- St. Olaf Libraries
- Research Guides
- Supporting Diversity in the Music Experience
- African American and Black Musicians
Supporting Diversity in the Music Experience
This guide provides resources that support diversity within the music experience at St. Olaf.
- Music from Around the World
- African Musicians
- African American and Black Musicians
- Asian Musicians
- Australasian and Pacific Musicians
- Latin American and Caribbean Musicians
- Native American Musicians
- Woman Musicians
- LGBTQIA+ Musicians
- Database for Historically Underrepresented Composers
Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Recent Publications on African American Music
On Rhetoric and Black Music
Available online.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Overviews
We have many more dictionaries and encyclopedias than those listed below. To find more reference sources, search Catalyst for your topic keywords and the phrase (dictionary OR encyclopedia) in parentheses, like this:
Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians
Call Number: Music Ref: ML105 .S67Available in print.International Dictionary of Black Composers
Call Number: Music Ref: ML105 .I49 1999ISBN: 1884964273Available online via African American Music Reference or in print.The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
Call Number: Music Ref: ML102.J3 N48 2001Available in print; entries from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz are currently being updated and added to Oxford Music Online.
Score Anthologies
A New Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers
Call Number: M1619 .N464Available in print.Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora: the Complete Edition
Call Number: M21 .P53Available in print.Artist Transcription Series (jazz solos)
Click the link to see titles in this series; includes volumes for saxophone, piano, trumpet, and other instruments.
Available in print.
Find Research and Repertoire -- Print Resources
We have many more bibliographies than those listed below. Search for them in Catalyst by searching for your keywords and the word bibliography, as shown below.
Be sure to look at the dates of the bibliographies to see how recent they are. You may be able to find more recent sources by consulting our music databases or by looking at the online resources in the next box.
Blues, Funk, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Hip Hop, and Rap
Call Number: ML128.P63 M43 2010Available online or in print.An Index to African-American Spirituals for the Solo Voice
Call Number: Music Ref: ML128.S4 A27 1999Available in print.Keyboard Music of Black Composers
Call Number: ML128.B45 H68 1992Available in print.
Aaron Horne, the compiler of this volume, also made bibliographies of woodwind music by Black composers (ML128 .W5 H65 1990), brass music by Black composers (ML128 .B45 H67 1996), and string music by Black composers (ML128 .B45 H7 1991).Spirituals: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography for Research and Performance
Call Number: ML128.S4A27 2015Available in print.
Find Repertoire -- Online Resources
- Karen's Giant Spreadsheet of Composer Diversity Websites -- a list of 60+ websites Karen consults when selecting new music by composers from historically underrepresented groups; please email Karen if you have suggestions of new sites to add or if links are broken.
Some of the sites Karen consults frequently from this spreadsheet include:
- Institute for Composer Diversity -- click the "search" button at the top to access their databases for composers, art songs, choral works, band works, orchestral works, and more.
- Diversity in Brass Music from Last Row Music -- lists of repertoire by woman composers and by Black composers
- No Broken Links -- Google spreadsheets for woodwind repertoire by composers from historically underrepresented groups
- Sphinx Catalogs -- music for strings by Latin American composers
- A Seat at the Piano -- piano repertoire by BIPOC and woman composers
- Music By Black Composers -- repertoire lists of music by Black composers, currently strongest in string repertoire; see also their directories of living and historic Black composers
- SongHelix -- originally designed to track art songs by topic, it now also permits searching by composer identities
- Alex Shapiro's Programming Resources -- includes pages on woman composers, LGBTQIA2s Composers, and Black, Latino, Asian, and Indian composers
Useful Links
- Afrocentric Voices in "Classical" MusicIncludes a directory of research centers, biographies, and other resources for studying African Americans in western art music.
- Amplifying Composers of Color: Decentering Whiteness in the American Art Music CanonA St. Olaf CURI research project led by Dr. Emery Stephens investigating the decentering of Whiteness in the American song canon.
- Archives of African American Music and Culture (Indiana University)At the AAAMC, you will find materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions primarily from the post-World War II era. Our collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of black radio.
- Center for Black Music Research (Columbia College--Chicago)The Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) highlights the role of black music in world culture with materials originating or representing black music from the United States, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Latin America, in a variety of formats: personal papers, scores, sheet music, audio-visual materials, photographs, oral histories, books, periodicals, and commercial recordings.
- African Diaspora Music ProjectFeatures lists of recordings and scores for vocal and instrumental music by composers of the African diaspora.
- Last Updated: Sep 25, 2024 2:15 PM
- URL: https://libraryguides.stolaf.edu/diversityinthemusicexpereince
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