Research Guides: Music Scores and Sheet Music: Tools for Finding Diverse Repertoire

How Do I Find Diverse Repertoire?

This is a challenging process, as most of our information systems do not tag creators specifically for their demographics or identities. Also, what is considered "diverse" is contextual and can be different for each searcher/consumer of the music.

This page provides search strategies for locating music from creators who are part of one or more of the following groups:

LGBT identities
women
people of color
musicians outside of the Western European musical tradition

Music Search Tools with Data on Diverse Identities

Composer Diversity Database
Searchable database of title information for musical works; focuses on Western art music; includes limiters for gender, ethnicity, and geography.
MusicBrainz
Metadata (i.e. citation information) for millions of sound recordings across all genres
1) In the upper right, change the search dropdown to "area" and enter a country or geographic area.
2) select the desired geographic area
3) click on the Artists tab, and browse genders (unfortunately, there's no way to sort or limit by gender)

Locate Lists of Composers/Artists/Works on Websites

Google searches are great to find various lists of musicians from diverse backgrounds. Search for keywords such as "black composers," "female composers of color," "LGBT songwriters," "transgender musicians," or develop your own search terms.

Once you locate names of specific musicians, search Google, YouTube, and the library catalog for each musician's name to find scores and recordings.

Music Theory Examples by Women
Chamber Music America's Composer's Equity Project
List of living chamber music composers who are African/Black, Latinx, Asian/South Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, Native American, women, or gender non-conforming
Repertoire - Women's Philharmonic Advocacy
Links to various resources for identifying women composers of orchestral music
World Music Central.org
Check out the artist index for biographical entries, some discographies and bibliographies, for contemporary world music artists.
African Diasporic Project
Wikipedia: Browse Category Lists
Search Wikipedia for a specific type of musician (LGBT musicians; African-American female singer-songwriters) or browse through the category tree.
Look under "musicians" to find songwriters; look under "composers" to find others

Locate Lists of Composers/Artists/Works in the Library

Lists of musical works are published in books called bibliographies or as part of journal articles. Browse the websites below to find the titles of bibliographies on your desired topic. Then, look up book or article titles in the library catalog, or request on interlibrary loan.

Institute for Composer Diversity -- List of Bibliographies
Mostly Western art music.
Browse citations for bibliographies of music by women/non-binary composers, composers of color, and LGBT composers.
Look up book or article titles in the library catalog, or request on interlibrary loan
Music by Black Composers -- List of Bibliographies
Mostly Western art music
List of bibliographies, compiled by the editorial staff at Music by Black Composers

Selected Websites & Streaming Media

LC Commissioned Composers Web Archive
The LC Commissioned Composers Web Archive includes the professional websites of living and deceased composers, as well as websites of foundations, institutes, museums, and awards established in memory of deceased composers. Archived websites include content that documents composers' careers over time, including biographical information, photos, musical recordings, videos, writings, concert calendars, reviews, social media, upcoming projects, and works lists. Composers represented by websites in this collection are from the United States, Asia, Central America, Europe, Middle East, North America, and South America.
Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings Includes audio clips of this major collection and full recordings for UCLA affiliated students and faculty. Arhoolie Foundation - Los Tigres del Norte Foundation - UCLA Library - UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
Digital Library of Latin American Heritage Scores and recordings of Latin American music genres drawn from the national libraries of Spain, Brazil, Colombia, Portugal, Panama, and Chile
Music India Online
Listen online for free to Indian music of various styles
Julia A. Perry Collection
Digitized collection of Julia A. Perry previously held at the former Westminster Choir College. Includes her notes and handwritten scores.

Free Streaming Ethnographic & Archival Recordings

Archival Recordings from the British Library Streaming audio from the Decca West African label and ethnographic research recordings in the British Library from multiple African collections.
Alan Lomax Collection - Association for Cultural Equity Musical performances from around the world, including stories, jokes, narratives, and interviews conducted by Lomax beginning in 1946. Content provided by the Association for Cultural Equity, and is distinct from the earlier recordings from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.
Global Jukebox A free, interactive web portal with thousands of folk song recordings, browseable by geography or culture