Covers biographies, criticism, country surveys, artistic styles and movements, art forms, subject matter and iconography, and techniques.
A great first step in the research process. Includes Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
Tertiary sources are excellent starting points! They consist of information synthesized from primary and secondary sources. Examples include:
These resources give you succinct overviews of your topic, explain scholarly arguments, point out interesting questions, and refer you to especially key sources.