Music Library

Identifying

The Socrates and SearchWorks catalogs provide 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. We encourage keyword searches and format limits. See the Socrates Search Examples for Recordings; and please contact us for help!

Discographies provide label names and issue numbers for recordings, 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 provide various search options as well as announcements of new offerings. Search screens 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. Socrates lists locations and availability on the “details” screen.

Streaming audio databases are available to all SUNET ID holders, and stream both on and off campus. Members of the larger research community 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 the My Account site. 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

There are numerous ways to search Socrates for sound recordings. Often it is best to use the Combined Search tab, and limit the format to Recordings. You may also limit to a particular library, such as Music.

• Try different combinations of title words and/or personal names: a few distinct words are better than a lot of generic words.
• Don't give up after the first try--searching is free, and you'll improve quickly with practice.
• Ask us for help--don't be shy!

Some examples:


Find the cast album recording of the musical "Rent"
"Author" really means "person" and includes performers and composers, such as Jonathan Larson.

Find Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 109:
Note that the generic title information follows the Uniform Title format. You may wish to compare this to the variety of title information in the final results.

List all of the Music Library's blues CDs, starting with the most recently produced:
Subject entries can include styles of music, or instrumental combinations.

Find DVDs of Puccini's La Boheme:
Video recording searches use the format Films/Visual.
Specifying "DVD" weeds out other formats, such as videocassettes.

Stanford subscribes to:

American Song
Classical Music Library
Contemporary World Music
Database of Recorded American Music
Jazz Music Library
Naxos Music Library Jazz
Naxos Music Library
Smithsonian Global Sound


Off-campus access instructions


American Song

Tracks: 58,000+
Scope: American music with historical emphasis, including politics, civil rights, prohibition, war. Includes content from African American Song.
Search by: album, genre, instrument, person, historical event.
Labels include: Rounder, McNeil, Native Ground, Smithsonian Folkways, Document.
Extras: playlists, updates via rss feed.

Classical Music Library

Tracks: 56,000+
Scope: Western classical music of all periods and repertoires. Territory restrictions block access to some recordings in the US.
Search by: title, genre, instrument, period, opus, key, composer, conductor, soloist, ensemble, label.
Labels include: Arabesque, Artemis Classics/Vanguard, ASV, Bridge, EMI Classics, Hänssler Classics, Hyperion, Lyrichord, Nimbus, and Vox (34 labels total).
Extras: weekly free download, themed play lists, biographies, still images, glossary.

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.
Search by: genre, instrument, place and date of recording, cultural group.
Labels include: Topic, Playasound, Budamusique, Air Mail Music, Manuiti, Crossing Records, Lyrichord World Music, Navras Records, and INEDIT.
Extras: personal and themed playlists.

Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM)

Tracks: 15,000+ compositions on 2000 CDs
Scope: American music including folk, opera, Native American, jazz, 19th century classical, early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic.
Search by: composer, artist, ensemble, work or album title, instrument, composition/ release date.
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.

Naxos Music Library JAZZ

Tracks: 22,600+
Scope: jazz, blues, R&B.
Search by: artist, disc or song title, catalogue number.
Labels include: Naxos Jazz, Prophone, Proprius, and the 22 labels in the Fantasy Jazz family.
Extras: personal play lists.

Naxos Music Library

Tracks: 545,000+
Scope: Western classical music of all periods and repertoires, jazz, world, folk, Chinese, New Age/“adult contemporary”.
Search by: disc or composition title, composer, arranger, lyricist, performer, ensemble, label, genre, instrument, period, country, year composed.
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.

Smithsonian Global Sound

Tracks: 35,000+
Scope: traditional, vernacular, folk, spoken word, sound environment, field recordings, children’s music.
Search by: country, culture group, genre, instrument, label/archive, language, year/decade.
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.

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 Socrates or 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 Socrates or SearchWorks, or browsed on the shelf, in the call number range ML156. Biographies of performers and composers also often include discographical information

Socrates/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 Library: 15,000 circulating CDs, primarily of Western classical music, and including increasing amounts of jazz, popular, and non-Western musics. All Music Library CDs may be searched in Socrates, which will provide 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: One of the 5 largest collections of its kind in the US, the ARS collection of 250,000 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 may be obtained under certain circumstances. While many recordings can be found in Socrates, the majority require discographic information to be identified. Archive staff are happy to assist.

Green Library Media & Microtext Center: 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 SAL3. These items can be found and paged in Socrates. Expect a 2-3 day delivery to either the Music Library or Green Media & Microtext Center, where turntables are available.

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 using these collections.

Audio freely available on the web:

Music, mostly

The Cylinder Digitization and Preservation Project (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Belfer Cylinders (Syracuse University)
The Virtual Gramophone (National Library of Canada)

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)