LibGuides: Music Research Guide: Music Theory

Reference Books for Music Theory

Analyses of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music, 1940-2000 by D. J. Hoek
Call Number: ML113 .H695 2007

ISBN: 0810858878

Publication Date: 2007-02-15

This new volume incorporates all entries from the previous editions by Arthur Wenk, expanding to cover writings drawn from periodicals, theses, dissertations, books, and Festschriften from 1940 to 2000. Over 9,000 references to analyses of works by over 1,000 composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are included.
The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory by Thomas Street Christensen (Editor)
Call Number: ML3800 .C165 2002

ISBN: 0521623715

Publication Date: 2002-04-25

The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory is the first comprehensive history of Western music theory to be published in the English language. A collaborative project by leading music theorists and historians, the volume traces the rich panorama of music-theoretical thought from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. Recognizing the variety and complexity of music theory as an historical subject, the volume has been organized within a flexible framework. Some chapters are defined chronologically within a restricted historical domain, whilst others are defined conceptually and span longer historical periods. Together the thirty-one chapters present a synthetic overview of the fascinating and complex subject that is historical music theory. Richly enhanced with illustrations, graphics, examples and cross-citations as well as being thoroughly indexed and supplemented by comprehensive bibliographies of the most important primary and secondary literature, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike.
A Player's Guide to Chords and Harmony by Jim Aikin
Call Number: MT50 .A37 2004

ISBN: 0879307986

Publication Date: 2004-06-01

(Book). If you'd like to know about music theory but don't want to get bogged down in a stuffy college-level textbook, this guide was written just for you! It's a practical, no-nonsense book ideal for: young musicians learning guitar so they can play rock, folk or blues; DJs who've started recording their own tracks and need to know how chord progressions work; anyone who wants to play from the chord symbols in sheet music; classical musicians who want to do more than just "read the dots," and countless others. Covers: intervals, scales, modes, triads and advanced voicings; interpreting chord symbols and reading sheet music; voice leading, chord progressions and basic song forms; classical, jazz & pop; and more, with helpful quizzes and answers.
Reading Renaissance Music Theory by Cristle Collins Judd; Ian Bent (Contribution by)
Call Number: MT6.J8 R43 2000

ISBN: 0521771447

Publication Date: 2000-11-30

This book examines a central group of music theory treatises that have formed the background to the study of Renaissance music. Taking theorists' music examples as a point of departure, it explores fundamental questions about how music was read, and by whom, situating the reading in specific cultural contexts. Numerous broader issues are addressed in the process: the relationship of theory and praxis; access to, and use of, printed musical sources; stated and unstated agendas of theorists; orality and literacy as it was represented via music print culture; the evaluation of anonymous repertories; and the analysis of repertories delineated by boundaries other than the usual ones of composer and genre. In particular this study illuminates the ways in which Renaissance theorists' choices have shaped later interpretation of earlier practice, and reflexively the ways in which modern theory has been mapped on to that practice.
Style and Music by Leonard B. Meyer
Call Number: ML430.5 .M5 1989

ISBN: 0812281780

Publication Date: 1989-01-29

Leonard Meyer proposes a theory of style and style change that relates the choices made by composers to the constraints of psychology, cultural context, and musical traditions. He explores why, out of the abundance of compositional possibilities, composers choose to replicate some patterns and neglect others. Meyer devotes the latter part of his book to a sketch-history of nineteenth-century music. He shows explicitly how the beliefs and attitudes of Romanticism influenced the choices of composers from Beethoven to Mahler and into our own time. "A monumental work. . . . Most authors concede the relation of music to its cultural milieu, but few have probed so deeply in demonstrating this interaction."-Choice "Probes the foundations of musical research precisely at the joints where theory and history fold into one another."-Kevin Korsyn, Journal of American Musicological Society "A remarkably rich and multifaceted, yet unified argument. . . . No one else could have brought off this immense project with anything like Meyer's command."-Robert P. Morgan, Music Perception "Anyone who attempts to deal with Romanticism in scholarly depth must bring to the task not only musical and historical expertise but unquenchable optimism. Because Leonard B. Meyer has those qualities in abundance, he has been able to offer fresh insight into the Romantic concept."-Donal Henahan, New York Times
Understanding Basic Music Theory by Catherine Schmidt-Jones
Call Number: Online Only

Publication Date: Online resource, Open Textbook Library
Understanding Music Theory by Ion Olteteanu
Call Number: Online Only

ISBN: 9781935494164

Publication Date: 2010-01-01

Helpful Databases for Research

Call Numbers & Subject Headings

If you are looking for books on Music Theory at any of our Marshall Libraries, here is a brief overview of the call number sections that may be helpful in your search. The Drinko, Morrow, and Charleston Library Stacks are organized through the Library of Congress cataloguing system which assigns Music subject books under the designation "M." For Music Theory a good place to start is under the "MT" designation.

Call Numbers:

Theoretical Analysis:

MT5.5-7 -- Music Theory
MT6 -- History of Theory
MT35-39 -- Notation
MT91 -- Collections of music for analysis and appreciation
MT92 -- Analysis and appreciation of music by individual composers
MT115 -- Analysis of choral music
MT121 -- Analyses of solo vocal works
MT130 -- Analyses of orchestral music
MT145 -- Analyses of chamber and solo instrumental works
MT146 -- Analyses of popular music

Books about the history of music theory and theoreticians:

ML112.8-158.8 -- Bibliography
ML410 -- Biographies of individual composers
ML423 -- Biographies of theoreticians, historians, and critics
ML3797-3799.5 -- Musical Research

Subject Headings are great ways to search for a particular type of topic that you are looking for in your research. Subject Headings are standardized under the Library of Congress classification, so locating a particular subject heading can be searched in not only our Marshall Libraries but in libraries across the U.S. Use one of the following Subject Headings to help you narrow down your search.

Subject Headings:

Counterpoint
- Counterpoint -- History
Harmony
- Keyboard Harmony
- Harmony -- History
Music Theory
- Music Theory -- Counterpoint
- Music Theory -- Harmony
- Music Theory -- History
  - Music Theory -- History -- [Century]
    - Ex. Music Theory -- History -- 16th Century
- Music Theory -- Periodicals
- Music Theory -- Translations into English -- Bibliography
- Music Theory -- [Country]
  - Music Theory -- India
- Music Theory -- Tonality
Musical Analysis
- Musical Analysis -- Music Collections
- Musical Analysis -- Periodicals
Musical Form
Musical Pitch
Schenkerian Analysis
- Conference Proceedings: [Subject] -- Congress
  - Ex. Schenkerian Analysis -- Congresses