Table of Contents
Reference works
Online
Essays on Modernism (in Grove Music Online) and the Twentieth Century (in the Oxford Companion to Music) provide broad summaries.
See also:
and these online encyclopedias:
In the Reference Room
Printed music
The Music Library collects much of the music published in the 20th century. Always begin your search in the SearchWorks library catalog. Search by composer or by work title, and limit the format to "music--scores".
You may also search the WorldCat unon catalog to confirm that a work has been published. If it isn't in Stanford's collections, you may request a loan via Interlibrary Borrowing services. The OCLC accession number in the WorldCat record will be useful information to include on the request form.
Digital scores: Classical Scores Library presents about 4000 20th- and 21s-century scores in digital form. You may also search the IMSLP database for scores in the public domain.
Two featured score collections containing a wealth of 20th century works are:
Women's Philharmonic Collection (orchestral music; scores may be browsed in the Reference Room)
Kronos Quartet Collection (chamber music; search the database by title or composer)
Audio and video
Circulating CDs and DVDs may be identified in the SearchWorks library catalog; search by work title or composer name.
These streaming databases are also recommended:
Books
Find books in the SearchWorks library catalog. Try a search using subject words, following these examples:
Composition music 20th century
Browse the stacks:
ML197 | General works on 20th century music history and criticism |
ML200.5 | United States--works on 20th century music history and criticism |
(music history books on other countries are also divided by time period) | |
ML1705-06 | Opera history, 1850-2013 |
Some recommended titles:
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
(source: Nielsen Book Data)