Research Librarian for Music & Performing Arts
About this guide
This website is a guide to digitized scores, recordings, websites devoted to music theory and music history organizations, etc.. All of the links are freely available via the internet and none require a personal or library subscription for access. This page is a work-in-progress so please feel free to email your suggestions.
The Free Online Music Resources page was established by Matthew Vest in 2014, maintained and developed by Courtney Kleftis, 2014-2016, and is currently maintained by Amy Hunsaker.
General Music Resources
- MusRef
A site and blog devoted to music and dance bibliography and reference, ranging from discographies and catalogs of composer works to reference information about music exhibits and/or collections. It currently includes over 7,000 bibliographic references, several of which offer detailed annotations to help guide the user. This online resource also offers basic reference guides to facilitate arts-related research projects.
- Performing Arts Encylopedia (PAE)
The Performing Arts Encyclopedia (PAE) is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress. The PAE provides information about the Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other materials. Users can find digitized items from the collections, special Web presentations on topics and collections, articles and biographical essays, databases for performing arts resources, information on concerts at the Library, and a special Performing Arts Resource Guide which contains entries for hundreds of Library collections, websites, databases and exhibits.
- Online Resources for Music Scholars
Provides a basis for beginning electronic research on a wide variety of topics in music, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, composition, and performance practice. It collects links to archival collections, online scores and sound recordings; article indexes, discographies and bibliographies; scholarly societies; musical reference works; and a miscellany of useful websites. A few highlights of this extremely varied online resource are the "Alan Lomax Archive", the "Civil War Sheet Music Collection", and the "Digital Bach Project."
- Musical America Worldwide
For over 100 years, Musical America Worldwide has been the voice of the performing arts industry. Musical America provides the digital and print touchpoints for performing arts professionals to reach out to each other to further their art and their businesses. This website also includes original copies of music and arts related articles in newspapers, magazines, and directories from 1905 on, and thousands of priceless photographs, among other useful resources.
- ClassicalNet: The Internet's Premier Classical Music Source
"ClassicalNet" is a website devoted to the study and appreciation of Western classical music. It offers extensive book reviews (e.g.: of music theory and music history textbooks and composer biographies), CD/DVD performance reviews, and live concert reviews, etc. Additionally, "ClassicalNet" offers several short articles on highly-varied topics, including interviews. This website also offers a basic overview of period histories and a fairly comprehensive list of well-known composers and their works. One of its highlights is a frequently updated list of obscure pieces by both well and lesser-known composers.