Home: Music: Books

eBook Collections

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Contains a large selection of multidisciplinary ebooks from a wide range of academic subjects. Collecting titles from many of the leading university presses, this growing collection boasts more than 160,000 titles on subjects like art, business, languages, medicine, political science, social science, technology and many others.
Home Grown eBooks Collection This link opens in a new window
A collection of eBooks from eight North Carolina publishers. All of the titles in the collection can be read instantly inside the browser window.
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This growing subscription package contains a large selection of multidisciplinary e-books representing a broad range of academic subjects.
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Includes full-text access to eBooks and encyclopedias from popular disciplines, including Arts and Humanities, History, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Religion, Science, Social Science and more.

Finding Books

Most of Salem's circulating books on music are shelved on the second floor of the Gramley Library. A limited number are located in the FAC Library. Please check the library location when searching for items in the catalog.

M 1 - 5000 Music

3 - 3.1 Collected Works, individual composers

Instrumental Music

6 - 175 Solo instruments
177 - 190 Music for 2 or more instruments
1000 - 1075 Orchestra

Vocal Music

1497 - 1998 Secular vocal music
1999 - 2199 Sacred vocal music

ML 1 - 3930 Literature on Music

100 - 109 Dictionaries
159 - 3785 History and criticism
3800 - 3920 Philosophical and societal aspects of music

MT 2 - 942 Instruction and Study

5.5 - 7 Music theory
170 - 810 Instrumental techniques
820 - 915 Singing and vocal techniques

The Rudolph Fine Arts Library (RFAL) located in the Elberson Fine Arts Center houses Salem's most current music reference materials in addition to musical recordings and scores and many of the music videos. Gramley Library also maintains a small reference collection in its Reading Room. Please check the library location when looking up items in the catalog.

The Harvard Dictionary of Music by Don Michael Randel
ISBN: 9780674011632
Publication Date: 2003-11-28
This classic reference work, the best one-volume music dictionary available, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians by Stanley Sadie (Editor); John Tyrrell (Editor)
ISBN: 9781561592395
Publication Date: 2003-02-11
The New Grove presents the music, theory, instruments, and musicians that have helped to define music around the world.
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
ISBN: 9780028655253
Publication Date: 2000-12-22
The 9th edition covers all musical genres, with new entries written by a distinguished group of area specialists as well as the original articles by Nicolas Slonimsky. This work continues the tradition of offering the most comprehensive and authoritative information on the musicians, along with interesting and insightful evaluations of their contributions to the musical world.
The Oxford Companion to Music by Alison Latham
ISBN: 9780198662129
Publication Date: 2002-05-02
The Oxford Companion to Music contains over a million words and is the biggest, most authoritative, and most up to date single-volume music reference available.
A History of Western Music by J. Peter Burkholder; Donald Jay Grout; Claude V. Palisca
ISBN: 9780393918298
Publication Date: 2014-04-15
A History of Western Music provides all the resources that students need in a text that will last a lifetime.
Norton Anthology of Western Music by J. Peter Burkholder; Donald J. Grout; Claude V. Palisca
ISBN: 9780393921618
Publication Date: 2014-04-21
The anthologies feature outstanding teaching pieces that reveal the sweep of history through changing genres, styles, conventions, forms, techniques, and materials. The Seventh Edition includes new twentieth- and twenty-first-century works.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music by Ruth M. Stone (Editor)
ISBN: 9780824060350
Publication Date: 1997-08-01
Garland's ambitious 10-volume series takes a cultural approach to its focus on the music of all the world's peoples. Each volume is arranged topically, regionally, or by ethnic group, and complemented by an extensive index.
The Definitive Kobbe's Opera Book by Gutav Kobbe; Harewood
ISBN: 9780399131806
Publication Date: 1987-09-02
Now, after more than ten years, this famous work of the stories of more than 300 of the world's great operas has been entirely revised, updated, expanded, and reset in a manner zestfully responsive to the explosion of enthusiasm for opera over the last decade."

While the majority of circulating books about music are located on the 2nd floor of the Gramley Library, some are shelved off-site in the Fine Arts Center and must be requested. Please check the item location when searching for books. Representative titles that are frequently consulted are listed below.

American Musical Theater by Gerald Bordman
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780195130744
Publication Date: 2001-03-01
Gerald Bordman's American Musical Theatre has become a landmark book since its original publication in 1978. In this third edition, he offers authoritative summaries on the general artistic trends and developments for each season on musical comedy, operetta, revues, and the one-man and one-woman shows from the first musical to the 1999/2000 season. With detailed show, song, and people indexes, Bordman provides a running commentary and assessment as well as providing the basic facts about each production.
Word-by-Word Translations of Songs and Arias by Berton Coffin; Pierre Delattre; Werner Singer
Call Number: ML54.6 .W65
ISBN: 9780810801493
Publication Date: 1994-03-01
This word-by-word translation allows the artist to properly interpret and express the feelings and emotions that the words require at the proper time. This book is shelved off-site in the Fine Arts Center and must be requested.
American Popular Music by Larry Starr; Christopher Alan Waterman; Lawrence Starr; Christopher Waterman
Call Number: ML3477.S73 2003
ISBN: 9780195108545
Publication Date: 2002-10-31
The history of American popular music provides crucial insights into the establishment of a distinctively American culture.
The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music by Allan Moore (Editor); Jonathan Cross (Contribution by)
Call Number: ML3521 .C36 2002
ISBN: 9780521806350
Publication Date: 2003-03-13
Blues and gospel artists figure heavily in the mythology of twentieth-century culture. This book provides an overview of both these genres, which worked together to provide an expression of twentieth-century black US experience.

Dissertations and theses are often overlooked sources of scholarly information. Although written by students completing their masters or doctoral programs, the research reported AND SOURCES listed in them have undergone perhaps the greatest scrutiny and review of all peer-reviewed sources. We are fortunate that many older and current dissertations are now made available full-text and online.