Music: Databases

MusicOnline: Classical Scores Library

Available through the MusicOnline platform, the largest, most comprehensive collection of in-copyright scores available to libraries online. As a result of heavy usage of Vols I and IV, the Library has now expanded its coverage of the Classical Scores Library to encompass the full portfolio on offer. The 5 collections now available to music students, researchers and players bring together more than 57,000 titles and 1.4 million pages of the most important scores in classical music from a wide range of genres and time periods, allowing users to save valuable time and search across one extensive and authoritative resource.

The collection offers ready digital access to some of the most important scores in classical music ranging from the middle ages to the 21st century thereby best mirroring the diversity of research activity undertaken within the department which extends from Purcell discoveries and International Beethoven Research Symposia to the work undertaken by NOVARS and Sonic Cultures. Some 4,600 composers are represented, incorporating not only those traditionally studied, but contemporary artists and practitioners including a number directly associated with the city and the department of Music at the University of Manchester. The collection continues to grow and further expand its global reach with works in the pipeline from Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

Scores in a range of forms – full, part, manuscripts and for specific instrumentations – are immediately available on an interactive platform allowing users to zoom in to examine specific notations and tempo markings, and print scores for class or personal study.

Rolling Stone Archive and Magazine

In collaboration with academics from the School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, the Library has arranged for electronic access to the complete archive of Rolling Stone, one of the most influential consumer magazines of the 20th–21st centuries.  Launched in 1967 to express the cultural, social, and political outlook of a new post-war generation, it rapidly became a leading vehicle for rock and popular music journalism, shaping and chronicling new trends and movements.  Reports on controversial topics that were largely absent from mainstream media led to the magazine being closely identified with the beginnings of the so-called ‘counterculture’ and notably it served as a crucible for the development of the ‘new journalism’ pioneered by figures such as Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe. Coverage became more broad-stream and expanded in the 1980s to encompass more entertainment topics, such as film and television, making Rolling Stone a leading resource for contemporary reporting and reviews pertaining to wider popular culture. The magazine continues to act as a locus for contemporary ‘state of the (US) nation’ concerns with influential investigative works such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast-Food Nation (2001) originating in a commission from the paper in 1998.

Encompassing some 150,000 pages, the archive incorporates cover-to-cover colour scanning of its images, advertisements, photographs, illustrations, fiction and reviews for the first time together with article-level indexing and searchable text. In addition to being of particular value to researchers across the humanities and complementing the Popular culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 collection, the database also offers a valuable ‘transatlantic take’ on the resources housed within the Library’s recently launched British Pop Archive.

Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) – expansion of music coverage

To continue our support of performance-based studies in the challenging post-COVID environment the Library has recently arranged for the further expansion of its coverage of the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. Alongside material from major trade publications in music, radio and drama (including Billboard, 1894-2000 and The Stage, 1880-2000) together with its complete portfolio on film and television(including The Hollywood Reporter 1930-2015; American Cinematographer 1920-2015 and Kine Weekly 1907-1971) can now be found an additional selection of popular music resources from genres as diverse as rock, folk and hip-hop. Complementing our existing digital archives such as the Rolling Stone Archive, Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 and Rock’s Back Pages and subscriptions to the likes of The Wire, together with the expanding physical holdings of the British Pop Archive, these new resources further contribute to a growing critical mass of primary sources available for the critical examination of trends and developments in popular culture across the entire 20th century and into the 21^st.

Periodicals such as Creem (1969-1988) offer a less reverential perspective than Rolling Stone: Paid My Dues (1974-1980) and Hot Wire (1984-1994) give a female-centred take on an industry that’s never been short of chauvinism, whilst Hip-Hop Connection (1991-2001) provides an early UK take on the music genre treated as a ‘lifestyle’ in the altogether glossier Vibe (1992-2014) in the US. Other periodicals include: the ‘alternative’ music periodical OP / OPtion (1979-1998); ‘America's Only British Rock Magazine’ in the form of Trouser Press (1974-1984); bluegrass-championing The Old-Time Herald (1987-2016); and the graphically innovative Ray Gun (1992-2000). As a collection the material offers a rich repository of dissenting voices to historical norms, documentation of social issues, the evolution and growth of oppositional youth cultures, associated fashion/style trends and of course the ongoing commodification of such positions. To further facilitate discovery all titles in the new EIMA 4 collection are also individually indexed on Library Search.

Library Stack

Library Stack is a unique archive and lending library with digital collections relating to art, design, film, architecture, experimental sound and critical theory. By working directly with a variety of publishers, firms, artists, and academics, Library Stack provides access to a diverse array of born-digital resources ranging from articles, eBooks and zines to podcasts, music and films.

In addition to providing digital publications from established commercial publishers including Aperture, Sternberg and MACK, Library Stack’s ongoing collaboration with small independent presses, companies, and individuals means that users can access resources that exist outside of mainstream academic and commercial publishing.

The content on offer will be of interest to students across a wide variety of courses here at the University and represents a rich and varied range of innovative formats that extend beyond traditional outputs such as articles and books - including software, sound recordings, and artworks.

Students and staff from the University of Manchester should register using their University email address in order to gain access to both the Open Access and reserved circulation items. By creating an account, you can also make use of the ‘Bookshelf’ feature which allows you to borrow reserved circulation items and save, organise and annotate items, creating your own collections based on your research interests.