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- Michelle Oswell, Humanities Librarian for Music and Literature (HC)
- Donna Fournier, Music & Dance Librarian (SC)
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MUSC 007B : Beethoven and the Romantic Spirit (SC)
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias:
Beethoven Article from Grove Music Online
from the premier English language online music dictionary.
Beethoven Article in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
from the premier German Language music encyclopedia.
Beethoven and his world
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
A biographical dictionary with numerous references to Beethoven's correspondence and conversation books.
Bibliographies:
Beethoven Bibliography from Grove Music Online
Beethoven entry in Reader's Guide to Music
An overview of Beethoven scholarship with sections on biography, chamber music, orchestral music, piano music, sketches, and influence.
The Beethoven Bibliography Database
from the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
Thematic Catalogs and Complete Works:
Das Werk Beethovens;
Publisher: München, G. Henle Verlag [c1955]
A list of Beethoven's compositions arranged by opus number with incipits of each movement and details on date of composition, first performance, and publication history.
Werke
Publisher: München : G. Henle Verlag, [1961-
The Neue Ausgabe (new edition) of Beethoven's complete works. Series (lower case roman numerals) and volume numbers (arabic numerals) can be found in the Grove Online works list, far right-hand column.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Publisher: Huntington Station, N.Y. : Kalmus, [1967]
Reprint of the 1866-88 Gesamtausgabe (complete works).
Primary Source Materials and Facsimile Editions:
Heiligenstädter Testament
Publisher: Bonn : Verlag Beethoven-Haus, c1999.
Written on October 6, 1802, when Beethoven was 32, in the form of a letter describing his inner torment caused by his deafness.
Beethoven Facsimiles
Includes reprints of sketchbooks and scores.
Books, Videos, Sound Recordings, and Scores:
Tripod (Tri-College Library Catalog)
Use Tripod (shared with Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges) to find recorded performances and scores of the works you want to explore and to find books and essays on your topic. Here are some searching hints:
- Keyword Searches: Start with words used to describe your topic. Try a variety of words and include the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to explore many possibilities, e.g. beethoven AND (letters OR correspondence).
- Subject Headings Searches: Tripod uses Library of Congress subject headings. They are not always intuitive. Instead of starting with a subject heading search you may want to start with a keyword search. Browse through the list of results until you find something that looks relevant to your research. Click on the link and look through the description of the item to find "official" library terminology for the topic. You can then click on the links in Tripod labeled, "Subject".
- Uniform Titles: Library catalogs have a way to group titles together no matter what words or languages are printed on the title page. To catch all performances of a work you will want to search by the uniform title. Start with a keyword search such as "beethoven piano concertos". Browse through the list of results until you find the work you are interested in. Click on the link and look through the description of the item to find "official" title for the work, for example, "Concertos, violin, violoncello, piano, orchestra, op. 56, c major" is the uniform title for Beethoven's Triple Concerto.
- Limiting Searches: You can limit searches in two ways. Before you begin searching you can choose a specialized search such as "Videos/DVDs" or "Music". Also, after getting search results you can click on the "limit/sort search" button or the "modify search" button to refine your results.
WorldCat
Provider: OCLC
This is a gigantic catalog of materials owned by libraries all over the world listing books, journals, scores, sound recordings, videos, websites, and manuscript collections.
Journal Indexes:
RILM abstracts of music literature
Provider: CSA
Covers material published in music and various other fields as they relate to music. Records appear in over a hundred languages. The majority of citations include abstracts. Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, films, and videos are all covered by RILM. Concert reviews, recording notes, and pedagogical manuals if they are of scholarly interest.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.
Arts & humanities citation index
Provider: ISI
Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities with selected, relevant items from major science and social science journals. Covers 1975- present.
International index to music periodicals
Provider: Chadwyck
Provides abstracts to music titles. Offers articles in full-text for over 80 periodicals. Covers all aspects of music including education, composition, theory and ethnomusicology. Covers 1874-present. Full-text begins in the mid-1990s-present.
Evaluating Sources:
Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazine Articles (USTA Library)
This page compares the two types of publications on several levels, including language, structure of articles, editorial procedures, and credits.
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet (Johns Hopkins University Library)
Discusses the criteria by which scholars in most fields evaluate print information, and shows how the same criteria can be used to assess information found on the Internet.
Interlibrary Loan:
If something you need is not available on Swarthmore’s campus then it can be requested through our Tri-College Borrowing and Interlibrary Loan services.
Citing Sources:
Guidelines for style and the documentation of sources for scholarly papers in music and dance follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. The manual is not available online but thorough explanations can be found in the Chicago/Turabian Documentation section of the UW-Madison Writing Center website. Citing the notes that accompany sound recordings and scores can be tricky. Williams College has a good citation guide for non-book formats.