Libraries Now Subscribe to Rock’s Backpages

Rock’s Backpages covers the rock and roll music industry back to the 1950’s with reviews, interviews and articles. You can browse for content by artist, audio (of interviews), genre, publication or writer; or search by keyword.

Note: the Rock’s Backpages homepage has many prompts to subscribe. The UMass Amherst Libraries has a paid subscription for full access to the database; if you have a UMass Amherst NetId to login from off-campus, or you connect on-campus, you do not need an individual subscription.

Questions? Ask Us!

New African American Music Reference

African American Music Reference from Alexander Street Press includes book chapters, essays, images and liner notes covering traditional African American blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel and more. You can browse or search by musical genre, material type (biography, interview, artwork, etc.), people, subject, insturments and much more.

If you have questions about using this resource, Ask Us!

More Classical Music Library!

The Libraries has purchased volumes II and III of the Classical Music Library from Alexander Street Press. The entire library includes over 25,000 unique classical works from medieval times to the 21st century. You can browse or search by composer, genre, time period, instrument performers, titles and more. You select individual tracks to play or establish an account and create playlists to save and play anytime.

If you have questions about using this resource, Ask Us!

Contemporary World Music is Here

The Libraries have added Contemporary World Music to our collection of streaming audio databases. From Alexander Street Press, you can browse musical tracks by instrument, cultural group, genre, people, place and more, or you can search by keyword or specific indexed field. If you create an account, you can make your own playlists and collections and save them. Find and listen to musical genresĀ  such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing, Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.

If you’d like assistance, ask us.

A-R Editions’ Online Music Anthology on Trial

A-R Editions’ Online Music Anthology contains sheet music from antiquity through the romantic era, with extensive contents for the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque. The music is fully indexed and searchable by composer, title, style period, genre, nationality, language, and more.

This database trial ends June 30, 2014. Please give us your feedback. (UMass NetID login required for UMass Apps.) Annual cost is $1,000.

Classical Music in Video Now Available

The Libraries have purchased Classical Music in Video, a streaming video collection of over 700 performances, masterclasses and interviews related to classical music. You can search for people, titles or subtitles, or browse by material type (documentary, interview, performance, etc.), genre (aria, jazz, baroque suite, polka, etc.), time periods, venues and more. If you create your own free account, you can create playlists of whole pieces or clips.

If you’d like assistance using this resource, contact Pam Juengling, Music liaison librarian, at 413-545-1858.

Trial for Index to Printed Music

Check out the Index to Printed Music to find over 425,000 individual pieces of music written between now and ancient Greek times and published in scholarly sources. Indexing includes collection, composer, genre, language, publication year and more. This index is available on the Ebscohost interface.

The trial goes through May 31st, 2013. Please send questions and feedback to Pam Juengling, Music liaison librarian, at 413-545-1858.

New ProQuest and Chadwyck Databases

The Libraries have activated the following reference databases under the ProQuest and Chadwyck Healey names. You may find each resources in the UMass Amherst library catalog or listed in the Libraries’ Research Databases listings:

If you would like assistance using any of these sources, contact a reference librarian.