Skip to Main Content

Diversity in Music - old: Indigenous Music

Overview

Indigenous music encompasses a spectrum of musical expression as diverse as the array of indigenous cultures which span the globe. Below is a broad overview of sources and search tips designed to direct students towards resources about Indigenous music. 

Approaches to Searching

To locate books about a specific person or topic, use the Subject Search in the OPAL Library Catalog. Each book has been tagged with specific subject headings that describe its content.

Subject headings for groups of people not associated with a nationality are relatively new, and practices are still being worked out. Some headings that have been applied to Indigenous music, though, include:

  • Indians of North America -- Music
  • Indians of North America-- Music-- History and criticism
  • Indigenous Peoples -- Music
  • Indigenous Peoples -- Music -- History and criticism 
  • Folk Music -- Africa 
  • World Music -- History and criticism 
  • World Music-- Performance

Catalogs

Call Numbers

Books and printed music are arranged according to the Library of Congress' Classification System. The library has circulating and non-circulating (reference) collections. Each collection is divided in to three sections.

  • M = Printed music/scores (organized by instrument/genre)
  • ML = Books about music and musicians
  • MT = Books on music theory, pedagogy, and technique

The Jones Music Library has distinct collections for music education and music therapy resources.  A complete description of the library's collections may be found here.

Essential Resources

There are many online resources devoted to diversity in music. Here are just a few essential ones.

Electronic media