Full-Text Music Databases

Full-Text Music Databases

Full-text databases are compilations of documents or other information in which the complete text of each referenced document is available for online viewing, printing, and/or downloading.

  • Allmusic
    Contains basic data (names, genres, credits, copyright information, product numbers), descriptive content (styles, tones, moods, themes, nationalities), relational content (similar artists and albums, influences) and editorial content (biographies, reviews, rankings).
  • Aria Database
    The Aria Database is a collection of information about opera and operatic arias. Besides providing basic information about each aria, the Database includes translations for many arias and aria texts for those that are not affected by copyright restrictions. The Database also provides access to a collection of operatic sound files to give visitors an idea of what each aria sounds like. In addition, the Aria Database contains information on available scores and sound files that can be purchased to aid in study and enjoyment. Currently, the Database holds information on the complete operatic aria collections of Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Wagner, and Puccini as well as the partial collections of over 50 other composers.
  • BestEverAlbums.com
    BestEverAlbums.com calculates a ranking from over 50,000 greatest album charts to allow visitors to look up the greatest music albums in history. You can also view the best albums of 2021 or the best albums of the 2010s (or any year or decade since 1940).
  • Billboard Magazine: 1894 to Today
    Billboard is an American music magazine first published in November of 1894 and is distinguished as being among the oldest trade magazines in the world.
  • Choral Public Domain Library
    CPDL was founded in December 1998, ported to ChoralWiki in August 2005, and incorporated in May 2010 as a U.S.A. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. Here you will find free choral/vocal scores, texts, translations, and other useful information.
  • The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
    The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia ONLINE features updated biographies and discographies for 2,978 unique artist profiles. Check to see if your favourite artist is listed and drop them a line if they’re not. They’re updating monthly so check back often and share the website with friends and fellow musicians.
  • Early Music Sources
    The aim of Early Music Sources is to simplify the access to the vast amount of online early music sources. The sources database as well as the iconography database enable quick search and gateway to sources according to various categories. In addition to the databases, Early Music Sources also features a youtube series dealing with various topics relating to early music and Early Music Sources PIE (=please in English), that supports the translations and online free publication of sources that were never translated or published in our times.
  • Eastman School of Music - Sibley Music Library - Musical Scores
    Scores and books in the public domain. Many of these are unique to the Sibley Music Library collection.
  • International Music Score Library Project (Petrucci Music Library)
    Sharing the world’s public domain music.
  • The LiederNet Archive
    The LiederNet Archive is the world’s largest reference archive of texts and translations of art Songs and choral works, and has been online since May 24, 1995. 173,336 vocal pieces have been catalogued. 38,006 translations are available. The collection has frequent additions and updates.
  • Musopen
    A 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on increasing access to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.
  • Mutopia Project
    2124 pieces of music – free to download, modify, print, copy, distribute, perform, and record – all in the Public Domain or under Creative Commons licenses, in PDF, MIDI, and editable LilyPond file formats.
  • National Pipe Organ Register
    The National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR) is a free service provided by the British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) for everyone interested in the organ and its history. The NPOR contains details of well over 35,000 organs, including 10,000 pictures and 260 sound recordings. The archive section of this site contains an index to the material in the British Organ Archive and a Directory of British Organ Builders (up to 1950).
  • Pronouncing Dictionary of Music and Musicians
    Pronouncing the titles of classical music and the names of composers and performers is a daunting task for many Americans because so many of the words are foreign to us. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that some of the names that look familiar are not pronounced as we would pronounce them. This dictionary provides some help in the form of pronunciations by a phonetic system devised by E. Douglas Brown of the staff of WOI Radio at Iowa State University. Many of the pronunciations in the dictionary were derived from tape-recorded pronunciations made by foreign nationals who were were speaking their respective native languages.
  • RISM: International Inventory of Musical Sources
    RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales) contains bibliographic records of music manuscripts written after 1600. The records include information in standard bibliographic categories as well as graphical images of over 638,000 music incipits. These primary sources are manuscripts or printed music, writings on music theory, and libretti. They are housed in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections.
  • saggi musicali italiani
    Saggi musicali italiani (SMI) is an evolving archive of texts of Italian music theory and aesthetics. Following the model of the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML), SMI makes its texts available in electronic form, allowing them to be browsed, and searched. Saggi musicali italiani focuses first and foremost on major treatises but also includes articles from journals and reviews when a distinct portion discusses a significant theoretical or aesthetic issue of general interest. SMI will eventually contain all printed materials from the Renaissance to the present.
  • Texts on Music in English from the Medieval and Early Modern Eras (TME)
    Texts on Music in English from the Medieval and Early Modern Eras (TME) is an evolving archive of texts, initiated and directed by Peter M. Lefferts. It is designed to extend the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML) and to continue the endeavor of capturing Western European texts on music theory and aesthetics in electronic form. The TME focuses on the major treatises written in English, but also incorporates other texts involving music, allowing them to be browsed and searched. TME will eventually comprise all relevant manuscript and printed materials from the Middle Ages to the 17th century.
  • Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum
    The Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML) aims to give free access to and make searchable every known Latin text on music from the late antiquity to the seventeenth century, in multiple editions and in transcriptions from original sources. Primarily an aid to musicological research, this resource aims also to assist anyone interested in documenting the broader intersections of music with the humanities and the sciences within the Western tradition.
  • Thesaurus Precum Latinarum
    A collection of Latin prayers and hymns with English translations and commentaries by Michael Martin.
  • Last updated: 6/12/2023

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