This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| International Index to Music Periodicals | |
|---|---|
| Name | International Index to Music Periodicals |
| Producer | RILM / ProQuest |
| Country | United States |
| History | 1929–present |
| Cost | subscription |
| Formats | journal articles, reviews, obituaries, dissertations |
| Disciplines | Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Music Theory, Performance Studies |
International Index to Music Periodicals
The International Index to Music Periodicals is a bibliographic database indexing scholarly and popular music journals and periodicals. It serves researchers in musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, and performance studies by aggregating citations to articles, reviews, and obituaries from international serials. The index has been used by libraries at institutions such as Juilliard School, University of Oxford, Harvard University, and University of California, Berkeley to support collections in New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Library of Congress, and national archives.
Established in 1929, the index originated amid expanding scholarly communication exemplified by publications like The Musical Quarterly and Revue musicale. Early editorial stewardship drew on contributors associated with Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and librarians at the New York Public Library. During the mid-20th century the index paralleled developments at organizations such as International Musicological Society and American Musicological Society. In the 1970s and 1980s improvements in bibliographic control mirrored cataloging practices at the Library of Congress and exchanges with publishers including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Later partnerships with vendors such as ProQuest and integration with resources like RILM Abstracts of Music Literature expanded its digital presence. Prominent figures in its evolution include editors and librarians connected to Smithsonian Institution music collections, British Library music catalogs, and conservatory archives at Conservatoire de Paris.
The index covers periodicals from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania, indexing journals such as Journal of the American Musicological Society, Music & Letters, Ethnomusicology, Tempo, and Opera News. It includes content on composers and performers linked to names like Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Igor Stravinsky, Maria Callas, and Miles Davis. Coverage spans areas associated with institutions such as Royal College of Music, Conservatoire de Paris, Curtis Institute of Music, and festivals including Bayreuth Festival and Glastonbury Festival. The index records material related to awards and events including the Pulitzer Prize for Music, Grammy Awards, Venice Biennale, and competitions like the International Chopin Piano Competition.
Entries typically include article titles, author names, periodical titles, volume and issue numbers, page ranges, and subject headings tied to persons and institutions like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Nadia Boulanger, Carnegie Hall, and Metropolitan Opera. Indexers apply controlled vocabulary consistent with headings used in catalogs at the British Library, Library of Congress, and specialized thesauri developed by RILM and music librarians at New York University. The database captures multiple item types, including scholarly essays, concert reviews, record reviews referencing labels such as Deutsche Grammophon and Columbia Records, obituaries for figures like Leonard Bernstein and Claudio Abbado, and interviews with artists affiliated to ensembles like Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Cross-references link to entries addressing genres, schools, and movements associated with entities such as Gregorian chant, Serialism, Baroque music, and publications by Pierre Boulez.
Access is typically by subscription through academic and public libraries, consortia such as the Big Ten Academic Alliance and vendors including ProQuest and library platforms used by Oxford University Press subscribers. Institutional access allows searching by author, subject heading, periodical title, and dates; patrons at institutions like Yale University and Columbia University use it alongside discovery services from Ex Libris and EBSCO Information Services. Print predecessors and indexes are held in special collections at repositories such as British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university music libraries at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Scholars in musicology and librarians specializing in performing arts collections have regarded the index as essential for historical research, citation tracing, and journal literature reviews. It has been cited in bibliographies and guides produced by entities like American Library Association and referenced in studies comparing coverage with RILM and JSTOR. Criticisms focus on subscription cost models used by vendors such as ProQuest and perceived gaps in coverage for non-Western periodicals despite efforts to include journals from regions represented by institutions like University of Tokyo and University of Cape Town.
Comparable and complementary resources include RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, JSTOR, Music Index, Oxford Music Online, WorldCat, Google Scholar, Project MUSE, and citation tools offered by Clarivate Analytics and Scopus. Libraries often integrate the index with discovery layers from Ex Libris Alma and link resolvers such as OpenURL to provide full-text access via publisher platforms like Cambridge University Press and Routledge. Institutions also use union catalogs like HathiTrust and subject repositories at Internet Archive to supplement holdings.
Category:Bibliographic databases