Library Subject Guides
As a Music student, you are expected to find and use high quality literature. You'll need to use a range of different sources and demonstrate your ability to find good results in order to impress your tutors and to develop your research skills.
Books can be a great place to start your reading around a topic.
Music books are located in the LM section in the John Paynter Music Library, located on the ground floor of the Harry Fairhurst Library. Many books will also be available online as e-books. Look for the links in YorSearch, under the View It section of each book.
| Shelf location | Subject |
|---|---|
| LM | Music |
| LM 1 | Theory and technique of music |
| LM 4 | Vocal music |
| LM 5 | Instrumental ensemble(s) and their music |
| LM 11- LM 99 | Scores |
All journal titles are listed on YorSearch, and can be found by searching the journal title.
If you don't have a specific title in mind, you can browse journals in your subject area on Browzine. Journals are organised by field of research, such as:
In addition to the scores listed below, you can also find scores freely available online. Read more guidance on finding and using scores.
The Music Microfiche collection is an amazing resource containing thousands of facsimile images of early music manuscripts. As the name suggests, the images are vastly reduced in size, meaning that you need to use a special machine to read them. The microfiche are housed in the main reading room of the Burton Library and you can search for their exact locations on YorSearch.
Once you have located the microfilm reel that you wish to view you need to take it into the Borthwick's microfilm room which can be accessed via their reception, across the landing from the Burton reading room. There are a number of microfiche readers available to use, including two that allow you to save relevant extracts that you find onto a memory stick.
To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use online databases. These are collections of resources that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time.
For alumni access please the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
Comprising of dictionaries, encyclopedias as well as a range of historical music sources the list of resources shown here allow immediate access to the full text online.
