Note: When searching for an individual recording of a musical work, a search in the Vassar College Libraries' Catalog can be a good place to begin. Depending on the "content type" you select, "audio recordings", "streaming audio", and/or "video recording", results from many of the databases listed below will display.
This scholastic resource focuses on hard-to-find yet culturally and academically important music from folk to opera, Native American music to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic and beyond.
Complete original liner notes.
Please note terms and conditions of use: http://www.dramonline.org/page/terms-and-conditions
Music Online is an online music resource that cross-searches all Alexander Street Press music databases:
American Song
Classical Music Library
Contemporary World Music
Jazz Music Library
Smithsonian Global Sound.
Search all parts with one search. Most have no liner notes.
Streaming audio access to CD-length recordings. Principally classical music, with jazz, world, and pop/rock also represented. Includes program notes, cover artwork, tracklist, instrumentation and publisher information, libretti and synopses of more than 700 operas, and biographical information on composers and artists.
App for iPhone and Android phones includes performance details, but not liner notes.
Select from:
Accents & dialects, Arts, literature & performance, Classical music, Environment & nature, Popular music, Oral history, Radio & sound recording history, Sound maps,
World & traditional music. *Not all available to US audiences.*
The Boston Public Library (BPL) sound collection includes hundreds of thousands of audio recordings in a variety of historical formats, including wax cylinders, 78 rpms, and LPs. The recordings span many genres, including classical, pop, rock, jazz, and more.