Use dictionaries to find the meaning of terms, and obtain background information of your subject from encyclopedias.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music / [advisory editors, Bruno Nettl and Ruth M. Stone ; founding editors, James Porter and Timothy Rice].
The Harvard dictionary of music / edited by Don Michael Randel.
Historical dictionary of baroque music / Joseph P. Swain.
Historical dictionary of romantic music / John Michael Cooper with Randy Kinnett.
The music tech dictionary : a glossary of audio-related terms and technologies / Mitch Gallagher.
The Hutchinson encyclopedia of music / edited by David Cummings ; consultant musicologist, Tallis Barker.
The New Grove dictionary of opera / edited by Stanley Sadie ; managing editor, Christina Bashford.
The Oxford dictionary of musical terms / edited by Alison Latham.
The Oxford dictionary of musical works / edited by Alison Latham.
The Oxford encyclopaedia of the music of India / chief editor, Nikhil Ghosh
Conductors and composers of popular orchestral music : a biographical and discographical sourcebook / Reuben Musiker and Naomi Musiker ; foreword by David Ades.
Contemporary Composers / editors, Brian Morton, Pamela Collins ; with a preface by Brian Ferneyhough.
A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889) by eminent writers, English and foreign / edited by George Grove.
Dictionary of music education / Irma H. Collins.
A guide to 20th-century composers / Mark Morris.
The Routledge guide to music technology / edited by Thom Holmes.
The Harvard biographical dictionary of music / edited by Don Michael Randel.
Musical groups in the movies, 1929-1970 / Roy Liebman
Music of the twentieth-century avant-garde : a biocritical sourcebook / edited by Larry Sitsky ; foreword by Jonathan D. Kramer.
The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians / edited by Stanley Sadie ; executive editor, John Tyrrell.
Show tunes : the songs, shows, and careers of Broadway's major composers / Steven Suskin ; with a foreword by Michael Feinstein.a list of sources used in the preparation of your research
Reader's guide to music : history, theory, criticism / editor, Murray Steib.
Music research : a handbook / Laurie J. Sampsel
Collected editions, historical series & sets & monuments of music : a bibliography / George R. Hill, Norris L. Stephens.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by 
