sites

If you use material from the Internet you must provide a full, first reference which contains the following information:

author's name (first name comes first)
title of work or title or the list/site as appropriate
publication information of any print version
date created, if available
date on which you accessed information
access path (universal resource locator, URL)

⁶ Robert Judd, 'Composers, Performers, and Notation: Solo Music Notations in Europe, 1500-1700', Music Theory Online 8 (May 1994), accessed 19 February 2001, <http://boethius.music.ucsb.edu/mto/mtohome.html>.

⁷ George Crumb, programme notes to Black Angels (Images I), accessed 12 February 2002, <http://www.puk.ac.za/musdocs/crumb/comp/black-p.html>.

For further examples on citing sources from the Internet see Citation Styles Online or the MLA FAQ site.

For a bibliography entry for this title, click here.

Discography - Sound Recordings

There is no hard and fast rule for footnoting sound recordings; as with bibliographic entries, they may be listed under the composer or the performers, depending upon the nature of the reference. You must include details of individual works cited, the title of the recording, performer details, the company that produced the recording, and ideally, the year and CD/record number.

³ Perotin, Perotin, Hilliard Ensemble, ECM Records, ECM 1385, 1989.

⁴ Solage, 'Fumeux fumes', Febus Avant!: Music at the Court of Gaston Febus (1331-1391), Huelgas Ensemble, cond. Erik Van Nevel, Sony Classical, SK 48195, 1992.
or
Huelgas Ensemble, 'Fumeux fumes' by Solage, Febus Avant!: Music at the Court of Gaston Febus (1331-1391), cond. Erik van Nevel, Sony Classical, SK 48195, 1992.

Second and subsequent references

For second and subsequent references to a previously cited work, you need only use the author's surname and a page number, although you may like to include an abbreviated version of the title. If you cited more than one work by the same author you must include an abbreviated title to distinguish the books. For more information see MLA App B.1.10.

Do not use ibid, loc cit, etc.

For example:

¹ Leon Botstein, 'Wagner and Our Century', Music at the Turn of the Century: A 19th Century Music Reader, ed. Joseph Kerman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990) 169.

² Botstein 173.