Web Resources

Robinson Music Library provides access to many significant online resources related to the study of music. A comprehensive list of research databases across all disciplines is maintained by the Kelvin Smith Library and is available to CIM students and anyone enrolled or employed by CWRU. Music databases provided by CWRU will be of particular interest. The links below represent the subscription databases to which Robinson Music Library subscribes. These resources can be accessed on the CIM campus, or CIM ID holders can connect off campus through Single Sign On with CIM credentials. Case ID holders may access select Library databases via Single Sign On or CWRU VPN.

Please note: if you are on the CIM campus and not using a Library computer, you may need to use the WiFi called CIM Wireless to connect to CIM Library databases. See Library Staff for assistance.

Music Research Databases

IPA Source

IPA Source offers a collection of transcriptions and literal translations of opera aria, art song, and Latin liturgical texts. The resource features recordings of selected texts and a guide to resources for the vocal performer.

Music Index

Music Index database provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts covering every aspect of classical and popular music.

Orchestral Music Online

Orchestral Music Online provides information about the instrumentation of over 15,800 works by more than 2,400 composers, and offers details about composers, names of individual movements, and more.

Oxford music online

Oxford Music Online, home of Grove Music Online, is an online music encyclopedia, offering coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship. Grove Music Online offers over 52,000 articles written by over 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory and cultures of music around the globe.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

ProQuest is a collection of dissertations and theses, with over a million full-text dissertations available for download and over 2.1 million titles available for purchase.

RILM full text and Abstracts of Music Literature

RILM is an international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines. All scholarly works are indexed (articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, Festschriften, etc.).

SingersBabel

SingersBabel offers tools to learn the meaning and pronunciation of texts found in oratorios, secular and sacred choral music, cantatas, art songs and song cycles.

The Diction Police

Diction Police provides singers with a comprehensive set of tools for the study and application of lyric diction. Their philosophy centers on hearing the sounds of foreign languages delivered by native speakers who are also professional singers or coaches with a practical understanding of the intricacies of singing language.

Streaming Music/Video Databases

Digital Concert Hall

Digital Concert Hall is the online concert hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker. View the orchestra's concerts live or as recordings in the archive. Additionally, you will find interviews, education programs, and more. To “Start institutional access” you will need register with your CIM email and password. You may need to be on campus in a designated IP range when setting up your personal access.

DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music)

DRAM offers a collection of sound recordings documenting American music. Works can be browsed by work, album or track titles, as well as by artist roles, and date of recording and composition.

Met Opera on Demand

This is an online streaming resource of the Metropolitan Opera, featuring more than 750 full-length Met performances. Features current HD broadcasts as well as historic audio recordings.

music video collection

Music Video Collection is the largest and most comprehensive resource for the study of music. Users experience music through thousands of performances, masterclasses, documentaries, and interviews.

NAXOS Music Library

Naxos Music offers catalogues or selected recordings of over 950 labels, standard and specialist repertoire, over 900 aural training exercises, a Musicology platform for music scholarship, guided tours on classical music eras, audio book transcriptions about the history of classical music and opera with listening examples, libretti and synopses of over 700 operas, a pronunciation guide on composer and artist names as well as musical terms, In-depth analyses of selected works, and more.

Naxos Video Library

Naxos Video presents streaming videos of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. Over 2,800 full-length videos are available. Ask at the circulation desk for the current username and password.

Digital Sheet Music

Art Song Transpositions

Explore music for voice and piano (mainly art songs and arias from operas and oratorios), transposed to any key and available for download. If a work is not available on the site or not in the key you desire, you may make up to five new requests per year. On demand publishing of new repertoire is also available during certain times of the year. Learn more.

Henle Library App

Find digitized scores and parts. The latest cloud-based technology, including easy-to-use annotation tools combined with G. Henle Publisher’s reliable urtext for your tablet computer. Download or share to online storage to create your personal, curated library. Available for iPad, Android, and M1 MacBooks. Learn more.

nKoda

Find digitized scores and parts. Aiming to contribute to a more progressive learning environment, digital access is available to 100,000 publisher editions. Nkoda music reader is a free tool to simplify your score reading and annotation. A platform run by musicians to empower all musicians. Learn more.

Other Research Databases

Oxford English Dictionary

The OED is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language.

Project MUSE

Project Muse is a full text database covering the fields of literature and criticism, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, gender studies, and more.