Sound: Composition & Production

• Resources
• Research strategies
• Writing and citing

Resources for Sound Composition & Production

• Definitions and overviews
• Books and more
• Subject readings
• Journal articles
• Internet sites

Sound: Composition & Production definitions and overviews

• Dictionaries help you to define your keywords
• Encyclopedias help you to get an overview of your topic and provide more information than a dictionary

Online dictionaries and encyclopedias

Print dictionaries and encyclopedias

To find additional reference items

1. Search the Library Catalogue
2. Select advanced keyword search
3. Combine a broad keyword AND the word dictionar**
   
   music AND dictionar**
   
   music AND encycloped**
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. music** will retrieve musical, musically, musician, musicology

Need help? Ask a question.

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Sound: Composition & Production books and more

Search the Library Catalogue to find books, videos, CDs, DVD's, music scores, sound recordings.

If you know the exact title

1. Select title search
2. Type in the exact title
3. Check the location, call number and status boxes to find the item in the Library collection

If you don't have an exact title OR only have a topic area

1. Select advanced keyword search
2. Type in keywords from your topic
3. Combine your keywords with AND to find catalogue records that contain all of your keywords
   
   e.g. music AND jazz
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. music** will retrieve musical, musically, musician, musicology

Catalogue search tips:

• Too many hits? Add another keyword e.g. music AND jazz AND improvisation
  OR
  Use the limit functions in advanced keyword search e.g. limit by publication date, format, location
• Found a useful title? Click on the subject headings to find similar material
• Studying at a different UOW campus? Use an advanced keyword search and limit by location

Need help? Ask a question.

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Sound: Composition & Production journal articles

Search a database to find journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, conference papers, dissertations, newspaper articles and research reports.

Try these first:

Complete list of Creative Arts databases

Found a useful reference?

Some databases do not provide the full text of the article. To locate these articles, you will need to search the catalogue to determine if the Library holds the journal title(s) either in print or electronically on another database.

Database search tips:

• Break your topic into keywords and/or phrases. The search strategy worksheet will help you
• Consider alternative keywords or spelling variations
• To narrow your search combine your keywords with AND to find records that contain all your keywords
  
  e.g. music AND jazz
  
  
• To broaden your search combine your keywords with OR to find records that contain either of your keywords
  
  e.g. jazz OR swing
  
  
• Use truncation to retrieve variations of your keyword.
  
  e.g. music** will retrieve musical, musically, musician, musicology
  
  
• Found a useful reference? Use the subject headings to find similar material
• Use library database tips or the database help screens for tips on how to search

More information: Finding Journal Articles Tutorial

Need help? Ask a question.

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Sound: Composition & Production Internet sites

It is important to critically evaluate all information found on the Web.

Try the following sites as a starting point.

• Australian music resources
• Composers
• Music history
• Opera
• Directories
• Search engines
• UOW sites

Australian music resources

• Australian Music Centre
  Online access to Australian composers and musicians.
• Australian Music Resources
  Extensive list of links from the Australian National University.
• Music Australia
  Developed by the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive this site helps you to find and access music scores, sound recordings, artist websites and a range of other music-related material.
• Music Library - Exploring the Internet
  Produced by the University of Melbourne
• Wollongong Conservatorium of Music
  Information about services, programmes and staff plus a good list of links.

Composers

• Polish Music Reference Centre
  Information on Polish composers including Henryk Górecki.
• Arnold Schoenberg Center Foundation.
  This site contains transcripts of voice recordings, Schoaf's Schoenberg Discography, contents pages of the Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute & detailed descriptions of the archives.

Music history

• Essentials of Music - Eras

Opera

• Aria Database

Directories

Directories organise Internet resources by subject. The information provided in directories is created, arranged and maintained by people rather than machines.

• General Directories
  • Internet Public Library > Entertainment > Music
  • Librarians Index to the Internet > Music
  • Voice of the Shuttle > Music
  • Yahoo > Entertainment >Music
• Research Directories
• • DW3 Classical Music Resources
  • Internet Resources for Music Scholars
  • Worldwide Internet Music Resources

Search engines

Search engines create databases using computer programs called 'spiders', 'robots' or 'crawlers' that trawl the web and other Internet sites and return results to the database.

Try these first:

• AlltheWeb
• Altavista
• Google Scholar
• Other search engines and directories

UOW sites

• School of Music and Drama
• Faculty of Creative Arts

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Last reviewed: 6 July, 2007