Oxford Music Online

Earlier this year the Grove Music Online website was merged with a host of other musical reference sources to create the Oxford Music Online (OMO) platform. Although Grove is now just one element of many on the OMO site, the Oxford University Press hails it as the “cornerstone” of OMO and “the unsurpassed authority on all aspects of music”.

Considering the amount of musical reference information available on Grove alone, it is easy to see that the portal is formidable in its depth. But has the recent overhaul improved the existing structure? Will it lead to a more well-rounded and effective experience for its research user base?

The way search results are initially based is around either the Boolean, wildcard or quick search method. The search engine trawls the full text of every source available. Advanced searching allows the user to drill down into every category in Grove. The search potentially extends into bibliographic databases or works lists as well as the more typical full articles available.

Search results are ranked in order of how close the original search term is to the headline of material and then section headings. Thereafter, results from within the body copy are counted.

Any content originating in the Grove database gets priority listing over other OMO information.

While new structure and terminology has been applied to the data of the site, the old static index that users may be familiar with has not been transferred. However, it has been preserved and Grove confirms it can be found in a related content tab that accompanies each article. The reason for this was due to the index being continually updated, making it dynamic in nature.

Grove is a good source of information and there was always lots on offer with every search I tried, whether for a particular composer, musical work or musical genre.

However, some of the areas didn’t feel finished or as full as they could be. When I did a basic search for one of the best-known Hollywood composers, John Williams (Superman, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars), the number one result was for an Australian guitarist, and three other John Williams were listed. Each heading listed the place and year and a one-sentence career synopsis.

In this case it was easy enough to determine that the musician I was looking for was ranked number two in the results. But if the artist I had been looking for had been less famous the process would have taken longer, with the correct result not being quite so obvious.

And while the Williams page contains a perfectly good biography that explains the composer’s musical style and influences, the latest information takes his body of work only up to 1999. Yet since the last Grove entry, Williams has continued scoring for films such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich and the Harry Potter series.

Only up to a point
To be fair to Grove, there are more specialised areas to find information about contemporary artists in the wider OMO site, but as this review focuses on OMO’s “cornerstone” it is worth noting.

Other information on the page highlights links to concerts performed by the composer while television work and themes written are also mentioned, but these too end abruptly at the end of the 20th century. The team at Grove say this will be rectified when the new edition of American Music (where the latest information on Williams will come from) is published in 2009. Grove Online should get that information first.

Searching for information on a more traditional composer such as Johannes Brahms reveals a far more extensive (and accessible) listing.

There is a wonderfully well-rounded account of the composer’s music. The various links are broken down into influences on the musician. In terms of style, a full account of Brahms’ work on piano and organ music, chamber music, orchestral works and concertos and choral works is available.

There is even space for comment on the reception that his pieces received when they were first performed. The cherry on the cake is the digitised caricature of Brahms (from the Figaro newspaper) that accompanies the topic.

It is just as well the portal is attractive yet simple and unfussy in appearance. It is also quick and easy to use. The intuitive and helpful layout is a boon. With a deal brokered between the Museum and Libraries Archives Council and the OUP to give over a hundred English public libraries free access to Grove and other OMO content, the interface will be accessible to those who might not be typical scholars. It looks as if Grove’s future is assured.

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