Subject Area: Music
The music collection at the Robert W. Woodruff Library supports the curricula of music department faculty at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), Morehouse College (MH), and Spelman College (SC). The CAU music program offers the Bachelor of Arts degree in music and music education. The MH music program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in music with concentrations in performance, choral conducting and literature, music theory and composition. The SC music program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in music with concentrations in performance, music theory and composition, and music education. Course offerings at the three aforementioned schools include music history (introductory through advanced), music theory (introductory through advanced), choral conducting and literature, composition, vocal literature and pedagogy, African American music, opera in addition to functional music instruction in individual/group instruments and voice. The strength of the core collection is in European and American musical traditions with special emphasis on African American musical traditions.
Degrees offered by Clark Atlanta University are:
Degrees offered by Morehouse College are:
Degrees offered by Spelman College are:
Languages
Music scores are collected in a variety of languages with a limited number of monographs and reference works in European languages. There is no limit for languages with regards to the audio collection. The overwhelming majority of the serials collection is in English with access to foreign language periodicals available through Inter Library Loan (ILL).
Chronological Coverage
The majority of the music collection focuses on the medieval through contemporary western music history. Special emphasis is also placed on 20th century African American music.
Geographical Coverage
The collection focuses primarily upon music from Europe and North America. Non-western musical traditions are also collected, with special emphasis on musical traditions of the African Diaspora.
Scope
The core of the music collection is devoted to materials useful for students of music history, performance, music education, and music theory. However, the collection is also strong in areas where courses in women composers, jazz history, African American music history, and popular music, require materials to support scholastic endeavors.
The collection consists of monographs, serials, collected editions and individual scores, musical recordings, filmed performances, and electronic resources. Performance scores are collected for the smaller ensembles (choir, jazz band, etc.) and for individual instruments (piano, string, brass, etc.). We also have the complete CD-Sheet Music Library in CD-ROM format. Musical recordings are collected in CD format. The film collection includes materials on videotape and DVD format. The electronic resources available to faculty and students include RILM database, Classical Music Library (CML) as well as a variety of E-Journals dedicated to various aspects of music scholarship.
This collection has several authoritative collected works by impactful classical composers, such as Bach and Beethoven. It also has strengths in its holdings of African American composers, biographies, and history. Additionally, faculty are encouraged to request specific titles in their areas of concentration for teaching or research.
Although the Library maintains electronic access to thousands of recordings, this collection has a weakness in physical music recordings (compact discs, DVDs, and vinyl records).
Among the items included in the collection are works of the Atlanta University Center faculty, including recordings and monographs. Older and current works by African American composers, music theorists, and music historians are also among standard inclusions for the collection.
Vinyl records are excluded from the collection due to the general availability of recordings in other formats, space issues, and maintenance issues involved.