Guide to Research for the Choral Conducting Studio

Dissertations are excellent sources of trustworthy, thorough, and narrowly-focused research. They represent the cutting-edge of research on music, and provide in-depth analysis of everything for composers' styles, their works, and their lives. For performers, dissertations can be great sources for annotated bibliographies of repertoire, and they can also include detailed examination of specific works that can help with everything from tonal analysis to performance practice. Lastly, they include really helpful bibliographies and lists of references that can help you to find other relevant sources for your own research.

The dissertation databases below represent a range of resources:

• Some provide full-text access to PDFs of dissertations (look for the PDF icon or a button that says download PDF)
   
• Others list author names and other publication information that you can use to place a request for the item through interlibrary loan. 

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses should be your first stop for searching for dissertations because:

• Our subscription will give you full-text access to documents published through Big Ten institutions - just click the "download PDF" button. 
  
  
   
• This resource indexes dissertations published at universities all over North America - if you can't get access to a PDF from the database, click the M-Find it button to place an interlibrary loan request.
  
   

TIP: Want to see what dissertations are available from other institutions around the world and that you can't access through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global? Check out the links at the bottom of this page, and contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at jabbazio@umn.edu for help!

Dissertations are excellent sources of trustworthy, thorough, and narrowly-focused research. They represent the cutting-edge of research on music, and provide in-depth analysis of everything for composers' styles, their works, and their lives. For performers, dissertations can be great sources for annotated bibliographies of repertoire, and they can also include detailed examination of specific works that can help with everything from tonal analysis to performance practice. Lastly, they include really helpful bibliographies and lists of references that can help you to find other relevant sources for your own research.

The dissertation databases below represent a range of resources:

• Some provide full-text access to PDFs of dissertations (look for the PDF icon or a button that says download PDF)
   
• Others list author names and other publication information that you can use to place a request for the item through interlibrary loan. If you locate a dissertation you need but can't access a full-text document, try clicking the maroon and gold M-Find It button (if you see one):

Clicking the M-Find It button will take you to the Libraries catalog, where you should click on the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) link to place a request through the ILL system:

If you don't see an M-Find It button, you can place a request for the item by filling out a form on the the Libraries Interlibrary Loan page:

• Visit the ILL homepage at lib.umn.edu/interlibraryloan
   
• Click the box labeled "Thesis" under the "Create a Delivery Request" heading
  
  
   
• Once you're logged in with your University ID and password, fill out the form with as much information as you have about the dissertation (NOTE: If you found the resource in one of the dissertation databases below, it's helpful to keep that page open in a tab on your browser; all of the information you'll need to complete this form should be available for you to copy and paste from the database.)

Questions? Need help? Contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at jabbazio@umn.edu