Music Citation Guide (Chicago Style)

As you scroll, you'll find footnote and bibliography entry templates and examples of citations for real sources for the following types of encyclopedia and dictionary entries:

• Websites
• Blogs

NOTE: Citations for websites, blogs, and content from Libraries databases like journal articles and digital encyclopedia entries (including Oxford Music Online/Grove) are formatted slightly differently! 

• The Chicago Manual of Style Online defines these differences as follows in section 14.205: "Websites, blogs, and social media defined:"
  "For the purposes of this discussion, website refers to the collection of pages (web pages) made publicly available via the internet at a specific location on the World Wide Web by an individual or an organization. A blog (from weblog) is a web-based forum that consists of posted entries organized by date or topic (and often also titled or signed, or both) and usually accompanied by readers’ comments. Social media (or social networking) refers to any internet-based forum for public communication shared by means of a dedicated platform or service. A website can host or consist of a blog or social media content, and blogs overlap with social media (not to mention online periodicals), blurring the distinctions between the terms. All three can include multimedia content (see [Chicago Manual of Style Online section] 14.267–68). Social media can also consist of privately shared content, which is normally cited like other forms of personal communication (see [Chicago Manual of Style Online section] 14.214)."
   
• Websites include digital content that is not "published" in the traditional sense, the way that ebooks, digital journal articles, and digital encyclopedias are published. Website content could include resources like a composer's or performer's website; an ensemble's, museum's, or other organization's website; or commercially-available content for sale.
   
• Resources found through Libraries databases like journal articles or encyclopedia entries have their own citation templates that are slightly different than the template for websites. This guide also provides examples of citations for digital journal and newspaper articles and for digital encyclopedia entries (like those that come from Oxford Music Online/Grove or The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.
   

The distinction between different types of digital content is sometimes difficult to make, so if you're ever unsure about how to cite digital content, contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian (jabbazio@umn.edu) for help!

Notes:

• Include creator(s) name(s) if listed on website; if not available, start with “Title of an Individual Page on the Website.”
   

Footnote template:

1. Author First Name Last Name if Available, “Title of an Individual Page on the Website,” Title of the Entire Website, accessed Date YOU Accessed the Website, URL.
 

Example of a real footnote:

3. Joy M. Doan, “Building Music Library Collections as Encouragement for Reframed Music History Pedagogy,” Beyond Tokenism: Dismantling, Rethinking & Reframing Narratives in Music History Pedagogy, accessed March 25, 2022, https://musichistoryredo.wordpress.com/redoing-mh-pedagogy/pedagogical-techniques-for-greater-inclusion-2/building-music-library-collections-as-encouragement-for-reframed-music-history-pedagogy/.

6. “Mission Statement,” The African American Art Song Alliance, accessed March 25, 2022, https://artsongalliance.org/pages/mission-statement.

Bibliography entry template:

Example of a real bibliography entry:

Footnote template:

9. Author First Name Last Name, “Title of Blog Post,” Title of the Entire Blog (blog), Additional Publisher if Applicable, Date Blog Post Was Published, URL.
 

Example of a real footnote:

17. Alex Ross, “Salieri Footnotes,” The Rest is Noise (blog), May 27, 2019, https://www.therestisnoise.com/2019/05/salieri-footnotes.html.

42. Alex Ross, “Salieri’s Revenge,” Onward and Upward with the Arts (blog), The New Yorker, May 27, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/antonio-salieris-revenge.

Bibliography entry template:

Example of a real bibliography entry: