Music (classical & jazz) & Music Technology: Books about Music

This guide brings together key Library resources to help you find information relating to classical and jazz and music; including music technology.

Students being taught at a paino

Image Credit: BCU Assets

Books about music are an excellent way to broaden your knowledge or start researching a subject. As well as searching for books and e-books directly in the Library Search, there are multiple ways to discover relevant books:

If we don't have something you're looking for you can also suggest new books or use our inter library loans service.

Grove's Dictionary of Music

Resource Lists

Resource Lists provides access to reading lists for your modules.  You can search for lists using the module code, name, or your lecturer's name.

Individual items on the lists will take you directly to Library Search or to the full text for e-books and e-journals.

If you can't find your reading list, talk to your module leader or contact us at Library Chat.

 

Accessing Resource Lists (video)

 

Resource Lists

Browse for books about music

You can find books filed by these numbers on the shelves Curzon Library.

Check BCU Library Search for specific titles and availability.

Musical Forms and Musical Groupings

Musical Forms

  • Concerto        784.23
  • Opera            782.1
  • Sonata           784.183
  • Song Cycle     782.47
  • Symphony     784.184

Musical Groupings

  • Orchestra               784.2
  • String Quartet         785.71

Musical Instruments

Brass Instruments

  • Horn  788.94
  • Trumpet   788.92
  • Trombone  788.93
  • Tuba  788.98

Keyboard instruments 

  • Keyboard  786.1
  • Piano  786.2
  • Harpsichord  786.3
  • Organ  786.5

Woodwind instruments 

  • Bassoon            788.58
  • Clarinet              788.62
  • Flute                   788.32
  • Oboe                  788.52
  • Recorder             788.36
  • Saxophone         788.7

String instruments 

  • Violin                    787.2
  • Viola                     787.3
  • Cello                     787.4
  • Double Bass         787.5
  • Harp                      787.9
  • Guitar                    787.87

Percussion Instruments

  • Percussion             786.81

Music History by Country and Music History by Period

Music History by Country

  • British Music       780.941
  • French Music     780.944
  • German Music    780.943
  • Italian Music       780.945
  • Russian Music   780.947

Music History by Period

  • Medieval                  780.9031
  • Renaissance           780.9031
  • Baroque                  780.9032
  • Classical                 780.9033
  • Romantic                 780.9034
  • 20th Century            780.94

Theory and Practice of Music

Practice of Music

  • Aural Skills                         781.42
  • Composition                      781.3
  • Harmony                           781.25
  • Performance Practice       781.43
  • Orchestration                    781.374
  • Ornamentation                  781.247
  • Pitch                                  781.232
  • Psychology of Music         781.11
  • Tempo                                781.22

Theory of Music

  • Ethnomusicology                780.89
  • Music Education                 780.71
  • Music Research                  780.72
  • Music Theory                      780.1
  • Notation                              780.148

Jazz and Vocal

Vocal

  • Singing / Voice 783.3

Jazz

  • Jazz  781.65
  • Jazz Performers  781.65092

e-book collections for book about music

Cambridge Companions to Music

Cambridge Companions to Music provide clear and accessible information on composers, instruments or musical topics, written with the student, the performer and the music lover in mind. Each volume provides a carefully structured series of specially-commissioned essays by leading authorities offering comprehensive coverage and indispensable reference material as well as absorbing reading matter.

Cambridge Companions to Music

Grove Music Online

Online version of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.

Oxford Music Online

ARTFL-FRANTEXT

ARTFL-FRANTEXT is the main ARTFL Database, comprising more than 3,600 French-language texts, 215 million words and 675,000 unique word forms. The corpus contains texts ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing.

ARTFL Project

What do I do if the Library does not have the book I need?

Interlibrary Loans

Request material from other libraries including print books for loan or digital copies of book chapters and journal articles.

Inter Library Loans

Suggest a Resource

Submit suggestions for new resources including books, CDs, DVDs or music scores for addition to our collections.

Stock Suggestion