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College News
7 May 2004
New music manuscripts database launched at Royal Holloway
A new database giving details of 17th- and 18th-century music manuscripts held in libraries and archives across the UK and in Dublin is launched on the web on 1 June 2004 by Royal Holloway, University of London. Containing details of more than 25,000 pieces of music, it is the result of a three-year research project undertaken by the Music Department at Royal Holloway in collaboration with the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) UK Trust and the British Library. Funded by a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), the project is part of the international venture RISM, which aims to trace and document printed and manuscript musical sources in libraries and archives across the world.
This new free-to-access database, at www.rism.org.uk, will enable researchers, performers and others interested in music to trace music manuscripts preserved in a wide range of institutions, including the national libraries of Scotland and Wales, the British Library, public and university libraries and city and county archives. It will provide researchers with a single reference point at which to search for material and aims to enhance access to this material and bring it to the notice of a wider section of the community. Many of the manuscripts, especially those in general 'non-music' archives, have not been documented in detail before. These include a partly autograph work by William Croft in Northamptonshire Record Office, an 18th-century book of anthems, some of which are apparently unique, in the Cheshire and Chester Record Office, 17th-century German keyboard music at Surrey History Centre, and the Madrigal Society Collection at the British Library. The database also includes material, which has only just been acquired: for instance, a previously unknown work by Arne deposited at Sheffield University Library.
One of the key elements of the database is its tune-search feature. Developed specially for this project, it allows users to type in the first few notes of a piece of music and to find both exact matches and close matches. This will enable researchers to match up pieces that share a common opening theme, to detect where small changes have crept into a tune, and to identify the composers of works that are currently anonymous. Users will also be able to search for music by particular composers or containing certain words in the title, and to browse the collections of a specific library.
All the data gathered will also be added to the international RISM database, which is published annually on CD-ROM by K G Saur under the title Music Manuscripts after 1600, and as a subscription service via www.nisc.com
This is first stage of a two-phase project: in August, the project team at Royal Holloway will begin work on a three-year project to document 17th- and 18th-century music manuscripts in cathedral and chapel libraries, and in private collections accessible to the public. Digital images of some of the manuscripts will also be added; these will enable researchers to compare the handwriting in manuscripts that are physically miles apart. This new phase of work is also made possible by funding from the AHRB.
ENDS
For press information
contact:
Christine Long, Press & PR Officer. Tel: 01784 443967, email: christine.long@rhul.ac.uk
Further information about
the project may be obtained from:
Dr Sandra Tuppen, RISM UK Project Manager, c/o Music Collections, The
British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB. Tel: 0207 412 7500
or 07800 983657 or by email: sandra.tuppen@bl.uk
Notes for Editors
The Department of Music at Royal Holloway is renowned nationally and internationally, and attracts first-class students from across the world. The Department was rated 5* (the highest grade) in both the 1996 and the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercises, one of only three UK Music Departments to achieve that distinction, and the only one in the University of London awarded 5* in 2001. This attests to a sustained record of research activity at the highest levels of international excellence. It has one of the largest postgraduate communities in the UK, and has established itself as one of the premier institutions for postgraduate education in Music, thanks in large part to its research profile of international standing. Staff specialisms range widely from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, encompassing popular/commercial musics, world musics and music of the western tradition, and exploiting a wide range of research methodologies, including the social, political and institutional history of music; historiography; opera studies; women's history; music and early print culture; aesthetics; music and media; studio composition for TV and film performance; performance studies; theory and analysis; composition; and ethnomusicology. It is one of the country's leading music departments for nineteenth-century studies (particularly the 'long' nineteenth century), for early music, and for performance studies, with performers of professional calibre among its staff. In recent years the Department has become a major centre for the study of composition, both acoustic and studio-based. In addition to undertaking collaborative research projects, the Department is involved in two teaching collaborations with London institutions: the Royal College of Music and the British Library. www.rhul.ac.uk/music/
The Arts and Humanities
Research Board
The AHRB funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities,
from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. The quality
and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural
benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. The
importance of the arts and humanities has been recognised by the Government's
decision to make the AHRB a research council through the forthcoming
Higher Education Bill. For further information on the AHRB, please see
www.ahrb.ac.uk
