Arts Library, UCSB

Guides to writing and research

When writing about music (or any other subject), it is essential to communicate your ideas clearly and to cite your sources thoroughly and consistently. Some of the works listed below are general guides to good writing style, while others address problems and issues specific to writing about music. In addition, several offer suggestions for citing electronic resources.

Citing Music Sources

This guide from the music library of the University of Western Ontario offers examples of citations to music scores, manuscripts, and recordings, in addition to the more standard formats (books, articles, etc.).

Elements of Style. By William Strunk Jr. 1918.

Classic guide to clear and concise writing. Principles of usage and composition. Note: This is Strunk's original edition, not E. B. White's well-known revision.

Irving's Writing about Music. 3rd ed. Rev. Mark Radice. 1999. Ref. ML3797 .I79 1999

A style manual for college students preparing research papers. Addresses mechanics and literary style, as well as stylistic matters specific to writing about music (pitch names, note values, names of musical compositions, etc.). See the review by Richard Griscom, Notes 57, no. 3 (2001; forthcoming).

Citations Styles Online

Constrasts the major styles of citing Internet resources (MLA, APA, Chicago, and others) in some detail and provides citation examples for a variety of electronic formats (Web, email message, discussion posting, etc.).

Notes Style Sheet. By Darwin F. Scott et al.

Style guide developed by the editors of Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association. Provides solutions to many questions that come up in writing about music, such as keys, pitches, manuscript names, etc.

A Short Guide to Writing about Music. By Jonathan Bellman. 2000. Ref. ML3797 .B4 2000

Introduces genres of writing on music (reviews, essays, program notes, research, abstracts, etc.) as well as types of research (biography, style study, analysis, archival study, source study, etc.) and critical perspectives in current music scholarship (cultural, feminist, gay and lesbian, marxist). Discusses research methods and writing techniques. A review by Richard Griscom is forthcoming in Notes 57 (2001).

Writing about Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-Century Music. By E. Kern Holoman. 1988. Ref. ML63 .W68 1988

Writing about Music: An Introductory Guide. By Richard J. Wingell. 2d ed. ML3797 .W54 1996

Intended for the undergraduate writing a paper on music. Addresses some of the special problems of describing a musical work in writing. Also provides guidance on "the research process, organizing a paper, general writing style, and common writing errors" (p. viii).

General works on the Middle Ages

The literature on the Middle Ages is vast. To find general reference works and histories, go to Pegasus, UCSB's online library catalog, and try a Browse search using the following subject headings:

civilization medieval

europe history 462-1492

middle ages history

See also:

Brooke, Christopher. Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 962-1154. 2000. Main library: D123 .B76 2000

Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000. 2d ed. 1999. Main library: D121 .C65 1999

Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols. 1982-1989. Main library: Ref D114 .D5 1982

The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. 1999. Main library: Ref D114 .E53 1999

McEvedy, Colin. The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. 1992. Main library: Map & Imagery G1791 .S3 M26 1992

The New Cambridge Medieval History. 7 vols. 1995-2000. Main library: D117 .N48 1995

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Who's Who in the Middle Ages. 2001. Main library: Ref CT114 .S56 2001

Swanson, R. N. The Twelfth-Century Renaissance. 1999. Main library: CB354.6 .S936 1999

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General works on medieval music

Histories

Caldwell, John. Medieval Music. 1978. Arts library: ML172 .C28

Cattin, Giulio. Music of the Middle Ages I. 1984. Arts library: ML172 .C3313 1984

Crocker, Richard and David Hiley, eds. The Early Middle Ages to 1300. Vol. 2, The New Oxford History of Music. 1990. Arts library: ML160 .N44 1989 v.2

Gallo, Alberto F. Music of the Middle Ages II. 1985. Arts library: ML172 .G313 1985

Hoppin, Richard H. Medieval Music. 1978. Arts library: ML172 .H8

McKinnon, James, ed. Antiquity and the Middle Ages: From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century. Arts library reserve desk: ML172 .A565 1990

Wilson, David Fenwick. Music of the Middle Ages: Style and Structure. 1990. Arts library reserve desk: ML172 .W6 1990

Yudkin, Jeremy. Music in Medieval Europe. 1989. Arts library: ML171 .Y8 1989

Anthologies

Hoppin, Richard, ed. Anthology of Medieval Music. 1978. Arts library: M2 A5175

Marrocco, Thomas and Nicholas Sandon, eds. Medieval Music. 1977. Arts library: M1 .M4

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Bibliographies

Note: The resources listed below that are marked with the icon are limited to use by UCSB faculty, students, and staff only. Current students may access these resources from off campus by using the UCSB proxy server.

The chapter bibliographies of the general books on medieval music listed above are good starting points for finding books and articles on specific topics, though for more recent literature you will have to use some of the resources mentioned below. Also, note that many books on medieval music are classed under ML172-182 in the music section of the Arts Library (second floor). You may find it useful to browse this area, but remember that many items may be checked out to other students or to faculty. To find the library's complete holdings, use Pegasus.

Another good starting point for your research, both for general information on your topic and for finding useful bibliographies, is GroveMusic, a large and authoritative general music encyclopedia. Most articles in GroveMusic include a selected bibliography. For example, type gregorian chant in the Article Search box, and then click on "Gregorian chant" in the list of items you retrieve. Note the bibliography at the end of the article. Note also that the article contains some hyperlinked terms; if you click on "Plainchant," you will go to a much more extensive article on medieval chant, with many subheadings and a lengthy bibliography, itself subdivided into numerous topics.

The following two bibliographies may also prove helpful:

Hughes, Andrew. Medieval Music: The Sixth Liberal Art. Rev. ed. 1980. Arts library: ML114 .H8 1980

An outstanding, well-organized bibliography of books, articles, and other materials on medieval music published up to 1980. Includes citations for general reference works and histories on the period as well as for anthologies, facsimiles, and performing editions of medieval music. To find materials in your area of interest, see the classified listing ("Key to the bibliography") on pages 3-8; "A brief survey" on pages xi-xii lists some especially good starting points by topic.

Medioevo musicale: Bollettino bibliografico della musica medievale = Music in the Middle Ages: Medieval Music Bibliographical Bulletin. Annual. Arts library: ML128 .M3 M42

The first two volumes of this annual bibliography, which appeared in 1998 and 1999, cover publications (books, journal articles, reviews, essays) and recordings issued from 1991 to 1995, and the third volume extends the coverage through 1999. Use the table of contents ("Indice generale") in the opening pages of each volume to find materials on your topic.

Pegasus and Melvyl

PEGASUS

Pegasus is UCSB's online library catalog. Use it to find books, scores, recordings, periodicals, videorecordings, and other materials in the UCSB libraries. Pegasus does not include catalog records for articles in journals; to find journal literature, use the databases described below.

In Browse mode, do a Subject search on music 500. This will take you to a list of Library of Congress subject headings for medieval music. Click on the heading Music -- 500-1400 -- History and criticism and scan the list of citations. When you find a book that relates to your topic, look at its full record by clicking on the citation number at the far left. From the full record, you can then click on the book's subject headings in order to find further books on that topic.

Another way to begin searching Pegasus is to choose "Word anywhere" from the pulldown menu under "Basic search of the Full Catalog" and simply type in a word or phrase that describes your topic. For example, perhaps you are interested in Gregorian chant. (Hint: if you want to retrieve books only and not recordings as well, add the words not recording to your search.) In "Word anywhere," type gregorian chant not recording. Click on the citation number for An Introduction to Gregorian Chant, and than click on the subject heading Gregorian chants -- History and criticism to find more books on chant. To limit your search to books in English, go to Advanced Search (click on the tab at the top); choose "Subject" from the first pulldown menu and type gregorian chants history criticism, and then scroll down and select English from the "Limit by language" menu.

MELVYL

Melvyl is the combined library catalog of all of the UC campuses. (From the library's home page, the link to Melvyl is just below the Pegasus link.) Try starting with a Subject search (click on the SUBJECT box) using the same subject terms you have learned from your work thus far with Pegasus; the subject terms are valid for Melvyl as well (and for most academic and public libraries in the United States), since they are taken from the Library of Congress Subject Headings. For example, try gregorian chants history; you may want to check the "English language only" box. Another way to begin searching for materials on a specific topic in Melvyl is to choose a Title search and use the "Any words" option. If you get too few resulting items, you can broaden your search by using truncation (e.g., while searching on gregorian will find just that word, gregor* will retrieve more items because it will find gregorian, gregorienne, gregory, etc.). On the other hand, if you get too many items, try limiting your search to English works only and/or to books only, or add more search terms.

Each Melvyl catalog record indicates which UC libraries have the item. If a book or other item in Melvyl is not at UCSB, you can request it over interlibrary loan. To do so, click on the Request button toward the top of each screen of Melvyl search results, or use the UCSB library ILL Book Request Form.

Databases for finding articles

Once you find books useful for your topic by searching in Pegasus and Melvyl, check their bibliographies and footnotes for citations of additional relevant literature, including journal articles. You can also find journal articles by searching in the following electronic databases. All are accessible from the UCSB library home page; click on the Indexes and Databases link and scroll down the alphabetic list of all the UCSB library databases.

When you find an article on your topic in one of these databases, search in Pegasus to determine whether or not UCSB has the journal (and issue) you need. Note that in addition to traditional print journals, the library also has a growing number of electronic journals. If UCSB does not have the journal and its correct issue, request the article from interlibrary loan. It is important to begin your work soon enough to allow time for receiving materials from interlibrary loan; you may receive a requested article in only 3-5 days if it is held by another UC library, but your request may take much longer if the item is not held within the UC system.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature

RILM provides worldwide coverage of scholarly literature on music from 1969 to the present. Included are not only journal articles, but other types of publications as well: book reviews, dissertations, essays, books, and more. Begin your search in the "all of the words" box; use quotations marks for phrases and * to truncate. To limit your results to English-language materials only, go to Advanced search (click on the "Advanced" button on the far right); type your search terms in the Key Words/Phrases box, and then scroll down the search form and type english in the Language box. One important advantage of RILM is that citations include abstracts that tell you what the article, book, etc. is about, so that you can better decide if it is useful to you.

Music Index Online

This database contains citations for articles and reviews from more than 655 music periodicals from around the world, going back to 1979. Unlike RILM, it does not include abstracts. Enter your search terms in the Basic search box, or go straight to the Expert search screen. Use quotation marks to search on a phrase.

International Index to Music Periodicals

IIMP contains citations for articles and reviews from more than 325 music periodicals. Coverage is most complete from 1996 on; records from 1996 on contain abstracts and subject headings. Some important music journals, such as the Musical Quarterly and are indexed back to their earliest issues. Begin your search by typing search terms in the All Keywords box.

ITER: Gateway to the Renaissance

ITER indexes the complete runs of hundreds of scholarly journals that focus on the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

RISM B/IV/1

Reaney, Gilbert. Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music. Vol. 1, 11th to Early 14th Century. Répertoire international des sources musicales (RISM), B/IV/1. 1966. Arts library: Ref. ML113 .I6 v.BIV:1

A volume of the enormous RISM series (International Inventory of Musical Sources), an international project to document musical primary sources (manuscripts, printed music, and writings on music) that date mostly from before 1800. This volume is a bibliography of 170 manuscripts that contain polyphonic music and that date from the 11th to the early 14th centuries. Included are four of the major existing manuscripts that contain 13th-century motets. The catalog entries for the 170 manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by the country where they are presently located (the order is country, city, library). See pages 25 to 30, a list of all the manuscripts in the order in which they appear in the catalog. The lefthand column of this list gives each manuscript siglum (plural: sigla), i.e., the abbreviation by which it is often referred to in musicological literature, generally derived from the city, and sometimes the library, where is it located. For example, the siglum of one of the four major 13th-century motet manuscripts is Ba; this manuscript, which dates from the second half of the century and contains one hundred motets (and a few additional pieces), is located in Bamberg, Germany, at the Staatliche Bibliothek (State Library). Its catalog entry in RISM B/IV/I is on pages 56 to 74 and can serve as an example of how the volume is organized. The entry consists of three parts: an opening description of the manuscript (pp. 56-57), a bibliography (p. 57), and a list of all its pieces (pp. 57-74). The bibliography lists music, i.e. published facsimiles and transcriptions of pieces in Ba, and books and articles written about the manuscript.

For each piece listed, given first is its location in the manuscript. This is indicated by folio numbers. A folio is one leaf of a manuscript, i.e., two pages; the second of the two pages--the reverse side of the folio--is indicated by the letter v, which stands for verso (reverse). The absence of the v means the front side of the folio, also called the recto side. Thus, the first motet in Ba begins on the folio 1 recto and continues to folio 2 recto. The second motet then begins on folio 2 recto and goes to folio 2 verso, and so on.

Furthermore, for each piece listed, RISM B/IV/1 gives its incipts, for both texts and music, unless the music is duplicated in another manuscript, in which case a cross-reference is given. What is an incipit? It is the opening few words of the texts and the opening few notes of the music. Thirteenth-century motets have two, three, or four voices, and normally each has its own text. In Ba, all of the motets have three voices. Consequently, for each motet, three text incipits appear. As to musical incipits, for most of the Ba motets, cross- references are given to other manuscripts where the music is duplicated, but one voice of number 7 and all three of numbers 9, 12, 20, 21, etc. have their musical incipits indicated. For number 1 in the manuscript, there is a cross-reference to number 44 in a manuscript whose siglum is Mo; to find the full name of this manuscript, turn to pages 31 to 35, where all the manuscripts are listed alphabetically by their sigla. There (p. 33) you will see that Mo is a manuscript presently located in Montpellier (in France), at the library of the Faculté de Médecine, and that its shelf number (i.e. call number) is H 196; this is another of the major manuscripts sources of 13th-century motets. The entry for Mo 44 is on page 288, where both the text and the musical incipits are given. Here the text incipits are the same as for number 1 in Ba, but this is not always the case.

Another very important feature of RISM B/IV/1 is the index of text incipits, pages 823 to 871. Here you can look up the text incipit of any voice of a motet, find out which manuscript(s) it appears in, and then look up its musical incipit.