Sourcebook for Research in Music by Allen Scott, Phillip D. Crabtree, Donald H. Foster (review)

Most recently-published guides to music research focus on methodologies and skills while outlining the essential resources of the discipline. The Sourcebook for Research in Music uses a different model, epitomized by Vincent Duckles’s Music Research and Reference Materials, in which the research materials take center stage. It is a selective annotated bibliography presented in seven chapters preceded by a chapter of introductory materials. The annotations come in the form of brief essays at the beginning of major sections. This combination of essays and selective bibliographies is the hallmark of the book, reflecting what compiler Allen Scott calls the book’s “balance between depth of content and brevity of format” (p. xv).

The first edition of the Sourcebook was published in 1993, the product of Phillip Crabtree and Donald Foster’s years of teaching classes in music bibliography and research at the University of Cincinnati. At 236 pages, it is compact, prompting Thomas Hecht to characterize it in his review (Fontes Artis Musicae 41, no. 4 [October–December 1994]: 392–94) as a “refreshing little book, less than half the size and weight of the latest Duckles/Keller Music Research and Reference Materials (New York: Schirmer, 1994)” (Hecht, p. 392). The second edition, published twelve years later, was revised and expanded by Allen Scott of Oklahoma State University (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005). Retaining the features of the first edition, it provides more Internet sources and increases the number of entries (the second edition weighs in at 382 pages), including an expansion of the sections on ethnomusicology and performance practice.

The current, third edition of the Sourcebook continues the “purpose, style and content established by the original authors” (p. xv), emphasizing current English-language materials and embracing selectivity over comprehensiveness. It is largely an update and expansion of the material from the previous edition. One of the most significant changes Scott makes is in the organization of the book, which he revises based upon the structure of the classes he has taught for many years. Following the first chapter, “Introductory Materials,” the content is now grouped into two parts reflecting the classic division of materials in music: “Part 1: Sources of Literature about Music and Musicians” and “Part 2: Sources of Music and Recordings.” Five chapters are included in Part 1: “General Bibliographies, Indexes, Catalogs, and Guides”; “Dictionaries and Encyclopedias of Music”; “Journals and Periodicals and their Indexes”; and two chapters of “Area Bibliographies, Indexes, Catalogs, and Guides” covering “Fields of Musical Study” and “Musicians, Instruments, and Repertories.” These area bibliographies form the bulk of the Sourcebook, encompassing 337 of the book’s 496 pages of content. Part 2 is relatively small, including only the chapters, “Sources of Music” and “Discographies and Recordings.”

In this reorganization, the content of the previous editions is largely still present, but is reordered and redistributed. The section on “The Music Industry” receives a promotion, moving from the defunct chapter 8, “Miscellaneous Sources,” to become one of the “Fields of Musical Study” in chapter 5. The citations in the former chapter 5, “Sources Treating History of Music,” have been incorporated into the two chapters of area bibliographies. Many of the style manuals and other guides that appeared in chapter 8 have been moved to other sections. Some of the general resources, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, have been removed, as have some older resources like Irvine’s Writing about Music. The most significant change may be the retooling of the second chapter. Previously, this was the chapter, “Basic Bibliographic Tools for Research in Music.” While designed to describe sources that could serve as starting places for music research, the chapter also serves as an introduction to the book as a whole, listing core bibliographies about the various types of materials described later in the volume. With many of the titles joining like materials...