Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Music and Nationalism
Fordham University provides college-level reading on how the Nationalism of the 19th Century affected the music of the 20th, especially Classical music. These composers lived most of their lives in the 1800's, but are often classified...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Modern Music: 1900 1960
A complete, undergraduate level online class on the topic of modern music in the 1900s. Includes complete course material.
BBC
Bbc: Bitesize: Gcse Music
GCSE Music provides links to a variety of music topics including composers, composing music, music theory, music technology, performing and evaluating music, music styles, world music, and traditional music from the UK.
Music Education
This Day in Music History
Find out what kinds of musical things occurred throughout history on any given day of the year. Key in a date and find out what composers were born or died, etc.
Other
Music Under Soviet Rule
Historical information and composer information both appear here with reviews of CDs and purchasing links. Point of view is clearly anti-Soviet.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Schubert to Debussy
A complete undergraduate-level online course on Western music history for the period 1815-1915. Includes course assignments.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Moldenhauer Archives
The Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress contain approximately 3,500 items documenting the history of Western music from the medieval period through the modern era.
PBS
Pbs: Geography of Music: Age of Emerging Modernism, 1885 1920
See where and when composers interacted and were influenced by one another in this interactive world map. The map highlights the relationships among the various composers as well as the connection between music to history.
PBS
Pbs: Geography of Music the World in the Age of Revolutions
This interactive map helps illuminate the relationships among the various composers as well as connections between music and its historical and cultural context. It also illustrates the importance of the physical and cultural...
Other
Down Beat: Cecil Taylor
A detailed site containing information in the following sections: photos, biography, and archived news articles about avant-garde pianist/composer Cecil Taylor.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Music in the Renaissance
Learn how the political, religious and economic changes in Europe during the Renaissance affected the music of the period. A slide show introduces viewers to a variety of instruments which were developed in conjunction with the new music.
San Diego State University
Classical Cards
The underlining object of the musical card game is to learn more about classical music forms, composers, and specific works.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz: Duke's Music Class
Learn about jazz from the master, Duke Ellington. Three activities explore his role as jazz composer, orchestra leader, and pianist.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Musical Theater
A short and concise history of musical theater with two early performers and a composer highlighted.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz: Duke Ellington
This site provides audio clips, photos, and biographical information of this legendary composer and performer. A match game teaches and tests your knowledge of Ellington.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: A Brief History of Jazz!
A lesson plan that helps students explore the roots of jazz music and some of the important jazz musicians in history.
PBS
Classics for Kids: This Week
This website is sponsored by a classical radio station in the Midwest. The site contains audio files and text files of past shows, games, a handful of lesson plans, and lots of energy. You can find information on many composers by...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Documents Gallery: Ellington and Strayhorn
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, two of the greatest jazz composers, collaborated on hundreds of works. As you explore this exhibition, you will have an opportunity to view original music scores, listen to audio clips, and view videos...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Catherine Schmidt Jones: Scoring Music: Write for Specific Instruments
If you are interested in arranging your own music, you should check out the tips offered at this website. Including a history of how music was arranged, this site also gives several good ideas of how to make your arrangements interesting.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Catherine Schmidt Jones: The Music of the Romantic Era
Here is a nice introduction to the Romantic Era. It describes the various elements and the composers of this time.
Library of Congress
Loc: Today in History: February 13: Victor Herbert/ascap
This is an article discussing the founding of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). It gives a detailed overview of it's first director, Victor Herbert.
Other
"Blind" Boone: History
This resource provides a thorough biography of one of the most influential but overlooked Ragtime composers, John William "Blind" Boone. The emphasis is on his lifetime and the tremendous success of his musical career despite his...
A&E Television
History.com: How Al Capone Spent His Time in Alcatraz
Public Enemy #1 was transferred to the now-infamous island prison a few weeks after it opened. To Americans of the 1920s and '30s, he was the notorious gangster Scarface Al, Public Enemy No. 1. But when he arrived at Alcatraz in late...
Classical Net
Classical Net: Timeline of Famous Composers: 1100 1700
A PDF timeline of composers in the Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.