5 Sources for Research in Music

Successful research assignments in music use a carefully considered selection of resources including scores, audio and video recordings, journal articles, books and collected works. These sources can be divided broadly into two categories:

• primary sources
• secondary sources.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are the material under consideration and can include:

• musical scores
• collected editions of music
• original copies of literary texts
• newspaper articles and reviews
• manuscripts or personal papers, e.g. autograph copies of music, sketches and drafts, letters written by a composer, historical documents, etc.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are those that either discuss or analyse primary sources or present critical discussions of broader topics in music and can include:

• books (monographs)
• book chapters
• journal articles
• entires in reference works (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.)
• theses (dissertations).

Where to Start?

Before you start searching think about the types of primary and secondary sources you will need for your assignment. This will help determine where you will search.