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Music Citation Guide: Chicago Style (18th ed.)

Citation quick guide for music and music-related items using 18th edition Chicago Style formatting.

Footnote / Endnote

In Chicago (Notes and Bibliography) style a note should be made anytime another work is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.  A corresponding note is used at the end of the sentence or clause in which the reference is used. It should include the following elements:

  • Author’s name as listed in the source
  • Title of the work (book)
    • Article title, Journal title, and Issue information (Journal)
  • Date of Publication
  • Page number
  • Use commas and parentheses to separate the elements

The first entry of the source should include full publication information; subsequent listings of the same source may be shortened to author’s last name, a shortened form of the title, and the page number of the cited passage.

Journal Article

1. Susanna W. Gold, "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair," Biography 35, no. 2 (2012): 318.

Book

2. J. B Morris, Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 318.

In-text

Sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name, year of publication and page number of source cited when following the Chicago Author-Date style. Full bibliographic information for each in-test citation is provided in a reference list.

Examples of the In-text citations and the corresponding reference list for a journal article and book..

(Gold 2012, 318)

(Morris 2014, 6)

Reference List

Gold, Susanna W. "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair." Biography 35, no. 2 (2012) 318-341.

Morris, J. B. Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Bibliography / Works Cited

In Chicago style the sources are listed alphabetically and include the following elements:

  • Author’s name (Last name, first name)
  • Title of the work (book)
    • Article title, journal title and issue information (Journal)
    • Page numbers of the article (Journal)
  • Date of publication
  • Use periods to separate the elements

Journal Article

Gold, Susanna W. "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair." Biography 35, no. 2 (2012) 318-341.

Book

Morris, J. B. Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.