Looking for recordings of degree recitals by UO students? Use the Advanced Search interface in LibrarySearch, and search the name of the performer (if you know it), or try the phrase "University of Oregon degree recitals" in the title field to see all recordings.
CDs of UO recital recordings from the past five years are available for checkout in the Douglass Room on the 3rd floor of Knight Library. Recordings older than five years are archived in Special Collections and University Archives on the 2nd floor of Knight Library.
LibrarySearch offers a streamlined interface for finding books and other media that combines the collections of UO Libraries and Summit libraries.
The UO Libraries are home to a large collection of books about music and printed music for performance and study, which are located on the 3rd floor of Knight Library. To find out whether the library owns the book or score you're looking for, as well as its call number and availability, use our online catalog, LibrarySearch. Be sure to log in with your Duck ID so that you will see complete search results.
Using the Advanced Search option will allow you to combine multiple search terms (such as author & title), and to specify the material type (such as score or book) and search scope (which can be limited to search only in the Music Collection.) This will help you cut out unrelated search results and find what you want more efficiently.
WorldCat is a large database of material held by libraries all over the world. If you can't find something you need at UO or another Summit library, you may be able to find it at another library by searching WorldCat. There are two ways to search WorldCat:
If you find something you're looking for in WorldCat, you can request that it be delivered to UO for you to use by placing an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) request. You can do that within the WorldCat interface, or through the Interlibrary Loan form . ILL requests can take between 5 and 15 days to arrive, depending on the availability of the physical item being requested from another library. You can also use ILL to request journal articles that UO doesn't have; these requests usually take only a few days, as requested articles are sent electronically.
UO also subscribes to several streaming audio databases that allow you to listen online, create playlists and examples, and read liner notes:
Popular music from around the world, including pop, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and many more.
The UO Libraries have a large collection of audio recordings on CD, LP (vinyl), and cassette, housed in the Douglass Room on the 3rd floor of Knight Library. Patrons may check recordings out of the library to take home, or may listen to them in the library at the listening carrels in the Douglass Room.
Use the Advanced Search interface in LibrarySearch to narrow down the material type to "Audio & Video" when searching:
When you see your search results, you will also see facets on the left that allow you to filter by specific audio format. For example, to see only CDs, click the "Audio CDs" facet:
You can also search for the title of the composition. If the composition has an opus number or other type of composer number (such as BWV for Bach or K. for Mozart), search for that as the title-- this is particularly useful for searching for works with genre- or form-based titles such as concertos and sonatas, where you might get a lot of results for things you don't want if you just search the composer and title alone.
The UO Libraries subscribe to a number of online streaming video databases that are accessible to UO faculty, students, and staff. Several of these databases focus specifically on music content; others have more general video content but include documentaries or instructional films about music. In some cases, you can use LibrarySearch to find individual streaming videos from these databases, while other databases only allow users to search in the database interface itself. The list below provides direct links to the databases with the most music-specific content.
The largest collection of streaming classical music, opera, and dance videos, medici.tv includes 3,500 musical works filmed from the 1940s up to the present day; 3,000 films including concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries, and master classes; and over 150 live events streamed every year from the world’s most prestigious venues.
From old-school legends to today’s great stars, this streaming service includes more than 800 full-length Met performances.
To access this resource, you must have the UO VPN Client software running. Download UOnet VPN here.
A streaming video channel founded by Quincy Jones, dedicated to jazz, soul, funk, and world music. Over 1000 videos, including live concert footage, documentaries, interviews, and archival footage. Descriptions for each video are written by journalists and music experts. Additional features include playlists curated by musical luminaries such as Chick Corea and Quincy Jones.
The UO Libraries hold over 14,000 videos in a variety of formats, including DVD, VHS tapes, laserdiscs, 16 mm films, and streaming video. UO's video collection includes music-related content ranging from operas, rock/pop concert performances, masterclasses, instructional videos, and ballets and other dance performances with live music. For a more detailed overview of how to search for video content in the UO Libraries, see the research guide Finding Videos & Films.
To find music-related video content in our physical video collection, try an advanced search in LibrarySearch, limiting the Material Type to "Audio & Video", and trying one or more of the following Subject headings:
When your search results appear, use the filters on the left side of the LibrarySearch interface to further limit Material Type to DVDs, Videocassettes, or eVideo (streaming video).
We have a number of databases for searching for articles about music in scholarly research journals and trade publications. Many of these databases provide full-text article downloads, but some supply only the bibliographic citation for the article and an abstract (summary) of the contents. You can use the FindText button to see if UO has a copy of a cited article, and to place an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) request for articles we don't have and which don't have electronic full-text access. Journal articles requested through ILL are sent as electronic scans, and are usually fulfilled in a few days.
You can search for doctoral dissertations, masters theses, and senior thesis projects by UO students within LibrarySearch; this is particularly useful if you are looking for a document older than 1996, or if you are looking for something with an audio or video component. To find graduate theses & dissertations and undergraduate honors theses by UO students, use the Advanced Search option in LibrarySearch, and search the phrase "University of Oregon theses School of Music" as the title, with the search scope limited to UO Libraries. To find DMA lecture documents, search the same way but using the phrase "University of Oregon lecture documents" in the title field. To find recordings of degree recitals, search the phrase "University of Oregon degree recitals" in the title field.
Below are some databases that offer citation and full-text access to more recent theses and dissertations by UO students:
CRL acquires about 5,000 non-US, non-Canadian doctoral dissertations a year to add to its 800,000+ collection of dissertations. UO Scholars and researchers have free and unlimited use of the CRL collections through interlibrary loan. For dissertations available electronically search the CRL library catalog by selecting the "Digital" tab.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians by 
The Harvard Dictionary of Music by 
The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed. by 
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd ed. by 
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music by 
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Music books and scores in the UO Libraries have call numbers based in the Library of Congress classification system, which groups together books on similar topics and scores for similar performing forces. This lets you browse the shelves and find similar items near each other on the shelf-- a useful way to find more books on a topic you're researching, or more music for your instrument or ensemble.
Each call number is made up of component parts:
| Sample call number | What it means: |
|---|---|
| ML | Sub-classification = music literature |
| 197 | Specific topic = music history & criticism, 1901-2000; read as a whole number |
| .L66 | The first letter of the author's last name, and a number that sorts them alphabetically among other authors with the same last initial; read the number decimally |
| 2009 | Year of publication |
| Sample call number | What it means: |
|---|---|
| M | Sub-classification = printed music |
| 23 | Instrumentation = piano sonata; read as whole number |
| .B416 | The first letter of the composer's last name, and a number that sorts them alphabetically among other composers with the same last initial; read the number decimally |
| op. 27 | The opus number or composer work number |
| no. 2 | The number of the specific piece within the opus |
| 1971 | Year of publication |
There are three sub-classification areas for music call numbers, which can help you know where to start browsing:
The UO Libraries often will set up free short-term trial access to databases for faculty and students to try them out and see if they are resources we will want to purchase or subscribe to. You can view the full list of current database trials here.
You can request articles, books, and other items from other libraries if they are not available in the UO Libraries.
For articles, submit the citation you need through Interlibrary Loan. We'll find a library that has the publication you need, and the article will come to you as a pdf.
For books and AV materials, you can request items in two ways:
If you still can't find the item you need, but you have evidence that it exists (for example, you are looking for a specific title or edition of a book), submit a request using the UO Libraries' Interlibrary Loan form and we'll take care of the rest.
1501 Kincaid Street
Eugene, OR 97403
P: 541-346-3053
F: 541-346-3485