Music Studies

California Newspapers

National & International

         The concept of what makes a source “primary” relies on the research question at hand, varies based on
the discipline, depends on the interplay with secondary sources, and is subject to the different
interpretive processes researchers bring to their projects.  (Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy)

           Primary sources are materials in a variety of formats, created at the time under study, that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, event, people, idea, or work. Primary sources can be printed materials (such as books and ephemera), manuscript/archival materials (such as diaries or ledgers), audio/visual materials (such as recordings or films), artifacts (such as clothes or personal belongings), or born-digital materials (such as emails or digital photographs). Primary sources can be found in analog, digitized, and born-digital forms. (Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy)

         In comparison, a secondary source is a work synthesizing and/or commenting on primary and/or other secondary sources. Secondary sources, which are often works of scholarship, are differentiated from primary sources by the element of critical synthesis, analysis, or commentary. (Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy)

-- correspondences, diaries, autobiographies

-- manuscripts, drafts, sketches and scores with musicians' notes / marks

-- posters, performance / recital programs.

-- reviews of first performance / recording / production  in newspapers or other publications

--sound recordings, documentaries, videos of performance / rehearsals

-- interviews with musicians

-- photographs (original / reprint / digital format) 

-- physical materials, such as instruments, costumes and other equipment.