Search Tools

The Digital Concert Hall provides access to the Berliner Philharmoniker's live performances and rebroadcasts as well as music-related documentaries and interviews. The site contains an archive of past performances.

Recordings in the archive date back to 1952, and PDFs are available for many concerts. Coverage depends on the availability of recordings. To stream, log in with an Obie ID or be signed on to the campus network.

Connect to digitized versions of rare books and scores from the Oberlin Conservatory Library's Special Collections. Includes selections from the Violin Society of America/H.K. Goodkind Collection and the Frederick R. Selch Collection of American Music History relating to organology and music theory, philosophy and iconography of music, and historical treatises pertaining to specific instrument types. Items range in date from 1529 to the twentieth century, and are in multiple languages.

The Databases A-Z list provides a complete alphabetical list of searchable databases accessible to you through the Oberlin College Libraries. The databases range from those that cover multiple subject areas, e.g. JSTOR or Web of Science, to more narrow research topics, e.g. SOCIndex.

They contain both citations and full text for ebooks, peer reviewed journals, newspapers, magazines, data sets, images, music, primary documents, and more. You will want to use them for finding credible and scholarly materials required for your college research.

If you are unsure which databases are best for your research topic try using the subject and type filters, consult a subject or course guide, Ask a Librarian, or make a research appointment.

This collection is focused on independent label American recordings (including New World Records, Composers Recordings, and other music labels), with liner notes, essays, bibliographies, and Discographies.

A series of digital collections focused on 20th and 21st century music genres such as Rock, Folk, Hip-Hop, and Rap. This collection contains 1,461 issues comprising 100,696 pages and 91,441 articles. Note: Oberlin only has access to Music Magazine Archive through this platform, not the full Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive.

Grove Music Online is part of a larger platform that is called Oxford Music Online, a gateway offering users the ability to search multiple Grove and Oxford music reference sources on one platform. Some titles are complete, others are in process (the Grove dictionary of American Music and Grove dictionary of musical instruments), while two are forthcoming (Grove music guide to American film music and the Grove music in global perspective series).

The Henle Library app provides access to the G. Henle urtext catalogue of scores, as well as features like PDF versions of scores and parts, in app editing capabilities, performance mode, and other features to enhance your practice and performance.

IPA source contains International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. The goal of IPA source is to promote the comprehension and accurate pronunciation of foreign language texts in art, song, and opera in order that the singer may imbue each syllable with the appropriate emotional content. Translations into English from multiple languages.

The Journal Finder lists in one place every print and electronic journal, magazine, and newspaper available through both paid subscriptions and reputable open access platforms. Use the Journal Finder to see if Oberlin subscribes to these publications, to see if they're available online, or to compare coverage dates across databases or subscription services.

The Journal Finder will not allow you to search by article title to determine if Oberlin owns an item - you must search by publication title (e.g. Nature or The New York Times) and then navigate through the volume and issue and year provided by the citation. If you want to search by article title, search for the article from Summon.

Medici.tv. is a media collection of classical music, operas, and ballets streams. The collection includes live broadcasts, archived performances of concerts, operas, ballets, artist profiles, documentaries, and educational programs.

Met opera on demand provides access to full length Met performances. It features live HD productions, classic telecasts from the 1970s, '80s, '90s, and '00s, and radio broadcasts dating back to 1936.

The Music Index Online indexes articles, book reviews, obituaries, and news about music, musicians, and the music industry from approximately 875 music periodicals and over 40 countries.

Contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for every aspect of the classical and popular world of music including musicological and organological topics, as well as book reviews, record reviews, first performances, and obituaries from music periodicals representing many countries.

It corresponds to the print version begun in 1949; the online backfile begins in 1973, however, with some data from 1962–1972.

A reliable and authoritative destination for in-copyright classical digital scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of diverse and lesser-known contemporary works. This collection has an emphasis on contemporary composers and works from the 20th and 21st centuries, work by composers from around the world including Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, and a selection of scores from medieval, baroque, classical, and romantic time periods.

Musical America is divided into three sections, Industry News, Directory Articles, and Listings, and includes both subscriber-based and free areas.

The Industry News portion of the site, which is subscriber-access only, consists of breaking news stories, posted daily, Monday through Friday. Information about professional performers, ensembles, festivals, and competitions is included.

One of the most comprehensive collections of jazz music available online. It offers close to 20,000 tracks of jazz from over 1,900 albums. Over 500 jazz artists are represented. Search by album or song title, featured artist(s), or catalog number. Includes album covers and liner notes.

Naxos music library provides streaming audio access to CD-length recordings. It features music genres such as Classical, Jazz, World, Classic Rock, and Nostalgia music.

The database includes program notes, cover artwork, track list, instrumentation and publisher information, libretti and synopses of operas, as well as biographical information on composers or artists.

Naxos Video is an extensive video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts, and documentaries streams. Libretto/text included when available. Search videos by category, role, composer, artist, production personnel, work, venue, or festival.

OBIS provides access to print and digital books, databases, audiovisual materials, journals, and course reserves. It is the best place to look up books, recordings, journals, and films by title to determine if you can access an item through Oberlin. To see if Oberlin has access to an individual article, use the journal list. OBIS makes it easier to search by subject heading than Summon does, but it does not index the full-text of any books.

In addition to books available at Oberlin through OBIS, patrons also have access to collections from a number of public, university, and college libraries in the state of Ohio through Oberlin College’s partnership with the OhioLink consortium and SearchOhio.

An international bibliography of scholarly writing published from the early 1800s to the present on music and related disciplines.

Indexes scholarly articles, reviews, conference papers, essays, book chapters, dissertations, Festschriften, and more, with abstracts in English.

RIPM (Retrospective index to music periodicals) provides annotated indexes to the content of complete runs of music journals with a focus on the period from 1800 to 1950.

Especially useful for research in musical thought and culture. The indexes contain links to the online archive, where users can view annotated calendars and browse journals.

RIPM Jazz Periodicals is a collection of 105 American full-text jazz journals and magazines.

Developed in collaboration with the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University and partner libraries, RIPM Jazz Periodicals is an essential documentary resource that chronicles American jazz culture as seen through the eyes of its contemporaries. (Dates of coverage: 1914–2000)