Keyword Guidelines

The Resource Database Keyword Guidelines

Below is a chart that explains how the Keywords are organized and applied to the ICD Resource Database. When volunteer staff add resources to the database, they use these tags to help users find what they are looking for. The list provides the rationale for the system used in keywording these resources for those interested in the mechanics. Special thanks to Deanna Pellarano, music librarian at the University of Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music and contributor to the Inclusive Early Music, for her advice on our guidelines!

Suggested Keywords by Topic Area

Pedagogical resources

  • pedagogy 

  • K-6

  • 6-12

  • Orff

  • Best practices for programming

  • Best practices for rehearsal

  • Music education

Best Practices in Programming and Rehearsal

  • Best practices for programming

  • Best practices for rehearsal

  • ADEIB (access, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging)

  • Representation

  • Culture bearers (these are people coming from a particular culture who have expertise in a specific musical practice)

  • Cultural appropriation

  • Racism, anti-racism

  • Audience

People

  • The name of a composer in our database, last name and/or first name

  • The name of an author in the resource database, last name and/or first

  • Biography

  • Interview

Genres or compositional styles 

  • The name of the genre, e.g. Concerto, Spiritual 

  • arranging

  • composition

Performance practice

  • Performance practice

  • Terms that identify how music is learned or performed, e.g., Aural transmission, movement, dance

  • Terms that identify the cultural group where the music originated, e.g., Korean traditional music

  •  Terms identifying time period or style era, e.g., Baroque

Cultural identity of the people who originated a given practice or genre. 

Note: This keyword is not used unless it is significant to the practice of the genre, i.e., African-American identity is important to know about when performing a spiritual, a genre originating in the African-American experience. Geographical location and cultural identity - below - are treated separately because they are not always the same, i.e., the Xhosa people in the country of South Africa.

  • Specific cultural groups e.g., Xhosa, Navajo

  • A broad cultural group with shared cultural identity e.g., Latinx

  • Specific faith identity e.g., Jewish

Historical information about composers, genres, works, social conditions, etc 

  • 1900s

  • 18th century

  • Early Music

  • Baroque

  • Colonization

Languages and pronunciation

  • Name of specific language, e.g. Spanish 

  • pronunciation

  • International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA

  • Performance practice

Analysis, theory, or discussion of composer, style, trends, genre, or other musicological, practice-based, social, stylistic, or historical topics

  • Gender studies

  • Racism, anti-racism

  • Trends, data analysis

  • Musicology

  • ADEIB (access, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging)

  • Repertoire analysis

  • Hybridity, hybrid music

  • LGBTQIA studies

Geography, music from or practiced in a specific geographical location (usually Continent/Country) 
Note: Where national borders are debated, only a continent may be given. Geographical location and cultural identity - above- are treated separately because they are not always the same, i.e., the Xhosa people in the country of South Africa.

  • Name of country, region, territory, or other geographical term

  • This information is usually in this format: South America/Bolivia

Specific musical work or work(s) by a composer in the ICD Composer Database

  • name of the work