Referencing at the RNCM

Any written assignment (and presentation) requires referencing to give credit to the sources
you have consulted. Fundamentally, this is about respecting others’ intellectual property
with integrity. But referencing is also important to distinguish your own voice as an author
or creator of content from others’ voices.
Many different styles of referencing exist. At the RNCM, we use the American Psychological
Association (APA) style, which is common in the Sciences, Humanities and in Music.
This guide

• outlines the components of correct referencing in The APA Publication Manual, 7th
edition, which is the latest version of this referencing style;
• lists types of source and how to reference them;
• explains the differences between primary and secondary sources, and how this
influences referencing and academic integrity;
• links to external further guides.
N.b. for Electives (Years 3 and 4) in certain areas of Music Studies, you may be asked to use
specific referencing guides prepared by your tutor in these areas. You should always check
the guidelines on your Electives Moodle page and speak to your tutor if in doubt.

1. Components of Referencing
Any type of successful referencing consists of two parts: 1) an in-text reference (or citation),
which credits a source in a short form straight after quoting or paraphrasing it in your text;
and 2) a Reference List, which lists all the sources you have used in your text with full details
at the end of your text.
Only together do these two parts give the reader a full view of the sources and their use in
any text. This means that an essay without in-text referencing is incomplete, as is an essay
without a Reference List. Only if these two match up is the referencing complete.

1.1 In-text referencing

• In-text referencing in APA does not use footnotes. Citations are included in the main
body of text within parentheses (or brackets).
• An in-text reference can be either a paraphrase or a quotation.

1.1.1 Paraphrasing
A paraphrase restates or summarises an idea from another source in your own words, or it
synthesises ideas from several other sources in your own words. A paraphrase can be in
narrative or parenthetical format (see examples below). Paraphrases do not need to include
page numbers in the reference.

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Example of paraphrasing (in narrative format):

Chicago’s Black music scene is described by Linda Rae Brown (2020) as the ideal
springboard for Florence Price’s symphonic ambitions (pp. 81–89).

In the above example, the paraphrase and its reference is woven through a sentence that
mentions the author as the originator of the original thought.

Example of paraphrasing (in parenthetical format):

Issues of race, class, and gender are highlighted in Bizet’s Carmen to a degree that
was entirely new for nineteenth-century French opera (McClary, 1992, pp. 29–43).

In this example, the entire reference is confined into the parenthesis at the end of the
sentence.
Both narrative and parenthetical in-text referencing is acceptable. Often, which one you
choose will simply depend on which fits better with your style of writing, or whether you
need to save a few words…

1.1.2 Quotations
A quotation is verbatim citing from another source in that source’s words. Quotations
therefore need quotation marks around them. If you weave in a quotation into your own
sentence structure, you must ensure that the resulting sentence is still correct in its
grammar and punctuation. Quotations should be kept short; they may be definitions or
something memorable, individual, or otherwise striking (see ex. below). Quotations must
include page numbers.
Example of quotation:

“The sleepy German city of Bayreuth is the one place on earth where the nineteenth
century springs eternal” (Ross, 2007, p. 11).

As you see from these examples, in-text references always work on the basis of (author last
name, year, page where applicable).

1.2 Reference List

• The Reference List is not a bibliography. A bibliography lists all sources you have
consulted including background reading; a reference list contains only those sources
which you have referenced in your text.
• The Reference List should be ordered alphabetically by author’s last name. (If there
are several items by one author, order these sources chronologically.)

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 • The reference list may contain sections, such as ‘Media Cited’ for recordings, or
‘Additional Sources Accessed’ for sources consulted but not cited in the text.
• Be consistent with capitalisation of titles and punctuation.
• Complete works, such as operas, are set in italics (Puccini’s Tosca), songs/Lieder from
collections or single songs/Lieder in single quotation marks (Clara Schumann’s ‘Ich
stand in dunklen Träumen’). Symphonies, sonatas, or other pieces with a genre as a
title (Rhapsody, Mazurka, Mass, …) are neither in italics nor quotation marks, but
they are capitalised.

2. Referencing Sources Correctly in the Reference List

Source Reference List examples

type
Journal Kramer, L. (2003). Musicology and meaning. The Musical Times, 144(1883),
article 6–12. doi:10.2307/3650677

Author last name, initials. (year). Article title. Journal title, volume(issue),
page range. DOI

Do not add a URL/link if you found the article on JSTOR or a similar database.
Book Dahlhaus, C. (1989). Nineteenth-century music. (J. Bradford Robinson,
(authored Trans.). University of California Press.
)
Author last name, initials. (year). Title. Publisher.

Howell, T. (Ed.). (2011). Kaija Saariaho: Visions, narratives, dialogues.

Book Ashgate.
(edited)
Editor last name, initials. (Ed.). (year). Title. Publisher.

Cite eBooks and books alike.

Chapter in Rao, N. Y. (2017). The transformative power of musical gestures: Cultural
an edited translation in Chen Yi’s Symphony no. 2. In L. Parsons & B. Ravenscroft (Eds.),
book Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960–2000
(pp. 127–149). Oxford University Press.

Chapter author last name, initials. (year of publication). Chapter title. In

initials, editor last name (Ed. [Eds. if more than one editor]), Book title (page
range of chapter in book). Publisher.
Score Maconchy, E. (1950). String Quartet no.4 [Study score]. Lengnick.

Composer last name, initials. (year of publication). Title [type of score where
applicable]. Publisher.

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 Oxford Blake, R. Monk, Thelonious. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 25 Jun. 2021,
Music from https://www-1oxfordmusiconline-1com-10012c114060a.emedia1.bsb-
Online muenchen.de/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/o
mo-9781561592630-e-0000018962.

Article author last name, initials. Subject entry title. Grove Music Online.
Retrieval date, from URL.
Sound There is no official APA style for sound recordings, so the following is a
recording recommendation only for CDs and albums:

Holliday, B. (1955). Music for torching. [LP]. Decca/Verve.

Artist last name, initials. (year). Album title. [medium]. Label.

Youtube The Muppets. (2009, November 24). Habanera | Muppet Music Video
video [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXKUb5A1auM

Account that uploaded the video. (year, month day). Title of video [Video].
YouTube. URL
Textual Lynch, M. (2013, November 19). What would Handel do? Historically
internet informed performance, then and now. Bachtrack. https://bachtrack.com/nov-
source 2013-baroque-historically-informed

Author last name, initials. (year, month day). Title. Website title. URL

If there is no author given, provide the hosting website. Provide the date as
specific as possible.
Thesis or Bhachu, D. K. (2019). Facilitating musical learning in Scottish Primary Schools
disserta- : an interview-based study of generalist primary teachers', primary music
tion specialists' and community music practitioners' views and experiences
[Doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh]. EThOS.
https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.798901

Author last name, initials. (year). Title [Type of dissertation, awarding

institution]. Database or repository. URL

3. Primary vs. Secondary Sources

There are different definitions of primary and secondary sources, depending on which area
of music studies you work in (therefore pay close attention to the Music Psychology and
Music Education guidelines where these apply to your work).
Generally, however, primary sources are very close to an event, time, or person – you can
think of them as witness reports or evidence. They may be scores, diaries, speeches, books
or other published documents from their time (for instance a treatise on piano playing from

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C.P.E. Bach’s time), but also photographs, paintings, maps, newspapers, interviews, letters,
or twitter feeds. Statistics, data sets, or polls are also primary sources.
Secondary sources, by comparison, are interpretations or analyses often based on primary
sources. The classical example of a secondary source is an academic journal article or
academic book, but encyclopaedias, dictionaries, magazines, or handbooks are also
commonly used as secondary sources.
Knowing the difference between primary and secondary source types can help you craft a
more convincing argument. If you know what you want, and can expect, from a source
(evidence or interpretation), you can use them in more subtle and punchy ways in your own
train of thought.

4. Further guidance
This guide was prepared by Dr Annika Forkert (School of Academic Studies):
[email protected]. You can contact Annika to talk about specific questions
regarding referencing or study strategies, throughout your degree.
The RNCM Library provides short guides to APA referencing and librarians can help you with
literature research and finding sources.
The American Psychological Association maintains a detailed website on the APA
referencing style, including examples and guidance on source types etc.:
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references