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SEM 2021 Conference

RILM’s resources are gateways to authoritative and comprehensive knowledge, covering a wide range of ethnomusicological scholarship and related fields from anthropology and medicine to organology and sound studies, from different world regions and in over 170 different languages. 

RILM’s Global Coverage

RILM Abstracts with Full Text 

RILM’s music bibliography enhanced with full-text coverage of 260 journals. 

No matter the music, topic, or world region you are researching, RILM Abstracts offers a wealth of information on publications in books and collections of essays, journals, blogs, fanzines, electronic media, and much more.  Within RILM Abstracts with Full Text, you’ll find in addition full-text articles from journals as diverse as Black music research journal, Revista Argentina de musicología, Sruti: India’s premier magazine for the performing arts, Zhongguo yinyuexue (Musicology in China), Yearbook for traditional music, The world of music, and Nhạc Việt: The journal of Vietnamese music.

Topics Covered Include: 

  • Popular music 
  • Instruments and voice 
  • Religion and ritual 
  • Dance 
  • Linguistics and semiotics 
  • Social sciences 
  • Dramatic arts
  •  Visual arts 
  • Media studies
  • Improvisation 
  • Poetry and literature 
  • Sound recording 
  • Pedagogy
  • Sound studies

RILM Music Encyclopedias

RILM Music Encyclopedias is the go-to source for digitized and fully browsable and searchable music encyclopedias from around the world, with new titles added on an annual basis. Discover ways that RME can help you uncover hard-to-locate information.

Titles available include:

  • The Garland encyclopedia of world music (and its concise edition) 
  • Encyclopédie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire 
  • Enciclopédia da música brasileira: Erudita, folclórica, popular 
  • Biographical dictionary of Afro-American and African music 
  • Encyclopedia of the blues 
  • Das Blasmusik-Lexikon 
  • Steirisches Musiklexikon 
  • Real-Lexikon der Musikinstrumente, zugleich ein Polyglossar für das gesamte Instrumentengebiet
  • Diccionario biográfico – bibliográfico – histórico – crítico de guitarras
  • many other lexicons devoted to instruments, from all over the world 
a collection of encyclopedia covers that highlight the coverage of Black music

MGG Online

MGG Online is the preeminent encyclopedia for music researchers worldwide. With ever-expanding content, MGG offers a fresh perspective on topics ranging from popular music to the musical cultures of regions, countries, and cities.

  • Africa south of the Sahara by Artur Simon and Gerhard Kubik 
  • Afghanistan by John Baily
  • Arabic music by Amnon Shiloah 
  • Argentina by Gerard Béhague, Juan Pedro Franze, Julio Mendívil, and Deborah Schwartz-Kates 
  • Chinese theater by Martin Gimm 
  • Didjeridu by Margaret J. Kartomi, Robin Ryan, Darren Williams  
  • Ecuador by Ketty Wong and Robert Stevenson
  • Egypt by Ellen Hickmann and Laura Lohman 
  • Gong by Gretel Schwörer-Kohl  
  • Gum leaf music by Robin Ryan and Herbert Patten 
  • Indonesia by Rüdiger Schumacher, Henry Spiller, and Margaret J. Kartomi
  • Inuit by Jean-Jacques Nattiez 
  • Jewish music by Edwin Seroussi (newest version)/ Joachim Braun and Edith Gerson-Kiwi
  • Qin by Martin Gimm
  • Sami (Samen) by Doris Stockmann
an image of afghani women playing music is expanded above the MGG online article viewer

RILM’s Coverage of Africa and the African Diaspora

In line with its mission and commitment to be inclusive and boundary-crossing, RILM’s resources point to significant writings on Black music and culture that extend to transdisciplinary discourses as well.

RILM Abstracts has long covered content related to Black music in its broadest sense. This is reflected in its indexing of Black studies as well as key genres including blues, gospel, hip hop, reggae, and soul music; musicians; composers; and related subjects such as dance, art, and pedagogy. In addition to documenting the publications of Black scholars on music, RILM Abstracts has also focused on music and non-music periodicals of interest for researchers in Black studies. RILM Abstracts with Full Text includes the full text of over a dozen key journals relevant to Black music studies. An evolving resource, RILM Music Encyclopedias offers specific reference works that provide comprehensive coverage of the lives and works of performers, composers, and other individuals that have made a contribution to Black culture. And the Index to Printed Music unearths musical pieces in editions such as Black women composers: A century of piano music, 1893–1990 and Songs from the source: Nine African folk songs.

Join Us Live!

Virtual Coffee Sessions

This year at SEM, please join us for virtual coffee sessions, which will be geared towards researching Africa and African diasporas using the full range of RILM resources. During these sessions and Q&A slots, we welcome students, scholars, and other experts to join us for conversations around how we might better expand our coverage of Black music and performance studies. 

  • Thursday, 28 October
    • join through Whova
    • 12–1pm EST: RILM Resources on Africa and the African Diaspora
    • 1–2pm EST: Researching Music of Africa and the African Diaspora in Atlanta
  • Friday, 29 October
    • join through Whova
    • 12–1pm EST: Researching Music and Performance of the African Continent
    • 1–2pm EST: RILM “Office Hour” (Drop in with your questions or for assistance using RILM for your research)
  • Saturday, 30 October
    • join through Whova
    • 1–2pm EST: Researching Music of the Global African Diaspora

Coffee is on us!

Attend one of our sessions to receive your free coffee card.

Index to Printed Music

The Index to Printed Music (IPM) is the digital finding aid for locating musical works contained in printed collections, sets, and series. IPM indexes individual pieces of music printed in the complete works of composers, anthologies of music, and other scholarly editions. IPM expands every year to include new volumes as they are added to existing sets and series and new editions as they appear on the market.

Editions relevant for ethnomusicologists include:

  • African-American organ music anthology
  • African-American theater
  • Armenian folk songs
  • Art songs and spirituals: by African-American women composers
  • 梵唄 = Chinese Buddhist monastic chants
  • Hebräisch-orientalischer Melodienschatz / Thesaurus of oriental Hebrew melodies
  • Jewish folk songs from the Baltics: selections from the Melngailis collection
  • Piano music of Africa and the African diaspora
  • Songs from the source: Nine African folk songs

Among other features, IPM’s enhanced version offers hyperlinks of records for pieces that are available as part of open-access editions.

SEM is Over – Now What?

Keep in touch

Follow us on social media and join our mailing list for quarterly and occasional news. We promise we won’t flood your inbox!

We’re here to help

  1. – Sign up for our YouTube channel for introductory videos about our resources as well as tutorials.
  2. – Download the teaching guide with recommended searches.
  3. – Attend our weekly office hour on Facebook in RILM’s group Bibliography Buffs.
  4. – Invite us to teach a class for you or to give a tutorial. Just email info@rilm.org.