LibGuides: Music: B3 Music Resources

Music - B3 Resources

RGV Music Resources

A Texas-Mexican Cancionero: Folksongs of the Lower Border by Américo Paredes; Manuel. Peña (Introduction)
Call Number: LRGV M1668.4.T49 1995

ISBN: 0292765584

Publication Date: 1995, 1976

The folksongs of Texas's Mexican population pulsate with the lives of folk heroes, gringos, smugglers, generals, jailbirds, and beautiful women. In his cancionero, or songbook, Américo Paredes presents sixty-six of these songs in bilingual text--along with their music, notes on tempo and performance, and discography. Manuel Peña's new foreword situates these songs within the main currents of Mexican American music.
The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music by Manuel Peña
Call Number: ML3481.P46 1985

ISBN: 0292759835

Publication Date: 1985

Around 1930, a highly popular and distinctive type of accordion music, commonly known as conjunto, emerged among Texas-Mexicans. Manuel Peña's The Texas-Mexican Conjunto is the first comprehensive study of this unique folk style. The author's exhaustive fieldwork and personal interviews with performers, disc jockeys, dance promoters, recording company owners, and conjunto music lovers provide the crucial connection between an analysis of the music itself and the richness of the culture from which it sprang.
Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation Between Nations by Catherine Ragland
Call Number: ML3570.9.R35 2009

ISBN: 9781592137466

Publication Date: 2009

Música Norteña, a musical genre with its roots in the folk ballad traditions of Northern Mexico and the Texas-Mexican border region, has become a hugely popular musical style in the U.S., particularly among Mexican immigrants. Featuring evocative songs about undocumented border-crossers, drug traffickers, and the plight of immigrant workers, it has become "the" music of a nation between nations.
Lydia Mendoza's Life in Music / la Historia de Lydia Mendoza by Yolanda Broyles-González
Call Number: ML420.M3768 A3 2001

ISBN: 0195127064

Publication Date: 2001

The life story of this Chicana icon encompasses a 60-year singing career that began with the dawn of the recording industry in the 1920s and continued well into the 1980s. Her status as a working-class idol continues to this day, making her one of the most prominent and long-standing performers in the history of the recording industry and a champion of Chicana/o music. This bilingual edition presents Lydia Mendoza's historia in an interview between the artist and Yolanda Broyles-González: first is the English translation, then the Spanish original, as told by Mendoza herself. Broyles-González concludes the volume with an extended essay on the significance of Mendoza's career and her place in Tejana music and Chicana studies.

Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
Smithsonian Global Sound, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. Among other things, this resource features over 300 recordings from Arhoolie Records, the most important roots record label of the last sixty years. Arhoolie was one of the first labels to record Tex-Mex conjunto and Tejano music.

UTRGV Border Music Collection
Part of UTRGV's Border Studies Archive, the Border Music Collection is comprised of 80+ interviews with artists, 25+ live performances and recordings, as well as locally recorded commercial music. Collection materials range from norteña, orquesta regional, conjunto, and banda music to electronic and techno hybrid genres like nor-tech (norteño-techno) – each reflecting borderlands cultural formations. Includes the Alejandro L. Madrid Collection, the Cathy Ragland Collection, and material from the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame.
UTRGV Carl Seale Collection
Carl Seale lived and worked in the Rio Grande Valley for most of his 50-year career composing, teaching, and performing. He served as a music professor at the University of Texas Pan American for nearly 30 years, and as conductor of the Valley Symphony Orchestra for much of that time. The collection includes over 120 music compositions, as well as recordings, concert programs, news clippings, and photographs.

General Reference Sources

Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana by Casares, Emilio.; López-Calo, José.; Fernández de la Cuesta, Ismael.; González Peña, María Luz.
Call Number: ML101.S7 D53 1999

ISBN: 8480483032

Publication Date: c1999-c2002

An important 10-volume work in Spanish that collects and analyzes Latin American musical history from a broad and integrative perspective, through its history, characteristics, relationships, as well as its means and protagonists. Its publication in 1999-2002 was a milestone in the musical historiography of Spain and Latin America.
Diccionario enciclopédico de la música by Alison Latham (Editor)
Call Number: ML100 .O9418 2009

ISBN: 9786071600202

Publication Date: 2009

With more than 8,000 entries, this version of the classic Oxford Companion to Music is updated for the 21st century. It is an indispensable tool for students and professional musicians, and a useful and friendly companion for all music lovers and readers who wish to enrich their knowledge and enjoyment of music. It covers a wide range of topics, including composers, conductors, performers, works, instruments, performance terms, genres, forms, education, theory and music history. For its Spanish version, the work of Alison Latham, leading 150 specialists, was carefully supervised by a group of musicians and musicologists.
The Garland encyclopedia of world music by Dale A. Olsen (Editor); Daniel E. Sheehy (Editor)
Call Number: ML100.G16 1998

ISBN: 9780824049478

Publication Date: 1998

Important multivolume encyclopedia in English, focusing on World Music. Of particular interest is vol. 2, which explores the music of South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Polyglot dictionary of musical terms : English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian by Horst Leuchtmann; International Association of Music Libraries; International Musicological Society
Call Number: ML108.T4 1978

ISBN: 9630512769

Publication Date: 1978

Contains translations of musical terminology in multiple languages, including Spanish and English.

Databases and Archives

Library Databases

UCLA Ethnomusicology Field Recording Archive
Produced in collaboration with the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive and the Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of Washington, the material in this collection includes thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, educational recordings, film footage, field notebooks, slides, correspondence and ephemera from over 60 fields of study.

Music Online: Contemporary World Music
Contains over 66,000 contemporary world music tracks. Allows the user to save playlists and browse the collection by album, artist(s), cultural groups, genre, instruments used, location and more.
HAPI
Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) contains over 265,000 journal article citations about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. The Advanced Search option allows for Keyword and Subject searching, which helps in finding music content. Search results can also be filtered by language. Searches in HAPI can be conducted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Ethnic Newswatch
Contains the full text of newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic, minority and native publications. Of the 2.5 million+ articles, nearly a quarter are presented in Spanish, making ENW an unmatched bilingual database. In the Advanced Search, results can easily be filtered by language and ethnic group. Music resources can be found by Keyword or Subject searching.
Gale OneFile: Informe Académico
Search across full-text Spanish- and Portuguese-language scholarly journals, magazines, news, images, and videos from and about Latin America. Search results can easily be filtered by Subject and Document Type.

Archives and Collections

UT Benson Latin American Collection: Online Music Resources
Archival collections of music resources from the University of Texas Benson Latin American Collection, hosted by TARO (Texas Archival Resources Online).
Indiana University Latin American Music Center
The Latin American Music Center collection is comprised of thousands of items and includes rare manuscripts, published scores, colonial music anthologies, sound recordings, books, dissertations, periodicals, microfilms, and miscellaneous documents such as letters and photographs. Important private collections have also been donated to the LAMC.
UTRGV Border Studies Archive
The Border Studies Archive (BSA) is a repository for the culture and heritage of the borderlands of deep south Texas and houses collections relating to the unique folklore, histories, and lives of people living along the U.S.-Mexican border in South Texas. Includes materials related to border music, construction of the border wall, Latinas and politics, Spanish land grant research, traditional Mexican American folklore, visual border studies, oral histories, McAllen toxic plume, and more.
Smithsonian Music - Latin Music
Primarily focused on Latin Music in the U.S. Explore collections and resources related to Latin music. A rich variety of cultures and musical styles fall into this category, and while Spanish colonialism introduced a strong Spanish influence to Latino culture—hence the term 'Hispanic'—the musical legacy of Latin American (and U.S. Latino communities) is equally defined by the influences of Indigenous, African, and other European cultures.

Journals

Latin American Music Review/Revista de Música Latinoamericana
Journal that explores the historical, ethnographic, and sociocultural dimensions of Latin American music in Latin American social groups, including the Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, and Portuguese populations in the United States. Articles are written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Can be accessed through the following UTRGV Library databases: JSTOR, Music Periodicals Database, and Project Muse.
Revista Internacional de Educacion Musical
The official peer-reviewed Spanish-speaking journal of the International Society for Music Education. The editorial board of RIEM represents the most prominent scholars and practitioners and the journal is the only scholarly publication representing the best practices and research with a world-wide scope, published in Spanish. Can be accessed through the following UTRGV Library databases: Sage.
Diagonal: An Ibero-American Music Review
Open access online journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at the University of California, Riverside. Its purpose is to highlight the latest research into the vast musical heritage of Iberia and Latin America, as well as other regions once under Iberian colonial rule whose cultural traditions bear some imprint of Spanish or Portuguese influence, e.g., the Philippines or parts of the United States. It accepts contributions in Spanish, Portuguese, or English from scholars in musicology, ethnomusicology, and related disciplines. This peer-reviewed journal has an editorial board, and conforms to the highest standards of modern humanistic scholarship.
Trans: Revista Transcultural de Música
Online, open-access journal of the Society of Ethnomusicology and the Spanish branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. It is a refereed journal that publishes original articles mainly in Spanish, English and Portuguese on issues related to (ethno)musicology, traditional music, and urban popular music. The journal features cross-cultural, transdisciplinary approaches.
Contrapulso: Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios en Música Popular
An open access biannual journal published by the Universidad Alberto Hurtado of Chile, with blind peer review, oriented to the multidisciplinary study of popular music in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is registered in Open Journal Systems (OJS), and articles are published in Spanish, English, or Portuguese. At UTRGV, can be found in the database HAPI.
Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies
Publishes articles on Latin American culture and on theoretical and historical approaches to cultural production in Latin America, including Caribbean, Latino/a and other diasporic, trans-regional formations. Multidisciplinary work focusing on literature, film, visual arts, and music, as well as anthropology, gender and queer studies, communication, history and memory studies, and other areas of analysis. Can be accessed through the following UTRGV Library databases: Taylor & Francis.

Books

Musics of Latin America by Robin Moore (General Editor); Walter Aaaron Clark (Contributing Editor)
Call Number: ML199.M886 2012

ISBN: 9780393929652

Publication Date: 2012

Covering one of the most musically diverse regions in the world, Musics of Latin America emphasizes music as a means of understanding culture and society: each author balances an analysis of musical genres with discussion of the historical and cultural trends that have shaped them. Chapters cover traditional, popular, and classical repertoire, and in-text listening guides ensure that students walk away with a solid understanding of the music.
Experiencing Latin American Music by Carol A. Hess
Call Number: ML199 .H44 2018

ISBN: 9780520285583

Publication Date: 2018

Experiencing Latin American Music draws on human experience as a point of departure for musical understanding. Explores broad topics--identity, the body, religion, and more--and relates these to Latin American musics while refining an understanding of musical concepts and cultural-historical contexts. This volume covers nearly fifty genres and provides both students and instructors with online access to audio tracks and listening guides.
Music in Mexico: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture by Alejandro L. Madrid
Call Number: ML3485.M34 2013

ISBN: 9780199812806

Publication Date: 2012

The complex legacy of Mexico's ethnic past and geographic location have shaped the country and its culture. In Music in Mexico, Alejandro L. Madrid uses extensive fieldwork, interviews with performers, eyewitness accounts of performances, and vivid illustrations to guide students through modern-day music practices. Applying three themes - ethnic identity, migration, and media influences - the text explores the music that Mexicans grow up listening to and shows how these traditions are the result of long-standing transnational dialogues.
El Mariachi: Símbolo Musical de México by Jesús Jáuregui
Call Number: ML3485.J387 2007

ISBN: 9789707709256

Publication Date: 2007

A never before seen summary of the mariachi from its origin in the18th Century, to the modern mariachi and its ample recognition abroad. The product of twenty-five years of historical and field investigation, this work reveals the myths about the mariachi's origins and its roots and explains why it became Mexico's musical symbol and an element of identity for Mexicans and Latin Americans.
Mariachi Music in America by Daniel Sheehy
Call Number: ML3485.S54 2006

ISBN: 9780195141450

Publication Date: 2005

An accessible introduction to the social, cultural, and economic conditions surrounding mariachi music in the United States. Large immigrations of Mexicans to the U.S., the power of the international recording industry, and the fluid travel of mariachi musicians between the two countries have resulted in a strong base of musical continuity across the political border. Drawing on thirty-five years of personal performance experience and on interviews with leading mariachi musicians, author Daniel Sheehy offers first-hand perspectives on the music's stylistic cornerstones, aesthetic standards, social standing, and economic life.
Mario Lavista by Ana R. Alonso-Minutti
Call Number: Online - Open Access

ISBN: 9780190212728

Publication Date: 2023

This open access title is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Composer, pianist, editor, writer, and pedagogue Mario Lavista (1943-2021) was a central figure of the cultural and artistic scene in Mexico and one of the leading Ibero-American composers of his generation.
Carlos Chávez: A Guide to Research by Robert L. Parker
Call Number: ML134.C43 P37 1998

ISBN: 0815320876

Publication Date: 1998

An extensive guide to the life, music, and writings of Carlos Chávez (1899-1978), Mexico's most influential musician of the 20th century.

Professional Organizations

General Tips: Finding More B3 Music Resources

With the UTRGV Library Catalog, as well as most databases, search results can be filtered by language, making it quick and easy to locate Spanish-language content.

For some databases (such as Music Index, Music Periodicals Database, and HAPI), the user interface can be presented in various languages, including Spanish. This feature may be available within the database's user settings or via a "languages" option at the top-right of the resource's main page.

Below are some suggested keyword searches and subject searches to find more B3 Music content using UTRGV's Library Catalog (click on the links below to see search results).

Keyword Suggestions:
Canción* (searches for "Canción" and the * allows for variants: Canciónes, Cancionero, etc.)
Composers and Mexico
Conjunto Music
Corridos
Mariachi
Music and Mexico
Tejano Music

Subject Suggestions:
Folk music -- Mexico
Music -- Mexico
Musicians -- Mexico
Popular music -- Mexico
Tex Mex Music

For any of these sample catalog searches, results can be limited to feature specific formats, including books, music scores, and audio recordings.

Generally, searches conducted in library catalogs and academic databases retrieve the same results for terms and names containing accents/other diacritics, whether the accents are included in the search or not (for example, a search for "Mexico" will produce the same results as "México"). However, some search engines will yield differing results when an accent or diacritic is present vs. not. It may be worth using both variants if exhaustive search results are needed.

Though not primarily focused on B3 content, general music resources like Oxford Music Online, Naxos Music, and JSTOR (among others) do contain some B3 materials, as well.