Related Links:
Locating UConn Theses and Dissertations (shelving locations, electronic access, binding, etc.)
DigitalCommons@UConn
Full-text of theses, dissertations, technical reports, books, conference
papers, and oral histories from the UConn community.
Dissertations on Music
Topics Covered
- What is a Dissertation?
- Step 1: How to Find Dissertation Citations
- Step 2: How to Procure a Copy
- Detailed Database Descriptions (for Dissertations)
- Dissertation Web Sites
- Print Resources Listing Dissertations
- Future of Dissertations
What is a Dissertation?
Dissertations are book-length studies (often original research with extensive bibliographies) that doctoral students write as part of their degree requirements. Usually the degree-granting institution keeps a copy that is available for loan or purchase. Many dissertations can also be downloaded from a database called ProQuest Dissertations.
Step 1. How to Find Dissertation Citations
Dissertations are listed in these databases and can be searched by author, title, subject, institution, etc.
- RILM
-- Describes
music dissertations 1967-present. International
coverage. Has summaries. - ProQuest Dissertations -- Describes dissertations
on all topics (including music) 1861-present; U.S. only. Has
summaries for 1980-present
(older summaries are in print volumes in Babbidge Library).
Includes downloadable full text of many dissertations.
- Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology (Web) -- Limited scope, but describes non-U.S. and pre-1969 dissertations. No summaries.
Check both RILM and ProQuest Dissertations since they have different coverage. See below for detailed database descriptions and additional dissertation web sites.
Step 2. How to Procure a Copy
Option 1. See if ProQuest Dissertations
Option 2. Search HOMER to see if UConn owns the dissertation. (Treat it like a book.)
Option 3. Use InterLibrary Loan to borrow the dissertation from another library: find the dissertation in WorldCat
Option 4. Order your own copy via ProQuest's Ordering Dissertations and Theses service.
Option 5. If you think the library should own the dissertation, speak with the music librarian. Use DD/ILL in the meantime.
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Detailed Database Descriptions (for Dissertations)
-
ProQuest Dissertations (same as
Dissertation Abstracts) -- Has
citations to two million dissertations (including about
28,000 music dissertations) from accredited U.S
institutions since 1861. Selectively covers masters
theses, Canadian dissertations, and European
dissertations. Has abstracts for dissertations beginning
July 1980 and masters theses beginning spring 1988. (This
means that for pre-1980 dissertations, there are fewer
keywords available for searching; it may be harder to
find a dissertation if the title is not descriptive.) To
read abstracts for pre-1980 dissertations, note the DA
number and year, then go to the print version of
Dissertation Abstracts at Z 5055.U5 A53 Babbidge Stacks.
This subscription database is updated monthly and has a
robust search engine.
NOTE: when you search ProQuest Dissertations, you are searching ONLY the citations, subject descriptors, and abstracts (if included). You are NOT searching the full text of dissertations.
UConn dissertations: ProQuest includes descriptions of UConn dissertations back to 1965, and provides the full text for most UConn dissertations completed after 1996. Occasionally, ProQuest has full text for pre-1997 UConn dissertations if someone somewhere (generally overseas) asked that the dissertation be scanned. UConn has not signed up for the "Retro Project" in which ProQuest scans dissertations prior to 1997.
Other dissertations: ProQuest has more than 600,000 dissertations available for immediate download by members of the UConn community. Some of these go rather far back in time. If you do not find the dissertation online, see how to get a dissertation (step 2).
Dissertation Abstracts Notes & RILM Comparison (more details) - Grove
Music Online Bibliographies
at the ends of articles contain citations to
dissertations.
- Music
Index Includes citations
from Dissertation Abstracts (Music Index considers DA to
be a musicology journal). The Music Index may be
useful for finding applied topics that might not appear
in RILM. It is also useful for "one-stop shopping," at least
from 1977ff. Still, because dissertation titles are
very descriptive, and MI's subject headings seem to be drawn
from the titles, there may not be a great advantage to using
MI over DA. TIP: If you find dissertation citations in the Music
Index, search them again in DA to try to find the full
text and/or abstract, or to get the DA number for some interlibrary
loan requests. Note: the print volumes of Music Index (going
back to 1949) also include dissertation citations. Use DA
or another dissertation source for dissertations written
before 1949.
- JSTOR
Bibliographies at the ends of articles contain citations to
dissertations.
- RILM
Includes citations
and abstracts to scholarly music dissertations back to 1967.
See Dissertation Abstracts
Notes (PDF) for comparison between RILM and
Dissertation Abstracts.
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Dissertation Web Sites
ProQuest Dissertations omits a good number of
non-U.S. dissertations, so consult the following resources
if you need a more international view of scholarship in
your research area.
- Archive of Dissertation Abstracts in Music (ADAM) (maintained by Geoffrey Chew). Indexes and abstracts 186 dissertations (complete or in process). Half are from Europe and other worldwide locations. This resource may be handy if the desired dissertation is not in Dissertation Abstracts and is not abstracted in DDM below.
- Center for Research Libraries's (CRL) Quick Search Page. The CRL collects non-U.S. dissertations. Look for "foreign" dissertations in CRL's catalog and in its now defunct foreign dissertations database. As a member of CRL, UConn can borrow dissertations for its faculty, students, and staff.
- DDM: Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology Online (Indiana). Good for identifying over 13,000 music dissertations from institutions outside the U.S. (which Dissertation Abstracts often excludes), plus those written before 1969 (pre-RILM). Also includes some "in-process" dissertations. Does not have abstracts, and has only very basic search tools (Dissertation Abstracts and RILM are better), but allows user to browse by musical period.
- DMS (Dissertationsmeldestelle der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung). Musicology dissertations submitted in Austria, Switzerland and the German Federal Republic, with occasional entries from other European countries, and including doctoral dissertations in music education since 1998.
- Doctoral Dissertations in Music Theory, see MTO Dissertations Index below.
- EDT Digital Library (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)) provides access to electronic full text of hundreds of theses and dissertations from over eighty universities/libraries worldwide.
- Foreign Doctoral Dissertations -- The Center for Research Libraries (of which UConn is a member) holds 750,000 foreign doctoral dissertations; many remain uncataloged, so contact CRL via this link for further inquiries.
- Index to Theses in Great Britain and Ireland. Titles and abstracts; site registration necessary for access, but a limited free demo is available.
- MTO Dissertations Index. Announcements that have appeared in Music Theory Online (Society for Music Theory) of approximately 260 completed dissertations dealing with music theory (mostly 1991 or later), including many non-U.S. dissertations that do not appear in Dissertation Abstracts. Includes abstracts and occasional tables of contents. List is sortable; otherwise, there is no search engine; the Google search includes the entire MTO site. Keywords are not standardized.
- TheseNet (including free access to all French theses on music since 1972; abstracts are available) is no longer available. Instead try SUDOC or Système universitaire de documentation (union catalog of French libraries that includes theses) or Fichier central des thèses (doctoral theses in progress).
- Search Google for other dissertation Web resources and initiatives.
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Print Resources Listing Music Dissertations
Print and electronic reference resources often list dissertations that predate the databases above. They may also have evaluative comments and context not found in the databases. Here are starting points:
- Bibliographies on your topic. Consult print subject bibliographies on composers, styles, instruments, etc. These have citations to dissertations. To find bibliographies, do a HOMER Subject Heading search on your composer/topic and look for the subheading "Bibliographies." Also try a Keyword search on the words dissertations [keyword] [keyword], e.g., dissertations music education. General music bibliographies. Consult bibliographies of music dissertations, such as Rita Mead's Doctoral Dissertations in American Music: A Classified Bibliography (1978). To find them, do an Advanced Search in HOMER (type music dissertations, then select Subject Keywords in the "Search In" menu).
- Duckles. The index in Duckles's Music Reference and Research Materials: An Annotated Bibliography (ML 113 D83 1997 Music Ref.) lists several print resources that can help you identify dissertations.
- Bibliographies in books and articles. These often contain citations to dissertations. Don't forget that JSTOR allows you to search the full text of articles, including their bibliographies (these often contain citations to dissertations).
Future of Dissertations
- For information about the future of online dissertations, see Yale Fineman's article, "Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Music" in Notes 60, no. 4 (June 2004): 893-907. Full text is available in Project Muse to the UConn community. [link to article; requires VPN login first if you are off campus]
- For an article comparing online dissertation tools, see Andrew Toulas's article, "Dissertation Databases on the Web,"Notes 63, no. 1 (September 2006): 159-163. Full text is available in Project Muse to the UConn community. [link to article; requires VPN login first if you are off campus]
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This page was found at http://www.lib.uconn.edu/music/dissertations.html.