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Music in the SOAS Library

The Library collects books, journals, sound and video recordings, electronic and multimedia items on all aspects of Asian and African music and musicology.

  • Books and journals on Asian and African music in Western and Asian vernacular languages.
  • Sound recordings: Asian and African music on CDs, vinyl discs, cassettes and reel tapes.
  • Video recordings: Asian and African performing arts and documentary on video cassettes, VCDs and DVDs.
  • Slides

Selection of key journals

  • African music. Vol.1, no.1 (1954)- (Lee Per 3/101234)
  • Asian music. Vol.1, no.2 (1969)- (Lee Per 40/363768)
  • British journal of ethnomusicology. Vol.1-12 (1992-2003), continued by Ethnomusicology Forum, vol.13 (2004)- (Lee Per 28/653840)
  • Bulletin of the International Council for Traditional Music. No.59 (Oct. 1981)- (Per 40/226085)
  • Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles. Vol.1-19 (1988-2006), continued by Cahiers d'ethnomusicologie, vol.20 (2007)- (Per 40/599921)
  • CHIME: newsletter of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research. No.1 (1990)- (Per 24L/652185)
  • Ethnomusicology. Vol.2 (1958)- (Per28/100938)
  • Popular music. Vol. 23 (2004)- (Lee Per 40/642400)
  • Yearbook for traditional music. Vol.13 (1981)- (Per 40/100478)

Key reference material

  • The concise Oxford dictionary of music / Percy A. Scholes, edited by John Owen Ward. 2nd ed. Oxford U.P., 1964.
  • Drums: the heartbeat of Africa / edited by Esther A. Dagan. Montreal : Galerie Amrad African Art, 1993.
  • The Garland encyclopedia of world music. New York: Garland, 1998-2002. 10v.
  • Music and musical instruments in the world of Islam / Jean Jenkins and Poul Rovsing. London: World of Islam Festival Publishing Company, 1976.
  • Musical instruments /Horniman Museum.2nd ed. London: Inner London Education Authority, 1970.
  • Musical instruments of the world: an illustrated encyclopaedia. London : Paddington Press, 1976.
  • Musics of many culture: an introduction / ed. by Elizabeth May. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
  • The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. London: Macmillan, 1995. 20v.
  • The new Grove dictionary of musical instruments / edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1984. 3v.
  • The new Oxford companion to music / general editor Denis Arnold. Oxford : Oxford U.P., 1983. 2v.
  • The Penguin dictionary of Indian classical music /Raghava R. Menon. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1995.

Special collections

  • Bake collection: comprises field-notes and other documentation of South Asian music and folklore produced by Dr. Arnold Adrian Bake (1899-1963).
  • Rosencweig collection: comprises 175 items of books, scores, vinyl discs and cassettes covering all aspect of Jewish music, collected by Harry Rosencweig.
  • Sewell collection: comprises Chinese gramophone records together with sheets music produced in the early 1950s, collected by William Gawan Sewell (1924-1980).
  • Collection of jôrurihon: consists of 79 items in both manuscript and printed examples of libretto of classical puppet drama of Japan, produced between mid 18th and early 29th century.
  • Field recordings of music from Africa and Asia, produced from the 1920s to the 1940s.
  • Gramophone records of Japanese songs and theatrical music produced between the late 1940s and the early 1950s.
  • Slides: a set of transparencies of Chinese musical instruments and of history of ancient Chinese music; transparencies of Indian musical instruments.

Enquiries

Jiyeon Wood

Assistant Librarian for Arts, Music and Multi-Media

Tel: 020-7898-4175

E-mail: jw50@soas.ac.uk

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