Music Resources
120 Years of Electronic Music
A virtual museum where the development of electronic instruments can be traced from 1870 to 1990. There are pictures, descriptions, audio and video clips of the strange and wonderful instruments. Students will be surprised to learn that electronic instruments are not so new.
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/
A Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
This site contains pictures, commentary, and audio clips of Medieval and Renaissance instruments.
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html
Carnegie Hall's Listening Adventure
This is an exciting site which allows a student to listen to the entire "New World Symphony" by Dvorak while viewing a theme analysis/description on the monitor - complete with animations.
http://tinyurl.com/ezgu6
Classical Music Pages
This website provides almost everything concerning classical music - its history, biographical information about composers (with portraits and short sound examples), explanations of the various musical forms and a dictionary of musical terminologies.
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/classmus.html
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids' Site
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids' Site - Instrument Chart. This is a great site to have students visit in order to hear the instruments of the orchestra. Though it is animated "for kids", students like the site.
http://www.dsokids.com/2001/instrumentchart.htm
Dr. Billy Taylor's Lectures on Jazz
These are a set of four digitized lectures about jazz given by Dr. Billy Taylor at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D. C.
http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/Kennedy/Taylor/
Essentials of Music
This website is run by W. W. Norton publishers and has been very dependable. It contains valuable music material organized by musical style eras, composers, and a glossary. Each section of the website contains numerous audio clips (Real Player).
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/
Good Ear
Good Ear - online ear training, listening and identifying intervals, scales, chords, and much more. The user may adjust the volume, tempo, and even choose an instrument to play the sounds.
http://www.good-ear.com/
Historic American Sheet Music Collection
Historic American Sheet Music Collection at Duke University. This database of rare books, manuscripts, and sheet music contains 3042 pieces of digital images. The sheet music was published in the United States between 1850 and 1920. The database can be searched by title, year, and subject matter.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/
Johann Sebastian Bach
This site contains in-depth biography of J. S. Bach. The biography may be covered by "clicking" on a map of Germany. The reader moves from town to town as Bach did. There are also portraits, information about Bach editions, and an extensive bibliography.
http://www.jsbach.org/biography.html
John Philip Sousa
Great information about Sousa, with over 100 sound clips of his marches, photos, history of the band and more. A few audio clips are of the original Sousa band.
http://www.dws.org/sousa/
Materials of Music
This site serves as a valuable music dictionary for the basic fundamentals. It covers definitions dealing with melody, harmony, meter, dynamics, timbre, etc. There are many audio clips to enhance understanding. Maintained by W. W. Norton Publishers - very dependable.
http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/music/enj10/complete/content/materials/index.htm
Opera 101 (The Seattle Opera)
This site can be useful to introduce students to the opera. It covers everything from opera etiquette to the history of opera. Students will enjoy the Movie Match Game in which they are asked to match the film with its opera-based soundtrack.
http://www.seattleopera.org/opera_101/
PBS Jazz by Ken Burns
This site originated when Ken Burns' JAZZ aired on public television in 2001. Here one can look up biographical information about jazz musicians, learn how to be a jazz musician by playing the virtual piano in the Jazz Lounge or listen to audio samples of definitive jazz recordings.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/
Pipe Organs and Music
This is an exciting site that covers all aspects of the pipe organ. Here one can go to the "listening room" and hear organ music, go to the "museum" and see historical organ cases from all over the world, or read about organ building.
http://www.orgel.com/home-e.html
Rock Music as an Art Form
Rock Music as an Art Form
http://www.reasontorock.com
Steinway and Sons Piano Builders
Steinway and Sons Piano Builders factory tour. Interesting factory tour of a piano factory. Detailed description of the building process with pictures that can be enlarged.
http://www.steinway.com/factory/
The Metropolitan Opera
Contains synopses of many operas, the Met history, its schedule, and more.
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/
The Mozart Project
This site offers biographies of Wolfgang Mozart and his family. There are also comments/descriptions of his over 600 compositions. An interesting addition is an essay about the truths/fiction about the movie Amadeus.
http://www.mozartproject.org/index.html
The Red Hot Jazz Archive
This is an invaluable site for researching and listening to jazz recorded before 1930. Material can be searched by musician or band. Many selections can be listened to in their entirety. One may even watch a few video clips.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/index.htm
