Music 345B: American Music

Always check with your instructor to be sure you are using the correct citation style.

Most music research uses either MLA style or Notes-Bibliography Chicago style. Some instructors prefer Turabian style, which is a simplified version of Chicago style. Here are links to the official guides for these styles.

• MLA Handbook Plus Online
• Chicago Manual of Style Online
• Turabian Manual for Writers Online

In addition to consulting the official style guides linked above, you might also find the guides at Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) helpful:

• Purdue OWL MLA
• Purdue OWL Chicago

Some music-specific citation scenarios are demonstrated below.

Streaming Audio Recording Emphasizing the Composer

You might choose this format if your discussion of the piece is more about the composer or the structure of the work, and less about this particular performance of it.

Details to include: composer, title of work, performers, record label, release date, streaming platform, stable url

Streaming Audio Recording Emphasizing the Performer

You might choose this format if your discussion highlights aspects of this particular performance.

Details to include: performer, title of work, composer, record label, release date, streaming platform, stable url

Performance in a YouTube Video

It is not unusual for songwriters to be left out of citations of popular music.  The purpose of the citation in the examples below is not to credit Dolly Parton (who originally wrote and recorded the song), but to point people to the exact YouTube video you are referencing. If you want to recognize Dolly Parton's contribution, you can either insert her name after the title of the song (as in the Mozart examples above) or credit her in your text, like this:

In her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston performs the first verse as an unaccompanied introduction to the chorus.

Details to include: performer (including instrument), title of video, uploader/channel name, date of upload, stable url

Live Performance

Details to include: performer, performance name, other contributors, performance date, venue, location

Score

Most scores can be cited like books.

Details to include: composer, title of work, publisher, date

Score in an Anthology

Cited scores in anthologies as you would a chapter from a larger book.

Details to include: composer, title of piece, title of anthology, editor, publisher, date, page numbers

Score Accessed in an Online Score Library

Cite online scores much like regular scores, but add the online information at the end.

Details to include: composer, title, publisher, date, online platform, stable url

Individual Movement of a Longer Work (this one was accessed online)

Cite individual movements much as you would a score in an anthology, but leaving out the editor, since it is not actually an anthology.

Details to include: composer, title of movement, title of work, publisher, date, page numbers, online platform and url (if applicable)

Streaming Audio Recording Emphasizing the Composer

You might choose this format if your discussion of the piece is more about the composer or the structure of the work, and less about this particular performance of it.

Details to include: composer name, title of work, performer (including instrument), date of recording, record label, date of recording release, recording format (CD, LP, BluRay, etc.)

In the examples below, "n.d." indicates that the date the recording is made is unknown. 2014 is the recording release date. Information about the streaming service -- the platform and the stable URL -- takes the place of the recording format.

Note:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, Ray Chen (violin) and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, n.d., Sony Classical, 2014, streamed on Naxos Music Library, stolaf.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=68243%2FStOlafNML20%2F3376673.

Bibliography (in Chicago Style, recordings are placed in a separate discography or in an appropriately labeled subsection of the bibliography):

Streaming Audio Recording Emphasizing the Performer

You might choose this format if your discussion highlights aspects of this particular performance.

Details to include: performer (including instrument), title of work, composer, date of recording, record label, date of recording release, recording format (CD, LP, BluRay, etc.)

In the examples below, "n.d." indicates that the date the recording is made is unknown. 2014 is the recording release date. Information about the streaming service -- the platform and the stable URL -- takes the place of the recording format.

Note:

1. Ray Chen, violinist, Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, n.d., with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, Sony Classical, 2014, streamed on Naxos Music Library, stolaf.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=68243%2FStOlafNML20%2F3376673.

Bibliography (in Chicago Style, recordings are placed in a separate discography or in an appropriately labeled subsection of the bibliography):

Performance in a YouTube Video

It is not unusual for songwriters to be left out of citations of popular music.  The purpose of the citation in the examples below is not to credit Dolly Parton (who originally wrote and recorded the song), but to point people to the exact YouTube video you are referencing. If you want to recognize Dolly Parton's contribution, you can either insert her name after the title of the song (as in the Mozart examples above) or credit her in your text, like this:

In her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston performs the first verse as an unaccompanied introduction to the chorus.¹

Details to include: performer (including instrument), title of video, uploader/channel name, date of upload, stable url

Note:

Whitney Houston, vocalist, "Whitney Houston -- I Will Always Love You (Official 4K Video)," Whitney Houston, uploaded Sept. 27, 2010, https://youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU.

Bibliography:

Live Performance

Live performances are generally not included in bibliographies in Chicago style, on the grounds that readers cannot find and consult a live performance unless they have a time machine. Either put all of the relevant performance information into the text or use a note to provide the extra performance details. In the example below, a note is necessary to supply information such as the concert venue.

In the preview concert for their 2024 South African Tour, the St. Olaf Choir performed several works by African American composers.¹

Details to include: performer, title of performance, additional performers or contributors, venue, location, date or performance.

Note:

1. St. Olaf Choir, South Africa Tour, conducted by Anton Armstrong, Boe Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, May 10, 2024.

Score

Published music scores are cited similarly to books.

Details to include: composer, title of work, additional contributors (editors, etc.), city of publication, publisher, date of publication.

Note:

1. Alan Hovhannes, Prayer of St. Gregory (New York: Peer Music International, 1962).

Bibliography:

Score in an Anthology

Cite scores in an anthology as you would text material in anthology. The only really strange thing is that page numbers go at the end of the citation in the note, but in between the editor and the publication in formation in the bibliography. This is because in the note, the page number refers to the exact page the information came from that you are using; in the bibliography, the page numbers are for the whole piece.

Details to include: composer, title of piece, title of anthology, editor of anthology, city of publication, publisher, date, page numbers.

Note:

1. Clara Wieck Schumann, "Er ist gekommen durch Sturm und Regen," in New Historical Anthology of Music by Women, ed. James R. Brisco (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 144-145.

Bibliography:

Score Accessed in an Online Score Library

For online scores, give the score information as above and then add the information for the online source, usually a stable url.

Details to include: composer, title of piece, title of anthology, editor of anthology, city of publication, publisher, date, page numbers, stable url

Note:

1. Karen Tanaka, Lost Sanctuary (London: Chester Music, 2002), https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity|score|2545246.

Bibliography:

Individual Movement of a Longer Work (this one was accessed online)

The closest parallel to citing a movement of a longer work is to adapt the format for a score in an anthology, with the movement's title in quotation makes and the longer work's title in italics.

The example below was accessed online and so includes information for online access, in this case, the academic database containing the piece.  If a stable URL is not available, the database name may be substituted.

Details to include: composer, title of movement, title of longer work, editor of anthology, city of publication, publisher, date, page numbers, stable url (if applicable)

Note:

1. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Long Years Ago," in Dream Lovers: An Operatic Romance (London: Boosey & Co., 1898), 11, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com &svc_dat=AFAMER&req_dat=102FE1F6CA316FA2&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage% 252Fv2%253A13D59FCC0F7F54B8%2540EAIX-154E9B216CC5DA60%2540-156001B423B05658%254022.

Bibliography:

The links above to Purdue's Online Writing Lab have good examples of how to cite musical recordings, including CDs, Spotify tracks and YouTube videos. Here are a few extra tips!

Getting Static URLS from Naxos Music Library

Citations for steaming recordings require a static or stable URL. Do not use the url in the search bar of your browser.  Instead, use the link tool to ask Naxos to show the stable URLS. The link tool looks like a paperclip: 

Here's a recording of the 2007 St. Olaf Christmas Fest on Naxos Music Library. I clicked the link tool to display the URLs.  If you are citing the whole album, use the URL under the album title. If you are citing just one track, use the track's URL.

Getting Static URLs from Music Online (Alexander Street)

Music Online (Alexander Street) offers a citation button that looks like a quotation mark.  This button only links to the entire album, not individual tracks. Also,be sure to check the citation format. Citation generators like this one often make mistakes in punctuation or format.

To find static URLs for individual tracks, start playing the track in question. Then click the three dots icon in the playback controls, and select the "embed" option, which looks like two angled brackets: <>.  Do not use the embed button at the top of the page; that is for the whole album.

This will bring up a dialog box with both the static URL (they all it a permalink) and the embed link.  You just need the static url.