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Find Songs and Translations: Library Catalog, Databases, Online |
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Find Overviews of a Topic
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Covers all aspects of music worldwide with emphasis on classical music.
Find Songs and Translations
Most songs are published in collections (also called works or album). For example, Phil Collins' Everyday is in the album Both Sides.
Use the Library Catalog
Books containing song texts can be found in call number starting with ML54.6.
When searching in the Library Catalog, you may want to click on “Limit/Sort” to limit your results by material type (recordings, music scores, or video) or to limit by language date or medium.
In the Library Catalog, try a keyword search. Combine the composer name (if you know it) and some part of the title of the composition (type of piece, opus number, edit or number, key) with the word "and".
Examples:
mozart and piano and 9
Rossini and tancredi
schumann and 48
If your search was not successful, the library may still have the score or recording you want. Many scores are included in collections of composers' works.
Repeat the search above and broaden the search to find items by the type of work.
Examples:
tchaikovsky and concertos
rossini and overtures
wagner and operas
Also, try to look in the following sources:
Song Index: An Index to More than 12,000 Songs in 177 Song Collections. This index, with many supplements, provides access to songs in numerous collections. REF ML 128 .S3 S2
Word by Word Translations of Songs and Arias Contains texts of well-known art songs and arias with English translations. v. 1, German and French; v. 2, Italian. GEN ML54.6.C7 W7
Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder; the Original Texts of over Seven Hundred and Fifty Songs English translations. GEN PT1160.E6 F5 1977
Ring of Words: an Anthology of Song Texts Includes German, French, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, and Spanish. GEN ML54.6.M5 R5 1963
Databases
Online Resources
Blues Lyrics Online
A searchable database of blues artists and lyrics titles.
Lyrics World
A large database of lyrics to songs popular in the decades since 1930; includes title and artist index and lists of top songs by decade.
Find music reviews
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Information on musical groups and individual performers, with a rated list of their recordings. Includes a songs title index. REF ML102.P66 G84 1998
Also try:
Media Review Digest 1989-present
New York Times Historical 1851-2003
Newspaper Source indexing: 1994-present, full-text:1995-present
Find primary sources
Primary sources are original materials that have not been altered in any way. They are firsthand accounts of an event, and generally do not include commentary, interpretation, or evaluation of the topic. For more information check the Using Primary & Secondary Sources page.
How do you find primary sources?
In the catalog, combine the terms of your topic with terms such as:
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archives |
facsimiles |
letters |
personal narratives |
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correspondence |
interviews |
memoirs |
registers |
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diaries |
inventories |
notebooks |
sketchbooks |
Foreign language dictionaries
To find dictionaries in foreign languages/English, in the catalog search box type: [Language] language – Dictionaries – English
Example: French language -- Dictionaries -- English