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MUS 5 - Music Online: Music Online

This is a general overview of the Music Online streaming with specific instructions for Music 5 classes.

Music Online

Music Online consists of the following five cross-searchable streaming audio collections:

Jazz Music Library - A comprehensive collection of jazz covering a variety of artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.

Contemporary World Music - Contains genres from all regions of the world such as reggae, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, etc

Smithsonian Global Sound - Contains international/world music audio archives including recordings from Smithsonian Folkways.

Classical Music Library - A collection of 50,000-plus tracks of classical recordings covering music written from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera.

American Song - Includes songs from America’s history such as songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys, the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, etc.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL! There's poetry, speeches, comedy, sound effects, stage and screen, science and nature, music and language instruction!

          Browse Genres to see more!

  Searching and Browsing

Browse Tips:

  • Browsing is a good way to explore all audio tracks, biographical info, or liner notes.
  • Browse in a number of ways including composer, album, genre, song title, instruments,  cultural groups, and time period.  
  • Click on any access point in the BROWSE column on the left side of the page or the BROWSE drop-down menu along the top of the page
  • Expand an item by clicking on the + symbol.
  • You can sort your results by any column by clicking on that  column heading.
  • The numbers in parenthesis indicate the approximate number of audio tracks available.

Search Tips:

Tip 1: Keep searches simple and specific.

Tip 2: Try double-checking your spelling before giving up a search.

Tip 3: Word order, case and punctuation are not important. For example, John Coltrane may be entered: Coltrane John

Tip 4: You can enter more than one term in each search box.  For instance, if you wish to find all text with either the piano or harmonica, use the Basic search box and enter: piano harmonica

Tip 5: Enter terms in the singular, e.g. "opera" not "operas"

  Viewing Results & Listening to Audio

To listen to a song, click the title or the play button.

A small audio player window will open. 

Use the basic music controls to start, pause, etc. 

To move through the song click on time counter.

Liner notes are available for most albums.  Click on "View Liner Note" (pdf) link.

Subject Guide

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Frances Hui