Musical Theatre Research
Most research material for musical theatre can be found in the Music Collection, but some materials that are slanted more toward theatre studies than music are located in the General Collection. DVDs are in the Educational Resources Collection.
When searching CardCat , you can specify the format in Advanced Search. Choose “books,” “compact discs, audio,” “DVD videos” or “Score, musical.” (Note” “score, musical” means any printed sheet music in CardCat.)
Music scores include vocal scores (all songs from a musical in their original keys), vocal selections (the important songs, sometimes transposed), and anthologies (songs from different works). The Singers Musical Theatre Anthology is the best-known of these. To find the words of a musical, also known as its “book,” use the subject term “musicals -- librettos” in CardCat .
You can use MultiSearch to search several databases for music simultaneously, or select from the following databases individually:
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Oxford Music Online , which includes the Grove Dictionary of Music (not strictly an indexing service, but the bibliographies are excellent)
For reviews, use the News databases available through Ball State Libraries, which include these historical resources:
The following reference books can help you get started in your research:
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New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians through
Oxford Music Online and in the Music Collection Reference section: Ref. ML 100 .N48 2001 (29 volumes)
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See the Subject Guide for Music & Music Education for more guidance.
Ball State’s Music Librarian, Amy Edmonds, offers one-on-one research consultations in person or via e-mail.
For assistance in locating books or other music materials, contact Music Collection staff at 765-285-8188, or the music librarian at 765-285-5065.