Tools and Resources for Grove Music Online
Welcome to the Tools and Resources page. Below you will find a variety of pathways into the content of Grove Music Online, as well as useful supplementary content.
Article features and dictionary conventions:
- Abbreviations and library sigla
- Guide to playable musical examples
- Guide to Grove transliteration systems
Content in context:
- Essential 20th-century reading list
- Grove Opera indexes
- Music Timelines
- Research Resources
- Topical Guides
Writings on the dictionary:
- Grove Conversations
- History of Grove Music
- Preface to A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, by Sir George Grove
- Preface to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, by Stanley Sadie
Article features and dictionary conventions
Abbreviations and Library Sigla
Grove Music Online uses abbreviations for general terms, locations, periodical titles, and standard reference books and series.
Guide to Playable Musical Examples in Grove Music Online
Collected here are links to all articles in Grove Music Online that feature Sibelius Scorch-enabled musical examples. The guide is a complete alphabetical listing of articles containing musical examples, and has been divided thematically into examples of different musical concepts and composers’ styles.
Grove Transliteration
This selection from the Introduction to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, provides a guide to the transliteration of words and names from Cyrillic and other non-Roman scripts in Grove articles.
Content in context
Essential 20th-Century Reading List
The essential 20th-century reading list highlights a number of primary sources from the era, including visionary composer tracts, collections of interviews, writings on theory and history, and influential periodicals about music. Hyperlinks take the reader to related content in Grove Music Online.
Grove Opera Indexes
Editor Stanley Sadie created these indexes for The New Grove Book of Operas (Macmillan, 1996; revised as The Grove Book of Operas, Oxford University Press, 2006). As he explained in the book’s preface, the indexes were designed to help readers find the opera they were looking for, however limited their points of reference:
For the reader who wants to look up the Verdi opera whose name she or he can’t quite remember, there is an index by composer. For the reader who wants to look up the opera with Violetta in it, there is an index of character names; and for one who wants to look up the opera with a song called ʻAh fors’ è lui’ or a cabaletta ʻSempre libera degg’io,’ there is an index of aria titles.
These lists include links to all articles from this book, and will eventually include all opera articles in Grove Music Online.
The index of opera incipits is a selective list of the first lines of arias, ensembles, and other pieces from the repertory, each one hyperlinked to the articles on the opera and composer from which it came.
Index of Operas under Composers
The index of operas under composers lists all operas covered in The Grove Book of Operas under the composers who wrote them, alphabetized by composer.
The index of opera roles allows users to browse major opera roles from A to Z with ease, and includes hyperlinks to the operas, composers, and singers who created the roles.
Music Timelines
These timelines have been editorially compiled to lead the reader into the content of Grove Music Online, revealing areas of the dictionary that some readers may not yet have explored. As specific content areas of Grove continue to be developed, we will be adding new and updating existing timelines.
The timeline of women in music is intended to provide an overview of the breadth and depth of women’s contribution to music throughout music history. It is representative rather than comprehensive, and is aimed at pointing the reader toward relevant material in Grove Music Online.
The timeline of 100 operatic premières is intended to introduce the reader to Grove Music Online’s articles on operatic works. This is not a comprehensive timeline of opera but a chronological overview, representing all historical styles of opera and including all the major works. The timeline also includes a number of lesser-known works, with the hope of introducing the reader to operas that, though perhaps heard less often, are nonetheless worthy of attention.
The timeline of contemporary music begins in the 1880s, with events and compositions that pointed the way forward, and ends with recent events from the 21st century. This is a selective timeline, intended to guide the reader through the wide variety of topics related to contemporary music that are covered in Grove Music Online.
Research Resources
Collected here are articles in Grove Music Online that consist of or include substantial lists of resources for the music researcher. As a set, the articles on this page form a significant research tool for users of all types. These resources fall into two general categories: (1) printed and manuscript sources and (2) institutions.
Topical Guides
These topical guides are designed as overviews of the major periods of music history, with lists of Grove articles covering important people, genres, terms, and concepts related to the period.
This guide groups Grove Music Online’s articles on women composers into time spans of 50 to 100 years, allowing readers to trace the development of women’s roles in composition over the last millennium.
Writings on the dictionary
Preface to A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, by Sir George Grove
Preface to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, by Stanley Sadie
