Online Resources
These online resources can be used to identify repertoire and composers for performance or study. Use JumboSearch or WorldCat to find specific compositions or materials that are not open access.
- ...And We Were Heard"We are giving underrepresented composers a platform to have their music heard. Composers that submit works to … And We Were Heard are matched with top-notch ensembles and engage in collaborative recording sessions. The resulting audio tracks are hosted on our site along with innovative ideas of how to support diverse voices in music."
- African American Art Song AllianceBrowse the repertoire, discography, historical chronology, and lists of composers, performers, scholars, and additional resources dedicated to promoting contributions by African-Americans to art song.
- Afrocentric Voices in Classical MusicAfrocentric Voices is a resource about American singers and composers of African descent trained in the classical tradition, and the vocal music forms they influenced. The site features an extensive bibliography, a selection of performer and composer biographies, a chronology, and list of libraries and research centers with collections about and by African American musicians.
- American Composers Alliance - Music of Black ComposersWorking draft list of music of Black composers from the American Composers Alliance.
- Anti-Racist Music Theory ExamplesThis is a collaborative resource that identifies music theory examples according to topic and subtopic by underrepresented or marginalized composers. Links to digitized scores are also included when available.
- Beyond Elijah Rock: The Non-Idiomatic Choral Music of Black ComposersThis is a working list of the non-idiomatic choral music of black composers compiled by Marques L. A. Garrett, an Assistant Professor of Music in Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Glenn Korff School of Music.
- Castle of Our SkinsThis group focuses on the lack of equity in composer representation and programming in concerts. Resources on this site include music by composers who identify as part of the African Diaspora, conversational series with leaders in music organizations, educational materials to introduce African American traditions and music to students.
- Center for Black Music ResearchThe Center’s collections promote the music of the African diaspora and include materials covering a variety of idioms in Black music. Search across primary source content created by individuals and musical organizations, including correspondence, scores, oral histories, as well as early recordings (e.g. wax cylinders).
- Composers of ColorA selection of resources of music by composers of color.
- Contemporary Music Score CollectionThis is an open access collection of scores from the Contemporary Score Edition series. It contains new music and scores from the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores published in collaboration with the UCLA Music Library.
- Institute for Composer Diversity (Fredonia State University of New York)The Institute promotes the music of historically underrepresented composers through its advocacy work and also by making available the Composer Diversity Database, Works Diversity Database, orchestra season analysis, bibliographies, and more.
Search over 4,000 composers of historically underrepresented genders, racial, ethnic, and cultural heritages, and sexual orientations in the Composer Diversity Database. Search over 1,600 art songs by women; over 2,400 works for large and small wind ensembles; and over 11,000 orchestral works by underrepresented composers in the Works Diversity Database. - International Alliance for Women in MusicThe IAWM promotes and fosters the work of women in music. Search the New Music Competition winners to find works in categories, including chamber and orchestral works to electro-acoustic media, improvisation, and sound installation.
- Music by Black ComposersThis group is focused on showcasing music written by Black composers and to decenter the musical canon. Resources on this site include repertoire directories, links to sheet music, recordings, bibliographies, discography, as well as podcasts and radio programs.
- Music Theory Examples by WomenA database of excerpts and complete musical compositions by women composers. The music is categorized by theoretical concept for use in music education.
- Resources for Diversity in Early Music RepertoireThis list was initiated by a EMA member as a list of Black composers active before 1850. EMA and the IDEA Taskforce recognizes this is not an exhaustive list of BIPOC composers and invites others to use the form on this page to submit additional composers and resources for inclusion.
- A Seat at the Piano: Promoting Inclusion in Piano RepertoireA resource that identifies a range of composers and piano works, as well as links to recordings or scores, when available.
- Sphinx Catalog of Latin American Cello WorksThis catalog contains over 2000 entries containing information about works in which the cello has a prominent role as a solo instrument, soloist with orchestra, in duo with another instrument or electronic media, or in cello ensembles
- We Rise: A Movement Songbook"We Rise: A Movement Songbook draws on a rich history of social movement music, both old and new. From Spirituals to Labor songs, from Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement to the music rising up from our struggles today, this compilation of movement music is meant to give people ways to join. To remember. To affirm. To honor. To rage. To celebrate. To practice new ways of being in relationship with one another and the earth. To envision and create a world that is just and habitable for future generations."
Reference & Resources
This is a select list of reference sources and additional resources that identify compositions and repertoire of specific composers, cultural traditions, and genres. These items are available at Lilly Music Library or online through the catalog.
Afro-Cuban Music (2012) by
In spite of its relatively small size Cuba has had an inordinately large musical influence both inside the Caribbean and abroad. From the ⿿rhumba⿿ (son) craze of the 1920s and ⿿30s to mambo and cha-cha-cha in the 1950s and ⿿60s and the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon of the late ⿿90s, Cuba has been central to popular music developments throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and Europe.
Unfortunately, no one has ever attempted to survey the extensive literature on the island⿿s music, in particular the vernacular contributions of its Afro-Cuban population. This unprecedented bibliographic guide attempts to do just that. Ranging from the 19th century to early 2009 it offers almost 5000 entries on all of the island⿿s main genre families, e.g. Cancion Cubana, Danzon, Son, Rumba, and Sacred Musics (Santeria, Palo, Abakua, and Arara), as well as such recent developments as timba, rap and regueton. It also provides sections on Afro-Cuban musical instruments, the music⿿s influence abroad, and a biographical and critical component covering the lives and careers of more than 800 artists and ensembles. Spanish-language sources are covered comprehensively, in particular dozens of locally published journals such as Bohemia, Carteles, Revolucion y Cultura, Revista Salsa Cubana, andTropicana Internacional, all indexed here for the first time, as well as the sizable international literature in English, French, and other European languages.
The work concludes with an extensive reference section offering lists of Sources Consulted, a guide to relevant Libraries and Archives, an appendix listing artists and ensembles by idiom/occupation, and two detailed Author and Subject Indexes.
Call Number: Music Library Stacks ML3565 .G733 2012
Analytical essays on music by women composers: Concert music 1960-2000 (2016) by
Over the past 30 years, musicologists have produced a remarkable new body of research literature focusing on the lives and careers of women composers in their socio-historical contexts. But detailed analysis and discussion of the works created by these composers are still extremely rare. Thisis particularly true in the domain of music theory, where scholarly work continues to focus almost exclusively on male composers. Moreover, while the number of performances, broadcasts, and recordings of women's compositions has unquestionably grown, they remain significantly underrepresented incomparison to music by male composers. Addressing these deficits is not simply a matter of rectifying a scholarly gender imbalance: the lack of knowledge surrounding the music of women composers means that scholars, performers, and the general public remain unfamiliar with a large body of excitingrepertoire.Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960-2000 is the first to appear in an exciting a four volume series devoted to the work of women composers across Western art music history. Each chapter, many by leading music theorists, opens with a brief biographical sketch of thecomposer before presenting an in-depth critical-analytic exploration of a single representative composition, linking analytical observations with questions of meaning and sociohistorical context. Chapters are grouped thematically by analytical approach into three sections, each of which places theanalytical methods used in the essays that follow into the context of late twentieth-century ideas and trends. Featuring rich analyses and detailed study by the most reputed music theorists in the field, along with brief biographical sketches for each composer, this collection brings to the fore theessential repertoire of a range of important composers, many of whom otherwise stand outside the standard canon.
Call Number: Music Library Stacks MT90 .A556 2016
Bibliography of Black Music (1981) by
v. 1. Reference materials.--v. 2. Afro-American idioms.--v. 3. Geographical studies.--v. 4. Theory, education, and related studies.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.B45 D44
Brass Music of Black Composers (1996) by
Aaron Horne provides the most comprehensive guide to brass music written by black composers. He covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the book is biographical information; commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each piece; bibliographical sources; and an index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensemble. This is the fourth volume in Aaron Horne's monumental effort to provide the most comprehensive guide to music composed by black composers. In this volume he covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, including William Grant Still, Ulysses Kay, Anthony Davis, John Coltrane, and other major figures from the world of classical, jazz, and popular music. The main body of the book is divided into sections devoted to African, African American, Afro-European, and Afro-Latino composers. Within each section composers are arranged alphabetically; each entry provides biographical information as well as commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each composition. Backmatter includes a Brass Music Index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensembles; a title index; discography; and bibliography. As with the earlier volumes, this is an essential reference tool for anyone with an interest in researching and/or performing the music of black composers.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.W5 H62 1996
Creative improvised music: an international bibliography of the Jazz avant-garde, 1959 - Present (2019) by Call Number: Music Library Stacks ML128.J3 G72 2019- Expanding the American canon: A conductor's compendium of Black American orchestral composers (2015) by
From the colonial days in the early 1600s until the present, Black Americans have contributed to the musical life of America. Black Americans and composers of African descent have contributed to symphonic music since the early days of Western Art Music. However, Black Americans have not been adequately represented in symphonic concert programs past or present.
This document aims to address the issue of accessible published works by Black Americans by presenting a current resource of available and ready-to-be-performed symphonic orchestral music by Black American composers. This document will include: A brief historical overview of contributions of Black Americans to the musical life of this country, a brief period-based overview of Black American composers in the symphonic tradition, and a current, updated compendium of published orchestral and symphonic works by Black Americans. In compiling this compendium, several archival and ethnographic methods were engaged to access rare and hard-to-find works, frequently programmed popular works, and contemporary works by more recent Black American composers. The information is presented in an alphabetized, easy-to-access index. This document will be a helpful and highly useful guide to conductors of high school, collegiate, community, or professional orchestras. There are 379 works listed in this index.
Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Fourth Edition (2013) by
Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire continues to be the go-to source for piano performers, teachers, and students. Newly updated and expanded with over 250 new composers, this incomparable resource expertly guides readers to solo piano literature. What did a given composer write? What interesting work have I never heard of? How difficult is it? What are its special musical features? How can I reach the publisher? It's all here. Featuring information for more than 2,000 composers, the fourth edition includes enhanced indexes. The new "Hinson" will be an indispensable guide for many years to come.
An Index to African-American Spirituals for the Solo Voice (1999) by
Spirituals were an intrinsic part of the African-American plantation life and were sung at all important occasions and events. This volume is the first index of African-American spirituals to be published in more than half a century and will be an important research tool for scholars and students of African-American history and music. The first collection of slave songs appeared in 1843, without musical notation, in a series of three articles by a Methodist Church missionary identified simply as c. Collections that included musical notation began appearing in the 1850s. The earliest book-length collection of spirituals containing both lyrics and music was published in 1867 and entitled Slave Songs of the United States. Not since the 1930s, with the publication of the Index to Negro Spirituals by the Cleveland Public Library, has an index of spirituals been compiled. The spirituals are neatly organized in four indexes: a title index, first line index, alternate title index and a topical index that includes twenty major categories. A bibliography of indexed sources serves as a guide for further research.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.S4 A27 1999
Keyboard Music of Black Composers (1992) by
Following the pattern established with his pioneering works String Music of Black Composers and Woodwind Music of Black Composers, Aaron Horne now presents a comparable work for the piano and related instruments (such as accordion, harpsichord, and organ). Composers from Africa as well as the Diaspora are covered in this volume, the most comprehensive work on the topic yet published. Organized in alphabetical order by composer, each of the more than 200 entries provides information, where available, on the composer's life and career, and then details all works that include piano as well as information about commission, premiere, and composer bibliography and discography. The volume includes a keyboard music index as well as a general discography and a bibliography. This work should prove invaluable for scholars examining the impact of Black composers on music and dance, and it will be equally valuable to those devising repertoire for teaching and concert purposes.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.B45 H68 1992
Latin Music (2014) by
This definitive two-volume encyclopedia of Latin music spans 5 centuries and 25 countries, showcasing musicians from Celia Cruz to Plácido Domingo and describing dozens of rhythms and essential themes. * Covers nearly every conceivable aspect of Latin music across almost 1,000 pages of insightful, authoritative information * Makes clear to readers how diverse and varied "Latin music" is in its integration of influences as unexpected as the Arab world and Russia, and results from European and aboriginal cultures intermingling throughout history * Examines why the United States in general continues to be the epicenter of Latin music and how cities such as New York and Los Angeles influence modern Latin music
Call Number: Music Library Stacks ML101.L38 L37 2014 (2 volumes)- Spirituals: a multidisciplinary bibliography for research and performance by
Spirituals originated among enslaved Africans in America during the colonial era. They resonate throughout African American history from that time to the civil rights movement, from the cotton fields to the concert stage, and influenced everything from gospel music to blues and rap. They have offered solace in times of suffering, served as clandestine signals on the Underground Railroad, and been a source of celebration and religious inspiration. Spirituals are born from the womb of African American experience, yet they transcend national, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries as they connect music, theology, literature and poetry, history, society, and education. In doing so, they reach every aspect of human experience. To make sense of the immense impact spirituals have made on music, culture, and society, this bibliography cites writings from a multidisciplinary perspective. This annotated bibliography documents articles, books, and dissertations published since 1902. Of those, 150 are books; 80 are chapters within books; 615 are journal articles, and 150 are dissertations, along with a selection of highly significant items published before 1920. The most recent publications included date from early 2014. Disciplines researched include music, literature and poetry, American history, religion, and African American Studies. Items included in the annotated bibliography are limited to English-language sources that were published in the United States and focus on African American spirituals in the United States, but there are a few select citations that focus on spirituals outside of the United States. Of the one thousand annotations, they are divided, roughly evenly, between: general studies and geographical studies; information about early spirituals; use of spirituals in art music, church music, and popular music; composers who based music on spirituals; performers of spirituals (ensembles and individuals); Bible, theology, and religious education; literature and poetry; pedagogical considerations, including the teaching of spirituals as well as prominent educators; reference works and a list of resources that were unavailable for review but are potentially useful. This book also offers considerable depth on particular topics such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers and William Grant Still with over thirty citations devoted to each. At the same time, materials included are quite diverse, with topics such as spirituals in Zora Neale Hurston's novels; bible studies based on spirituals; enriching the teaching of geography through spirituals; Marian Anderson's historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial; spiritual roots of rap; teaching dialect to singers; expressing African American religion in spirituals; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's music; slave tradition of singing among the Gullah. The book contains indices by author, subject, and spiritual title. Additionally, an appendix of spirituals by biblical reference, listing both spiritual title to scriptural reference as well as scripture to spiritual title is included. T. L. Collins, Christian educator, compiled the appendix [Publisher description]
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.S4 A276 2015
String Music of Black Composers (1991) by
Following the pattern established with his pioneering work, Woodwind Music of Black Composers, Aaron Horne now presents a comparable work for the string music of Black composers. Composers from Africa as well as the Diaspora are covered in this, the most comprehensive work on the topic yet published. Organized in alphabetical order by composer, each entry provides information, where available, on the composer's life and career, and then details all works that include strings as well as information about commission, premiere, and composer bibliography and discography. The volume includes a string index, as well as a general discography and bibliography. This work should prove invaluable for scholars examining the impact of Black composers on classical music, opera, and ballet, and it will be equally valuable to those devising repertoire for teaching and concert purposes.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.B45 H7 1991
Woodwind Music of Black Composers (1990) by
The preponderance of early Black composers wrote choral music and even the most outstanding among them did not compose works for woodwinds. However, the later half of the twentieth century has witnessed a rise in compositions for woodwinds, both for solo and chamber ensembles by relatively unknown Black composers. This pioneering volume will become the standard source of information on nineteenth and twentieth century Black composers from three continents as well as their woodwind compositions. It contains the most current and complete biographical data on 90 African composers, Afro-American composers, Afro-Latin composers, and Afro-European composers, including their education and professional experience and information on their continuing musical influence. A distinctive feature is the separate, easy-to-use woodwind music index of both published and unpublished works for solo and chamber ensembles that groups the music by medium and numbers into 27 categories that contain some 430 works. Exact instrumentation, dedication or commission, premiere performance, and publisher are also found here. A list of abbreviations, key to publishers, collections, and manuscripts, and a discography of 38 recordings of woodwind works by 26 of the included composers complete the volume. This first bibliography of woodwind music by Black composers is an excellent reference work for Black composers, for the woodwind repertoire, and for American music in general. It will be highly useful in college-level courses such as Survey of Afro-American Music and Woodwind Literature as well as to woodwind players, ensemble directors, and scholars.
Call Number: Music Library Reference ML128.W5 H65 1990
Anthologies & Collections
This is a select list of score anthologies available at Lilly Music Library or online. Additional anthologies will be added soon.
Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers (1984) by
(Vocal Collection). Contents: For You There is No Song (Leslie Adams) * Early in the Mornin' (David Baker) * A Good Assassination Should Be Quiet (David Baker) * Status Symbol (David Baker) * Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man; Dream Variations; I, Too (Margaret Bonds) * The Barrier (Charles Brown) * Song Without Words (Charles Brown) * Death of an Old Seaman (Cecil Cohen) * Two Songs for Julie Ju (Noel da Costa) * Cassandra's Lullaby (Mark Fax) * Love (Mark Fax) * A Charm at Parting (Adolphus C. Hailstork) * I Loved You (Adulphus C. Hailstork) * Absalom (Eugene Hancock) * Nunc Dimittis (Eugene Hancock) * Riding to Town (Thomas Kerr, Jr.) * Compensation (Charles Lloyd, Jr.) * If There Be Sorrow (Wendell Logan) * Marrow of My Bone (Wendell Logan) * Chanson Triste (Maurice McCall) * Sweet Sorrow (Maurice McCall) * Weary Blues (Dorothy Rudd Moore) * Love Let the Wind Cry...How I Adore Thee (Undine Moore) * Faithful One (Robert Owens) * Genius Child (Robert Owens) * A Child's Grace (Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson) * Melancholy (Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson) * Night (Florence Price) * Song to the Dark Virgin (Florence Price) * Velvet Shoes (Hale Smith) * Grief (William Grant Still) * A Death Song (Howard Swanson) * I Will Lie Down in Autumn (Howard Swanson) * The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Hoaward Swanson) * Lament (George Walker) * A Red, Red Rose (George Walker) * Wry Fragments (Olly Wilson) * Dancing in the Sun (John Work, Jr.) * Soliloquy (John Work, Jr.).
Call Number: Music Library Stacks M1619 .A72- Hispanic Folk Music of New Mexico and the Southwest (1980) by Call Number: Music Library Stacks M1668.4 .H52
A New Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers (2004) by
A diverse repertoire of art songs for piano and voice The art song--a delicate and inspiring blend of music and poetry--has been performed by singers and pianists and appreciated by audiences around the world for more than two hundred years. While collections of art songs abound, this welcome volume and its accompanying compact discs make readily available the contributions of contemporary African American composers to the popular genre. Including thirty-nine pieces for voice and piano created since 1968 by eighteen artists, ANew Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers navigates a varied musical terrain from classical European traditions to jazz and spirituals. With nearly half of the featured songs composed by women and with others by lesser-known and emerging composers, this important collection offers a diverse, representative sampling of African American art songs and works to secure the places of these songs and artists in the canon of contemporary American music. Selected by Jeanine Wagner and Margaret R. Simmons, prolific and celebrated performers who have presented recitals throughout the world featuring the art songs of African American composers, this dazzling new repertoire of twentieth-century music is cogently framed by a thorough introduction and substantial biographies of each composer. The compact discs feature piano tracks of all thirty-nine compositions. The featured composers are H. Leslie Adams, Mable Bailey, Charles S. Brown, Wallace McClain Cheatham, Adolphus Hailstork, Jacqueline B. Hairston, William H. Henderson, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Betty Jackson King, William Foster McDaniel, Undine Smith Moore, Byron Motley, Barbara Sherrill, Robert Owens, Nadine Shanti, Frederick Tillis, Dolores White, and Julius P. Williams.
Call Number: Music Library Stacks M1619 .N48 2004
Piano music of Africa and the African diaspora (2007-08) by
v. 1. Early intermediate. Kwela no. 1 / Isak Roux ; Tender thought / Ulysses Kay ; My scarf is yellow / Hale Smith ; Dusk / Nkeiru Okoye ; Piano piece no. 2 : Call and response / Robert Mawuene Kwami ; Soufiane / Halim El-Dabh ; Off-beat shorty / Hale Smith ; Ticklin' toes / Florence B. Price ; Sweet Mister Jelly Roll / Valerie Capers ; Dancing barefoot in the rain / Nkeiru Okoye ; Lullaby / Isak Roux ; The monk / Valerie Capers ; Lullaby Bangambula Vindu ; Builsa work song / J.H. Kwabena Nketia ; Ufie III / Christian Onyeji.
v. 2. Intermediate. Lament in tremolo form / Laurindo Almeida ; Invention no. 2 / Ulysses Kay ; Honey / R. Nathaniel Dett ; Nigerian dance no. 1 / Joshua Uzoigwe ; Prelude no. 1 'Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho' / Wallace M. Cheatham ; Prelude no. 2 'Poor mourner's got a home' / Wallace M. Cheatham ; Oga / Christian Onyeji ; Preludio Cubano / Amadeo Roldán y Gardes ; Silk hat and walking cane / Florence B. Price ; At a certain church / John W. Work III ; Volta fantasy / J.H. Kwabena Nketia ; Igbá kerin -- Àwon abàmi eye / Akin Euba ; Igbá kerin -- Akèrègbè baba emu / Akin Euba ; Pomme cannelle / Alain Pierre Pradel ; Basseet / Halim El-Dabh ; Nim mawakht / Halim El-Dabh ; If the silver bird could speak / Eleanor Alberga.
v. 3. Early advanced. Take me back / John W. Work III ; Deep river / Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ; La dangereuse / Ludovic Lamothe ; Juba dance / R. Nathaniel Dett ; Jamaican dance no 2 / Oswald Russell ; Prelude no. 3 / Wallace M. Cheatham ; The cuckoo / Howard Swanson ; Scenes from Traditional life no. 1 / Akin Euba ; Scherzino / Andrés Wheatley ; Nimble feet / Florence B. Price ; Cell phone blues / Ed Bland ; Papillons / Oswald Russell ; Variations on an Egyptian folksong / Gamal Abdel-Rahim.
v. 4. Advanced. Prelude and caprice / George Walker ; Ukom : from Talking drums / Joshua Uzoigwe ; Flowers in the sand / Bongani Ndodana-Breen ; Coma dance / Halim El-Dabh ; Troubled water / Margaret Bonds ; Toccata / Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson ; The lotus : from Six dialects in African pianism / Gyimah Labi.
v. 5. Advanced. The bamboula : from 24 Negro melodies op. 59 no. 8 / Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ; Humoresque no. 1 / Oswald Russell ; Etude in C♯ minor : from 12 études for piano / H. Leslie Adams ; Afro Arab blues / Ali Osman ; Township guitar / Isak Roux ; Egwu Amala : from Talking drums / Joshua Uzoigwe ; Rhapsody no. 4 (Toccata) / Lettie Beckon Alston ; Tumbling dance / Martin Scherzinger.
Call Number: Music Library Stacks M21.P53 N9 2007 (4 volumes)
The Public Domain Song Anthology (2020) by
The Public Domain Song Anthology by David Berger and Chuck Israels is a collection of 348 popular songs with modern and traditional harmonization for both study and performance. This open educational resource was curated by two leading jazz repertory experts and consists of songs in the US public domain. This anthology is the first of its kind and is free for students and performers to use, adapt, remix, and share. The songs, many of which are at risk of being forgotten, are free of copyright restrictions and are available in multiple formats to promote greater usage and dissemination.
