Singers' Resources at Western

Western's Music Library is widely known for the excellence of its opera and vocal music collections, in terms of printed scores, vocal method books, recordings (CDs and LPs), and in particular rare and first editions contained within our Opera Collection and the Drs. James and Margaret Whitby Music Collections.

Please consult our Vocal Performance Research Guide to begin your search.

If you are enrolled in "Introductory Vocal Methods" and seek CDs of singers who share your "voice type", please consult our Singers on CD handout.

Consult Miriam Whaples' print Bach Aria Index (ML134.B3W5) to determine the desired obbligato instrument(s).

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global contains more than 2 million entries for doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database includes citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Since 1997, new publications have been available electronically and many publications can be ordered through the system for a fee. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities.

CANTUS is a database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant, hosted at the University of Waterloo, containing indices of chants in selected manuscripts and early printed sources of the Liturgical Office.

Additional internet resources

Here are links to some online song and song-text resources, and pronunciation dictionaries:

  • The University of Tennessee, Knoxville's locally produced database, UTK Song Index.
  • Arizona State University's (ASU) locally-produced database.
  • Aria database is a diverse collection of information on over 1,000 operatic arias.
  • LiederNet Archive was founded by Emily Ezust. This is a source of translations for some 68,000 songs and arias, with indexes by composer, poet, title, first line, and language. To credit Emily Ezust for her translations for your recital programmes:

  Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
  from The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: http://www.lieder.net