Music Library

~ Identifying ~

The SearchWorks catalog provides information on all circulating sound and video recordings in the Stanford Libraries, as well as an increasing number of archival holdings. Searching the catalog can be difficult at times in part because of the way sound recordings often compile musical works. Numerous composers, performers and pieces can be present on a single disc or tape. Librarians are happy to help you!

Discographies provide record label names and issue numbers, information essential to identifying recordings that may be in the Archive of Recorded Sound collections. By looking up label names and issue numbers, Archive staff can determine if a particular recording is present in the Archive. Online finding aids to selected collections are listed on the ARS page.

Streaming audio databases make available many thousands of recordings, including significant amounts of classical, jazz, and world music. Search options vary by provider; again, keyword searches are encouraged, as are alternate spellings of names and titles.

~ Finding ~

Sound and video recordings are housed in the Music Library, the Archive of Record Sound, Green Library, SAL3, the University Archives, and the Hoover Institution. Circulation and access policies vary. SearchWorks lists locations and availability.

Streaming audio databases are available to all SUNET ID holders, and stream both on and off campus. Most are mobile-friendly. Independent researchers may access these databases at stations in the Music Library.

~ Listening ~

Music Library CDs and DVDs circulate to all borrowers for 7 days, and may be renewed once via My Account. Green Library recordings, and LPs, audio cassettes and VHS tapes stored at SAL3 (off campus) also circulate. Contact the Music Library or Green Media & Microtext Center for details. Recordings in the Archive do not circulate.

The Music Library has playback equipment for CDs, DVDs, LaserDiscs, VHS tapes, LPs and audio cassettes. The Archive of Recorded Sound houses a state-of-the-art audio room for playback of multiple formats. The room can accommodate small groups; reservations are required.

~ An abundance of formats ~

CDs and DVDs are the current “hard copy” formats of choice for most commercial sound and video recordings, and most newly-purchased recordings are in these formats. However, please be aware that the Stanford Libraries own and provide access to research materials in virtually all formats that have ever been employed to record sound and moving images. These include: wax cylinders; shellac, acetate, aluminum and vinyl discs; piano rolls; magnetic wire and tape recordings; compact discs; and various moving image projected media.

The Stanford Media Preservation Lab works closely with the Music Library to prevent loss of audio recordings in fragile condition or obsolete formats through digital reformatting efforts.

~ Care and handling ~

Proper treatment of sound and video recordings can prevent loss of data and extend the shelf lives of disc and tape collections. Visit these sites for more information:

Conservation Online (CoOL) Audio Preservation
Library of Congress: Cylinder, disc and tape care in a nutshell
Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Preservation Directory

~ Music Library ~

Contains 20,000+ circulating CDs, primarily of Western classical music, and including increasing amounts of jazz, popular, and non-Western musics. All CDs can be searched in SearchWorks, which provides details on contents, performers, and recording issue. Ask for CDs by MCD call number at the Circulation Desk. CDs circulate to all borrowers for 7 days.

~ Archive of Recorded Sound ~

The ARS collection of over 300,000 items spans sound recording history from its beginnings to the present day. Almost all formats developed to record sound are represented including wax cylinders; shellac, acetate, aluminum and vinyl discs; magnetic wire and tape recordings; and compact discs. Because recordings are handled only by Archive staff, listening appointments are required. The audio playback room can accommodate small classes or seminars. Research copies of audio files may be obtained under certain circumstances. While many recordings can be found in SearchWorks, the majority require discographic information to be identified. Archive staff are happy to assist.

~ The William H. 'Cigar Bill' Nieman Sr. Collection of Historical Recordings ~

The collection includes over 1500 pre-1920 cylinder recordings, cylinder players and supporting peripheral equipment and materials. The recordings include classical, popular, folk, spiritual and march music, Vaudeville routines and speeches.


~ Green Library Media & Microtext Center ~

Green M&M has approximately 2000 CDs covering a wide variety of genres.

~ SAL3 ~

Upwards of 15,000 sound recordings in older formats, primarily LP (vinyl) discs are stored in climate-friendly conditions in Stanford Auxiliary Library 3. These items can be found and paged in SearchWorks. Expect a 2-3 day delivery time to either the Music Library or Green Media & Microtext Center.

~ Hoover Institution Library and Archives ~

Provides access to and preservation of radio and broadcast tapes from the 1920s through the 1950s as well as other spoken word recordings, including speeches presented to the Commonwealth Club of California and William F. Buckley's Firing Line television program. Contact the Hoover Library for details on accessing these collections.

~ Video in the Music Library ~

The video collection contains opera and other performances, biographical works on composers, programs on musical instruments and the music of a specific time or place. It is enhanced by the much larger collection in Green Library's Media-Microtext Center.

Stanford subscribes to:

audio:

American Song
Classical Music Library
Contemporary World Music
DRAM
Jazz Music Library
Naxos Music Library Jazz
Naxos Music Library
Smithsonian Global Sound

video:

Medici.tv NEW!

Naxos Video Library
Dance in Video

cross-search:

Music Online: Listening

Search all Alexander Street Press databases (American Song, Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, Jazz Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound); includes some unique popular music tracks, both classic and obscure.

Off-campus access instructions ~~ Off-campus iPhone instructions ~~ Mobile access



American Song

Tracks: 69,000+
Scope: American music with historical emphasis, including politics, civil rights, prohibition, war. Includes content from African American Song.
Labels include: Rounder, McNeil, Native Ground, Smithsonian Folkways, Stax.
Extras: create playlists; get updates via rss feed.
Send to mobile via text, email, short link, or QR code.

Classical Music Library

Tracks: 65,000+
Scope: Western classical music of all periods and repertoires.
Labels include: Arabesque, Artemis Classics/Vanguard, ASV, Bridge, EMI Classics, Hänssler Classics, Hyperion, Lyrichord, Nimbus, and Vox (34 labels total).
Extras: bi-monthly free download, themed play lists, biographies, still images, glossary, blog. Downloads available for purchase.
Send to mobile via text, email, short link, or QR code.

Contemporary World Music

Tracks: 25,000+
Scope: a blend of contemporary and traditional world music recordings. Focus on contemporary genres such as fusion and world beat.
Labels include: Topic, Playasound, Budamusique, Air Mail Music, Manuiti, Crossing Records, Lyrichord World Music, Navras Records, and INEDIT.
Extras: personal and themed playlists.
Send to mobile via text, email, short link, or QR code.

 
DRAM

Tracks: 15,000+
Scope: Primarily American music including folk, opera, Native American, jazz, 19th century classical, early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic.
Labels include: New World, CRI, Albany, innova, Cedille, Pogus, Deep listening, Mutable Music, Cold Blue, Artifact and Frog Peak Music.
Extras: complete liner notes.

Jazz Music Library

Tracks: 60,000+
Scope: Jazz, blues.
Search by: performer, composer, title, genre, instrument, ensemble, recording date and place, label.
Labels include: Audiophile, Concord Jazz, Jazzology, Prestige, and more.
Extras: personal play lists, complete liner notes.
Send to mobile via text, email, short link, or QR code.

Naxos Music Library Jazz

Tracks: 22,600+
Scope: jazz, blues, R&B.
Labels include: Naxos Jazz, Prophone, Proprius, and the 22 labels in the Fantasy Jazz family.
Extras: personal play lists.
Downloads available for purchase.
iPhone app available.

Naxos Music Library

Tracks: 658,000+
Scope: Western classical music of all periods and repertoires, jazz, world, folk, Chinese, New Age/“adult contemporary”.
Labels include: Naxos, Analekta, BIS, Chandos, Gimell, Hungariton, Marco Polo, Opera Rara, Signum Classics, Wergo.
Extras: “moods and scenarios” search, opera libretti and synopses, glossary, musical terms dictionary, pronunciation guide, audiobook transcriptions, podcasts, blog, newsletter.
Downloads available for purchase.
iPhone app available.

Creating a student playlist account in Naxos (YouTube)
Building playlists in Naxos (YouTube)

Smithsonian Global Sound

Tracks: 41,000+
Scope: traditional, vernacular, folk, spoken word, sound environment, field recordings, children’s music.
Labels/archives include: Smithsonian Folkways, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon, the International Library of African Music, and the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology.
Extras: radio shuffle streams, video clips, podcasts, artist biographies, play lists, lesson plans.
Downloads available for purchase.
Send to mobile
via text, email, short link, or QR code.

Medici.tv

High-definition webcasts from many other leading festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Saint-Denis, Aspen, Glyndebourne, and Lucerne, as well as from such music venues as the Opéra National de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Cité de la Musique, and Salle Pleyel in Paris, and Milan's famed La Scala. Many operas and concerts performed by the world's top-flight artists and orchestras have been webcast both as live events and later as video-on-demand.

Naxos Video Library

Works:  540+ full-length videos
Scope: Operas, ballets, concerts, documentaries
Labels include: Arthaus, EuroArts, Haenssler Classics, Innova, Opus Arte
Extras: playlists; track markers

Dance in Video

Works: 286 videos
Scope: classical and contemporary dance; coaching sessions; interviews
Extras: playlists; track markers

Discographies, or systematic lists of recordings, are a primary means of discovery for commercial sound recordings. Most discographies in the collection are housed together in the Archive. They are essential for identifying recordings that may be in the Archive's collections, which are organized by label name and issue number. Using this information, Archive staff can determine if a particular recording is present in the Archive. Cataloging projects in the Archive are underway; however, a large number of sound recordings are not yet represented in the catalog. Nonetheless, searching in SearchWorks is a good place to begin your research.

Discographies can be divided into three main types: performer (lists of all recordings by a particular person or group); intellectual (such as recordings of a certain composer's works, or lists by subject matter, i.e., folk songs, World War II songs); and record label (recordings issued by a specific record label, often listed chronologically or by issue number).

Discographies in the Archive reference collection may be searched in SearchWorks, or browsed on the shelf, in the call number range ML156. Biographies of performers and composers also often include discographical information

SearchWorks subject search term:

DISCOGRAPHY

Include a topical term or a composer/performer name to narrow your search:

FOLK MUSIC DISCOGRAPHY
COLTRANE DISCOGRAPHY

View a Bibliography of discographies here.

~ Music, mostly ~

The National Jukebox (Library of Congress)
The Cylinder Digitization and Preservation Project (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Belfer Cylinders (Syracuse University)
The Virtual Gramophone (National Library of Canada)
Stradivari Quartet/Iowa String Quartet (University of Iowa)

~ Downloads for sampling, mashing, podcasting ~

Free Music Archive
CC mixter
Opsound
Jamendo
Free Sound Effects

~ Spoken words ~

American Leaders Speak (recordings from World War 1 and the 1920 election at the Library of Congress)
U.S. History Out Loud
Supreme Court of the United States Audio Archives
The Poetry Archive
Internet Poetry Archive (University of North Carolina)

~ Radio stations ~

Pandora
Jango
National Public Radio
BBC International Radio
Radio One Llama

~ Miscellany ~

Historic Naval Sound & Video
Bug Bytes (digitized insect sounds)