Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory by 
The Berklee Contemporary Dictionary of Music by 
Historical Dictionary of Jazz by 
Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music by 
The Oxford Dictionary of Music by 
Encyclopedia of African American Music by 
Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music by 
Encyclopedia of Classic Rock by 
Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians by 
Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America by 
The Grove Dictionary of American Music by 
Latin Music by 
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz by 
St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture by Research and Information Guides: These are extensive annotated bibliographies about a composer, genre, topic, or geographic region. Typically, research and information guides also include works lists, discographies, videographies, biographies, chronologies, lists of known correspondence, etc. Some also include essays about trends in research on the topic.
To see what we have available, use a simple search on the Library's website on the following search string: music "research and information guide"
Bibliographies: Bibliographies are extensive lists of research writing about a topic. These are often, but not always, annotated with brief summaries of each entry. They are always curated by topical experts.
To see what we have available, explore the music subject in Oxford Bibliographies Online.
Bio-Bibliographies: Bio-bibliographies are single publications that include both biographical prose and annotated citations of articles, books, and related material about that person. These can be articles or full length books.
To see what we have available, use an advanced search on the Library's website to construct a search for any field contains music AND any field contains exact phrase bio-bibliography.
Complete Works, Sämtliche Werke, Œuvres complètes: a complete works is a collection of all known compositions by a given composer. These are often several volumes, published over an extended period of time. These are edited by acknowledge scholars who specialize in the time period or that composer and often include extensive essays into the sources, publication and performance history, and editorial decisions. In many instances, they are the only source for some works by various composers.
To discover what is available in the Library, you could search on any one of the terms above, or walk through the M2 and M3 sections of the Music Reference collection, located on the 6th floor of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library and marked by the orange shelf-labels.
