Music Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Music dictionaries and encyclopedias are a useful starting point in your research. They can supply basic factual information and definitions. The University of Melbourne Library holds a large collection of reference works including subject specific dictionaries and encyclopedias.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. Eds., Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan, 2001, 29 vols. This extremely comprehensive reference is also available in an online version, Grove Music Online. The New Grove is an excellent resource with which to begin any music research project.  It contains a comprehensive  collection of articles written by recognised experts, and most articles conclude with a useful bibliography.  Composer entries also include a list of the composer's works. 

A guide to using New Grove online is available on the Library website.

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart [MGG], ed. Friedrich Blume. Kassel; New York: Bärenreiter, 1994- .  The German equivalent of the New Grove.  Although the German language may appear formidable, the bibliographies, works lists and illustrations can still be useful. This is encyclopaedia is still under publication: new volumes continue to be produced. 

The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Edited by Don Michael Randel, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.  A good source of brief definitions and articles.  Although less comprehensive than the New Grove, its briefer format makes it more accessible if only a simple answer is required. 

The Oxford Companion to Music, by Percy Scholes, edited John Owen Ward. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.  Although many of you will be familiar with this volume, the first edition was written by Scholes in 1932 and it is very dated.  You will generally be expected to refer to more recent and authoritative sources. 

The Library Catalogue can be used to identify useful dictionaries and encyclopedias. A Keyword search is the simplest method. 

You will from time to time come across words in foreign languages, particularly in editions of music. The Music Branch Library holds a number of foreign language dictionaries, which should consult if required:

• German: Mu REF 433.21
• French: Mu REF 443.21
• Italian: Mu REF 453.21
• Spanish: Mu REF 463.21
• Latin: Mu REF 473.21

Several English dictionaries are now available online:

eg WWWebster Dictionary and

Documenting dictionary articles