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Digital resources

On this page we have compiled a selection of databases and other resources on the Internet related to music, musicology, education and social sciences. Most of these are full-text resources (articles, encyclopaedia entries, e-books). A streaming service is also available. Some of the resources are automatically searched by our Primo search engine. As some of these require a licence, you will need to log in to Primo from outside the University network in order to make full use of them. Please refer to the information given below.

Topic list

  • The gateway of the Fachinformationsdienst Musikwissenschaft. Search engine for music-related resources and gateway for networking in German musicology.

    The comprehensive English-language encyclopaedia of music. Find articles on people and specialist music topics, as well as places and their music history. Oxford Music Online combines the content of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and is continually updated with entries on contemporary music, jazz, pop and rock.

    • JSTOR
      Full texts + download: Outside the university with login via Primo, research via Primo possible.

    Extensive archive of digitised articles from back issues of journals. Here you will find the largest collection of full text from Musicology and Music Education journals. There is also a complementary range of titles from the arts, humanities and social sciences.

    Comprehensive archive of full-text back issues of electronic journals in the arts, music, humanities and social sciences.

    Here you can find articles from back issues of Cambridge University Press journals with free full-text access.

    The comprehensive and free-to-use bibliographic information site on academic music literature worldwide. The bibliographic information is enhanced with abstracts of the contents.

    Use this source guide to find autographs, copies and early prints of classical and early music, and the places where they are held. You can also look up musical works, their composers and arrangers, or work/catalogue numbers. It is highly recommended to use the Advanced search options where you can, for example, type in first notes of a music you looking for (music incipits). The site is available in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish.

    This database from Alexander Street Press is divided into four sections:

    1. Classical Scores Library: Selected printed music and music manuscripts from the 15th to 20th centuries.
    2. Classical Music Reference Library: Factual and personal articles on the history of Western music from the Middle Ages to the present from Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
    3. African American Reference Library: Materials on the history of African American music from its beginnings to the 1970s.
    4. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online: The Encyclopedia of Ethnomusicology. Detailed factual and personal articles, illustrations, drawings, music examples, music samples, tables and diagrams on traditional ethnomusicology worldwide.

    The collection shows so-called "music ephemera" from the concert life of the 18th to 20th centuries. This includes programme booklets, programme notes, tickets, contemporary reviews and similar documents. The local focus of this collection is on Berlin and Brandenburg.

    The Musiconn-Performance project aims to bring together the various digital collections of documents of musical performance events ("music ephemera" such as programmes, concert announcements, reviews, etc.). It offers a search engine for the documents of various origins.

    Since 2003, the online portal "Music Education and Gender Research", developed at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. Its core is a comprehensive encyclopaedia on women in music and gender aspects of music history

    Full-text access to the articles in the Journal of Education published by Sage.

    Full text access to the articles of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education published by Sage.

    The central portal for finding free academic e-books on the internet.

    The central portal for finding articles from electronic journals whose full texts are available free of charge on the Internet. You will also find a wide range of subject areas including music, arts, education and social sciences.

    Sheet music wiki. You can find and download sheet music that is in the public domain in Germany. Please note that IMSLP is hosted in Canada. It also offers sheet music that is not free to use in Germany or the EU (concerns mainly compositions from the 20th century). A copyright notice appears before each download. Please be aware that copyright infringement is a criminal offence in Germany.

  • The Nuremberg University of Music would like to contribute to ensuring that the artistic excellence of compositions by women from all eras is appropriately honoured and made visible. Works by female composers are to be established as a standard part of the teaching repertoire and included in concert and examination programmes.

    The following resources and directories can help you find suitable works for solo instruments and instrumental combinations, and provide information about women composers or the women's movement.

    General

    The Gerritsen Women's History Collection provides access to historical documents, such as newspaper articles, from the history of the women's movement since the early 19th century.

    The encyclopaedia of the "Music and Gender on the Internet" platform offers articles, multimedia presentations, collections of material and annotated links on female musicians throughout the centuries.

    Created and expandable database by Robert Deemer with works by composers from all over the world, filterable by gender and ethnicity of composers, but also by instrumentation, vocal part and other musical criteria.

    Swedish database with works by over 3000 female composers from all over the world.

    Swedish archive of contemporary music from the last 100 years, filterable by female composers.

    Ask Clara! Database still under construction, lists works by female composers from all over the world.

    Orchestral works

    Database of David Daniels' orchestral works. Can also be filtered by gender, nationality and ethnicity using the advanced search.

    The Sophie Drinker Institute for Women's and Gender Studies in Musicology has compiled a list of orchestral works by female composers, including information on instrumentation and where to obtain the sheet music. For orchestra, string orchestra and solo instrument or voice with orchestra.

    List of orchestral works by women composers, no contemporary music. There is a separate list of works by female composers of African descent and a list of "500 Operas by Women".

    Choral works

    Repertoire list for choral works by women composers from the Archiv Frau und Musik in Frankfurt.

    Virtual library of choral music. The database contains information on over 200,000 works, including around 8000 by over 2600 women composers. Registration with a user account is required for research.

    Based on the MediaWiki software, the Choralwiki also contains a list of female composers of choral works. The freely available works are mostly in PDF format.

    Wind instruments and wind ensembles

    Over 1,200 works for wind instruments and wind ensembles by over 400 female composers. Works by composers of colour and composers from the LGBTQIA+ community are also listed.

    Further solo instruments

    The Archiv Frau und Musik Frankfurt lists research tools for some solo instruments. Follow this link for a list of research tools for Guitar, Harp, Clarinet, Piano, Oboe, Strings and Trumpet.

    Vocal studies

    The Kassia database collects art songs composed by women, sorted by language and nationality of the composer and by musical criteria such as vocal range and level of difficulty.

    Electroacoustic music

    Directory of electroacoustic music by Folkmar Hein. Also searchable for music by women.

    Composers of Colour

    Music by black composers, including some women composers.

    List of works from genres such as gospel, folk, blues ... but also jazz and musical theatre.

  • International biographical database with entries and source references on people worldwide and from antiquity to the present day.

    Biographical database on deceased personalities from the German-speaking and cultural area who had a significant influence on political, economic, social, academic, technical or artistic developments through their achievements. In most cases you will find not only key biographical data on a person, but also specialist articles on their biography.

    • Naxos Music Library
      Search and access with your university account via Primo, or directly in the app with your library login.

    Great for comparing interpretations! Better sound and selection than YouTube! Over 177,500 CD recordings of classical, early and contemporary music from over 940 labels are currently available. The NML is constantly updated, so you can listen to brand new recordings. For mobile devices, the NML is also available as an app for iOS and Android in the app stores.


    Note: The app's battery optimisation should be turned off on the mobile device in order to use it. The app must be able to run in the background, otherwise playback will be constantly interrupted.

    Video streaming of selected current opera and operetta productions as well as video dossiers and interviews from the world of musical theatre.

    Collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century.

  • only available in the university network

    E-books from various subject areas. But there are hardly any books directly related to music.

    free to use

    DBIS lists databases of all academic subject areas. The accessibility of the databases is labelled according to a traffic light system.

    free to use

    Bibliographic search engine. Search simultaneously and in combination in library catalogues in Germany, Europe and overseas, book trade, second-hand bookshops or digital media.

    free to use

    Search all libraries participating in the BVB at the same time.

    free to use

    The Nuremberg Municipal Library also has a large music section.

    free to use

    The library of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum has a large collection of literature on musical instruments.