Music 110: Introduction to Art Music-International Perspectives  Tags: music  

Journal Articles

Key Journals

Journal Databases

Getting Full Text

Journal articles offer detailed looks at very specific topics. In order to find the article(s) that will be useful within the hundreds of journals available, journal databases allow you to search by keywords or other information. These databases index journals beyond those held at Illinois. While many articles are available online or available in print in our libraries, those that are not can be ordered through InterLibrary Loan (see "Getting full text" below.)

Musicology

Journal of the American Musicological Society
Music and Letters
Musical Quarterly

World Music

Ethnomusicology
British Journal of Ethnomusicology
Yearbook of Traditional Music
World of Music

Popular Music/Culture

Popular Music
Popular Music and Society
Journal of Popular Culture

Note: If you already know the title of the article(s) you need see the "Getting Full Text" box below.

Systematic access to the contents of music magazines and journals did not occur until the mid-20th century. The Music Index was the first large-scale attempt to provide this access, beginning in 1949. RILM Abstracts followed in 1967 and The International Index of Music Periodicals in 1996. These three different indexes each possess a different scope and chronological coverage, although there may be some overlap. While there are many other potentially helpful journal databases; these three are the best for music.

These databases can be accessed either from the links provided here, the Music and Performing Arts Library's website, or from the ORR (Online Research Resources) site. The ORR keeps track of all of our available online tools and journals. You can search by journal title in order to discover which journal database has online access to that title, or if you already know the database you need, search by its title.

IIMP Full Text

IIMP stands for International Index to Music Periodicals. It provides indexing and abstracts for more than 420 international music periodicals, plus full text for around 80 journals. Some complete journal runs are included, which cover the first published issue right up to the most current. The database covers a comprehensive range of subject areas in both scholarly and popular music journals ranging from Ethnomusicology, Jazz Education Journal, and Musical Times, to Rolling Stone. Articles examine a wide spectrum of musical subjects, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition. Because many journals includes reviews, unless you particularly need review material you should check the “Exclude reviews” box on the search page. Abstracts are often provided for articles.

Music Index

The print version of The Music Index began in 1949. The online version of the Music Index covers the mid-1970s-present. Over 700 international music periodicals are indexed. The index boasts a broad range of subjects, including past and present personalities, the history of music, forms and types of music, musical instruments from the earliest times to modern electronic instruments, plus computer produced music.

Note, because Music Index and RILM are both from the same vendor, you can search them at the same time (as well as with other databases from Ebsco).

RILM

RILM contains bibliographic information about books, periodical articles, dissertations and reviews published between 1967 and the present day. You can limit your search by language (for example, you might only want material in English, or in French); by year of publication; and by publication type, such as “monograph” (book), or “dissertation”. Abstracts are provided for most articles.

In addition to the three music-specific databases listed above, there are two full-text databases that have good music coverage.

JSTOR

JSTOR is an archive of articles on many topics in the arts and sciences, including music. It contains full text material from 38 music journals. It is important to remember that JSTOR is an archive of journals: it does not include the most recent issues of any journal, so if you want access to these you should consult the ORR to determine which source has the most recent issues. Choose the “Advanced search” option for something a little more helpful. However, please note that JSTOR only allows keyword searches: searching using a structured subject-heading vocabulary is not possible.

Project Muse

Similar to JSTOR, but contains full text of the most recent years of journals covered. Currently contains eleven music journals, including Music and Letters.

Finding citations is the (relatively) easy part, now for the fun of actually locating the items you want to read. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this. You may need to use some or all of the steps outlined below, depending on the item for which you are searching.

1. Online

If you located an item while you were searching in RILM or another journal database, you should look for a link or an icon that says "Full text" or "Discover UIUC full text linking." This will, in the first case, open the full text file, or, in the second case, open another window that will list online full text options for this title. A word to the wise, this "Discover" service is not 100% accurate. If you are searching for online options for a journal title, always check the library catalog or the ORR, which will list the online sources for that title. Some journals are indexed in many databases, but the dates covered and full-text availability may vary from database to database.

2. In print

If there is no online source for the full text of a journal, search the library's online catalog for the journal title to discover what print holdings are available at Illinois.

3. InterLibrary Loan (ILL)

If there are no online or print holdings at Illinois, place an IShare or ILL request for the article. Be sure you include complete information, especially page numbers.