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Performing Arts Resources

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Highlights from the Boston Public Library

Get a BPL ecard Immediate access!

The BPL has an expansive selection of music resources, a selection of them is listed below. You can access the whole collection on their Music page using your BPL ecard. All students are eligible and encouraged to get BPL ecards as well. 

American Music

A music history database that highlights social and political songs by and about American indigenous, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers and cowboys.Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more.

Classical Music Library

Classical Music Library's growing collection of 50,000-plus tracks for listening and searching is supplemented by extensive reference materials and backed by a powerful suite of tools designed to support learning.

Classical Scores Library

Classical Scores Library provided an authoritative source for scores of the classical canon and contemporary works. Includes works from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.

Contemporary World Music

A music database that offers the streaming of music from all regions of the world. Includes popular music, film scores, and genres of all kinds.

Grove Art Online

  • Grove Art Online
  • The Oxford Companion to Western Art
  • Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
  • The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms

IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library

The International Music Score Library Project was started in 2006 and contains digitized versions of public domain music scores free of charge.

Jazz Music Library

The largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.

Music and Performing Arts

A database which provides audio and video in order to provide music teaching materials spanning all time periods and genres of music and dance.

Popular Music Library

Popular Music Library contains a wide range of popular music including thousands of tracks from genres including alternative, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and more.

Recorded Sound Archives

An archive at the Florida Atlantic University, the RSA began as a project to preserve Jewish music but has grown into a comprehensive collection of a diverse range of sound recordings.

Rolling Stone Archive

Contains the complete backfile of Rolling Stone, from its launch in 1967 to 2018. It has been a leading vehicle for rock and popular music journalism, as well as covering wider entertainment topics such as film and popular culture.

Smithsonian Global Sound

A virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides an unprecedented variety of online resources that share diverse musical forms.