Research Guides: Baroque Music (ca. 1600-1750): A Guide to Research and Resources: Composers & Publishers

Composer Bibliographies, Research Guides & Companions

Oxford Online Bibliographies compile authoritatively selected and annotated citations for key reference works, collected correspondence, biographies, monographs, and articles relating to prominent composers.

Research guides provide detailed listings for a composer's known musical and literary works followed by annotated bibliographies of the secondary literature on the composer's œuvre arranged by genre and important topics in the composer's life, career, and reception history—plus other features such as a genealogies, chronologies, and indexes.

Companions collate major essays by established experts that address key aspects of the composer's career, creative work, style, and critical reception.

G. F. Handel: A Guide to Research (Online) by Mary Ann Parker
Call Number: Reference (SV) ML 134 .H16 P37 2005 (print version)
Sections include: background, Handel's life and his works in general, sources and compositional methods, studies of Handel's music, performance practices and the Handel tradition, and indexes.
Claudio Monteverdi: a research and information guide by Maria Virginia Acuña & Susan Lewis
Call Number: Reference (SV) ML 134 .M66 L49 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Annotated bibliography with the most updated compilation since 1989.
The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi (Online) by John Whenham & Richard Wistreich (editors)
Call Number: ML410.M77 C36 2007 (print version)
Publication Date: 2007
Chapters offering overviews of his output of sacred, secular and dramatic music are complemented by 'intermedi', in which contributors examine individual works, or sections of works in detail. The book draws extensively on Monteverdi's letters.
The Cambridge companion to Bach (Online) by John Butt (editor)
Call Number: Reference (SV) ML410.B1 C242 1997 (print version)
Publication Date: 1997
Goes beyond a basic life-and-works study to provide a late twentieth-century perspective on J. S. Bach. Divided into three parts: historical context, the society, beliefs and the world-view of Bach's age; the music and Bach's compositional style; and Bach's influence and the performance and reception of his music through the succeeding generations.
The Cambridge Companion to Handel (Online) by Donald Burrows (editor)
Call Number: Reference (SV) ML410.H13 C2 1997 (print version)
Publication Date: 1997
Essays cover topics from Handel's composing methods to his treatment of the Italian language and matters of performance practice. The background to Handel's musical career is a major theme of the volume.

Composer Web Sites

American Bach Society
Founded in 1972 to support the study, performance, and appreciation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in the United States and Canada.
Bach Bibliography
"For the global community of Bach scholars."
American Handel Society
Founded in 1986, the society "seeks to foster study of the life, works, and times of George Frideric Handel, and to encourage and support the performance of his music."
International Heinrich Schütz Society
Detailed information on the "greatest German composer of the 17th century." (German only).