Listen to music on vinyl, CD & cassette
Vinyl records, CDs and cassettes are in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library in rooms GM69 and GM70. Players for this material can be found in GM70. See our Floorplans.
Search for recordings in Library Search and refine your results by 'Resource type' to 'Audio'.
The Maughan Library
Print books, journals, scores and recordings for Music can be found at the Maughan Library. Discover material using Library Search and the A-Z Databases:
Collections Guide for Music
Welcome to the Collections Guide for Music
This guide provides tailored information on library collections and links to some of our key resources.
New! nkoda app for music scores
- Nkoda This link opens in a new window Nkoda is a digital sheet music app providing access to over 100 thousand publisher editions of sheet music from a wide-range range of classical and contemporary composers, including musical theatre and modern pop music. King's username and password required for access. Users need to download the Nkoda app to a personal device to view content. This is currently unavailable on King's devices.The Nkoda Windows app can be downloaded here. The version for Mac here. Versions for Android and iOs can be found in the Google and Apple app stores.
A new app for digital sheet music covering a wide-range range of classical and contemporary composers.
Listen to music online
- British Library Sounds This link opens in a new window British Library Sounds presents 50,000 recordings and their associated documentation from the Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds.On the web: Where copyright permits, many recordings are available worldwide to the general public to listen to online. The main exception concerns the classical music recordings which are not available for streaming to the United States.UK Higher and further education: Staff and students at licensed UK higher and further education institutions can listen to all recordings online and download the majority of them for academic use
- Ethnographic Sound Archives Online This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together over 2,000 hours of previously unpublished historic field recordings from around the world, alongside their supporting field notes and ethnographers’ metadata, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context.
- Music Online (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window Music Online offers a single platform for cross-searching audio recordings, 400,000 pages of scores, 100,000 pages of music reference and over 500 hours of video.
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window Naxos is an online classical music library offering access to the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues. With over 800 new albums added every month, genres including classic pop, rock and Chinese orchestral music are also represented. Also see Naxos Music Library Jazz. There is a concurrent usage limit - please click the red 'log out' button when you have finished with this resource.
- Naxos Music Library Jazz This link opens in a new window Online jazz music collection offering over 100,000 jazz tracks from more than 12,000 represented artists. Contains the catalogues of Blue Notes Records, 22 labels of Fantasy Jazz and over 150 other labels. Also see Naxos Music Library. There is a concurrent usage limit - please click the red 'log out' button when you have finished with this resource.
Find music literature online
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (1880-2015), Collections 1–4 This link opens in a new window An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.King's has access to:EIMA1: Music, Radio and The StageEIMA2: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 1)EIMA3: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 2)EIMA4: Music – Folk, Rock & Hip Hop
- Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window Online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship.
- Music Online: African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window Music Online: African American Music Reference brings together the very best of Alexander Street Music text collections relevant to African American music in one accessible package. Music scholars will easily access useful encyclopedias, scores, manuscripts, biographies, and other reference texts that make up the core of music curricula around the world.
- Music Online: Classical Music Reference Library This link opens in a new window Classical Music Reference Library brings together a variety of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, which are available for the first time in electronic form.
- Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century This link opens in a new window Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century is a collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements. Over 200,000 pages of material will be available for research on the Alexander Street multimedia platform – the only resource that allows users to cross-search the full text of all articles with videos, audio recordings, photographs, scores, and reference texts.
- Music Periodicals Database (1874-) This link opens in a new window The Music Periodicals Database (formerly known as International Index to Music Periodicals) is the leading specialized source of periodicals for the general, undergraduate, and advanced study of music. It resides on the ProQuest Platform and supports music scholarship, theory, and practice with access to over 400 full-text titles and citations sourced from more than 900 music periodicals.Music Periodicals Database covers a comprehensive range of subject areas in both scholarly and popular music journals in all aspects of music and musical genres, from the liturgical chants of medieval monks to the eclectic sounds of contemporary alternative rock. Among others, covered topics are: music education, musicology, music theory, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, classical music, opera, jazz, pop culture, popular music forms and composition.Content is added on a monthly basis. It is also regularly updated with new functionality and features.
- Oxford History of Western Music This link opens in a new window Oxford History of Western Music offers an unmatched narrative account of the evolution of Western classical music. Laced with brilliant observations, memorable musical analyses, and a panoramic sense of the interaction between history, culture, politics, art, literature, religion, and music, the Oxford History of Western Music is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the rich and diverse tradition of Western music. The driving force behind the Oxford History of Western Music is Richard Taruskin, one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists working today.
- Performing Arts Periodicals Database (1864-) This link opens in a new window This database provides indexing and abstracts for around 400 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 160 of the indexed journals. The database currently includes almost a million records, the majority from the most recent ten years of each journal. Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
- RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967–) This link opens in a new window Indexes articles on music and related subjects from over 500 journals; also books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, concert reviews, films and videos. 1967 to present. Updated monthly. Available via Senate House (EBSCOhost)Senate House resources require registering for Senate House library membership. See also our library FAQ for more details.
Find books on music
Print books for Music are on the second floor of the Maughan Library in rooms 2.45 and 2.46. See our Floorplans.
Key classmarks include:
- ML - literature on music
- MT - music instruction and study
Find print books and ebooks via Library Search.
Watch music on video
- Alexander Street Video (Alexander Street Press) - New platform This link opens in a new window Alexander Street Press is an online video streaming platform with access to more than 34,000 video titles. This database offers a wealth of digitized content across disciplines, but is particularly focused on the fields of counselling, anthropology, history, diversity studies, theatre, film, music, dance, news, current affairs, and the social sciences.King’s has access to a wide range of educational videos, audio and text resources.
- Box of Broadcasts (BoB National) This link opens in a new window BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. You can choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely (no expiry) and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.Please note: Individual registration is required and access is only available from the UK.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window Kanopy is an online video streaming platform with access to a unique collection of films in the world, including documentaries and training films.
- Music Online: Classical Music in Video This link opens in a new window Classical music performances in video
- Music Online: Opera in Video This link opens in a new window Music Online: Opera in Video contains five hundred hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Academic Video Online provides a vast database of film and video clips from documentary, newsreel, entertainment, and television sources. The thematic range and temporal span make the collection relevant to many disciplines, from anthropology to zoology, various courses and student levels.
The collection includes award-winning films, including Academy®, Emmy®, and Peabody® winners, and gives access to the content from PBS, BBC, 60 MINUTES, National Geographic, Annenberg Learner, BroadwayHD™, A+E Networks’ HISTORY® and more sources.
Academic Video Online is a part of ProQuest One Academic.
Find music equipment
A range of equipment is available in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library. See our Floorplans.
- 4 midi keyboards, with Focusrite soundcards and PCs with Ableton software are available in room GM66.
- A larger keyboard is available in GM71.
- Record players, CD players and cassette players are in GM70.
Find music scores online
- Nkoda This link opens in a new window Nkoda is a digital sheet music app providing access to over 100 thousand publisher editions of sheet music from a wide-range range of classical and contemporary composers, including musical theatre and modern pop music. King's username and password required for access. Users need to download the Nkoda app to a personal device to view content. This is currently unavailable on King's devices.The Nkoda Windows app can be downloaded here. The version for Mac here. Versions for Android and iOs can be found in the Google and Apple app stores.
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 This link opens in a new window Music Online: Classical Scores Library is a series of four volumes with a mission to provide a reliable and authoritative source for scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of lesser-known contemporary works. The collections encompass all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. With full, study, piano, and vocal scores, this comprehensive collection will enhance the study of music history, performance, composition and theory for a variety of scholars. King’s has access to:Music Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume IMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume IIMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume IIIMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume IVMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume VMusic Online: Classical Scores Library, Volume VI - The Boosey & Hawkes Collection
Find print music scores
Scores are in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library. See our Floorplans.
- Main scores sequence (rooms GM67 & GM69)
- Unbound scores (room GM67)
- Miniature scores (room GM66)
- Outsize scores (room GM66)
Scores have the classmark ‘M’ followed by a number e.g. M2000-2007 is for oratorios. They are arranged by type of work rather than by composer. The main arrangement of scores is:
- M1-3 - Collections and manuscripts
- M5-1490 - Instrumental music, begins with solo instruments and finishes with large orchestral groups
- M1497-1998 - Secular vocal music
- M1999-2199 - Sacred vocal music
Search for scores in Library Search and refine your results by 'Resource type' to 'Scores'.
External Libraries
If you need resources beyond King's, you may want to visit other libraries with music collections:
Please check for access restrictions before visiting.
Find Arts & Humanities literature online
The following eresources cover a range of disciplines including your subject area:
- Proquest Arts & Humanities collection This link opens in a new window A collection of ProQuest databases in the Arts & Humanities subject area for King's users. Additional databases may be available via Senate House
- JSTOR ebooks and journals This link opens in a new window JSTOR offers academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Via JSTOR books, King's currently has access to over 54,000 titles from over 42 publishers.King’s subscribes to the following collections within JSTOR: 19th Century British PamphletsArts & Sciences I-XV CollectionBusiness I CollectionBusiness II CollectionIreland CollectionJewish StudiesLanguage & Literature CollectionLife Sciences CollectionMusic CollectionPolitical ScienceFilm StudiesLanguage and LiteraturePhilosophyReligionSociologyBusiness and Economics
- Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) This link opens in a new window PAO – formerly PCI Full Text - is a major online periodical archive that contains hundreds of journal backfiles in the humanities and social sciences. The date range is 1770-2000. A hive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas. Please note King's College London users have access to Collections 1 to 10 and JISC special collections 1 and 2.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content; since 1995, its electronic journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE books and journals, from leading university presses and scholarly societies, are fully integrated for search and discovery. King's only subscribes to selected journals.
- Ebook Central - King's This link opens in a new window Ebook Central is an ebook platform. King’s have purchased over 21,200 titles covering a range of subjects and provides further access to over 176,350 titles.
- Humanities Index (1962-) This link opens in a new window An international abstracting and indexing tool available via ProQuest for research in the humanities. HI indexes over 400 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK. It covers current affairs, political science, religion, law, history, archaeology, education, economics, environment and gender studies.Updated monthly with approximately 1,500 records added; it also has the capability to link to electronic full text of many journal articles