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Repertory- and genre-based projects are difficult to classify. They may integrate highly diverse materials into the study of a single subject. Currently listed: digitized sources for chant, part- and choir-books, and opera.
Contents
Liturgical Music
Liber Usualis
Website: Liber Usualis
The Liber Usualis is the practical guide to chants for the Christian liturgical year. Although often considered to be ancient, it was first published in its present form in the middle of the nineteenth century. Some further accretions have occurred in recent decades. The Liber contains two cycles for the Christian year: one for the Ordinary (feasts whose liturgical needs are held in common) and one for the Proper of the Saints (feasts that are individualized in their liturgical requirements). Texts (in Latin) and music were widely paraphrased in liturgical music of the Renaissance. This version is searchable.
The Sarum Rite
Website: The Sarum Rite
This multifaceted website developed by William Renwick under the aegis of the Gregorian Institute of Canada provides both academic and performing editions of texts and music associated with the Sarum Rite. Its contents have been collected from medieval manuscripts and numerous printed books of the 16th and early 17th centuries. (The Rite was replaced by the English Book of Common Prayer under Elizabeth I.) Texts in Latin are available in English translation. Sound files are linked to individual links in the index to each Office. Metadata associated with these materials is available at a separate site at McMaster University.
Part-books and Choir Books
Early Music (Anthologies) Online
Website: Early Music Online
These 327 printed anthologies, held in the British Library (London), were originally microfilmed for the RISM AI project. Because of its heavy coverage of sixteenth-century prints (a high proportion of which were anthologies), it contains many real treasures—large numbers of madrigals, much of the early printed music for lute, and numerous prints in which almost all the works are by an important composer (Buus, Croce, Rore, Willaert). Seventy-seven volumes contain chansons. A smattering of treatises, e.g. Girolamo Diruta's Il Transilvano, can also be found here.
Bologna Partbooks (secular music)
Website: Bologna Partbooks
The holdings of the Museo e biblioteca della musica (formerly the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale) of Bologna are particularly rich in partbooks of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the 339 prints found here (served by the same library but originating in the Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo of the University of Bologna) many secular items and some sacred vocal music can be found.
German chant and choir books
Website: German chant and choir books
This website serves mainly south German liturgical resources from the fifteenth century. It currently holds more than 200 items.
Munich Choir Books (mainly 16th century)
Website: Munich Choir Books
Under the musical direction of Lassus [1] the Bavarian court (Munich) reached a peak of activity much of which resulted in the development of a substantial collection of choir books. The layout of parts in a large-format choir book enables singers to see their parts while standing around the book. The origins of this tradition can be traced to c. 1400. The 199 choir books in this digitized collection contain sacred (Isaac, Josquin, Senfl) and secular music as well as fragmentary works and an anonymous Tractatus de musica. Holdings from local monasteries and private collections have been included.
Printed Polyphonic Works of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Website: Printed Polyphony of the 16th-17th Centuries
Similar to Early Music Online, but representing printed music in the Bavarian State Library and not limited to anthologies. It emphasizes music for voices. 1371 publication titles can be found. These include numerous early collections of chansons, madrigals, psalms, masses, motets, hymns, sacred songs, and early instrumental music (sonatas, balletti et al.). Titles in Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish et al. Some items are of foreign origin (e.g. Purcell's Orpheus Brittanicus (London, 1698), Schmelzer's Arie per il balletto a cavallo (a horse ballet given for the wedding of emperor Leopold I and Princess Margherita of Spain, Vienna, 1667).
Tudor Partbooks
Website: Tudor Partbooks
This collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Newcastle (funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council) aims to restore and make available online all extant manuscripts of Tudor polyphonic music from c.1510-1590 preserved in partbook format. Its particular focus is on the manuscript copies (and their legacies) of John Sadler (1513-c 1591/2), John Baldwin (1560-1615), and their predecessors. Researchers from Oxford (Kathryn Butler, Julia Craig-McFeely) and Newcastle (Magnus Williamson, Daisy Gibbs) will rely on contributions from volunteers to help develop the virtual resources. Technical challenges include Tudor reliance on high-acid inks and their detrimental effects on physical preservation of their copies. Digital tools are employed to restore lost elements of the physical sources. A principal [Christ Church Oxford] source of the Baldwin partbooks is described in DIAMM, with further details in the Christ Church overview. Music by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis figure prominently in the holdings. Sample modern editions made from the partbooks are available online.
The Trent Codices (Fifteenth-Century Polyphony)
Website: The Trent Codices
This important collection of anonymous music of the fifteenth century is quite uniform in presentation, with most works employing a choir-book layout. Paper texture is well captured in the digitizations, which are highly consistent graphically. The number of titles is 1863. Few titles are attributed. Those that are come mainly from Guillaume Dufay (105 titles), Gilles Binchois (52), and John Dunstaple (30). The originals are preserved in the Castello di Buonconsiglio, Trent (IT).
Opera
Early Nineteenth-Century Opera
Website: Early Nineteenth-Century Opera
This website in the Loeb Music Library at Harvard features vocal scores mainly from Paris (Spontini, Auber, Rossini) and Neapolitan works by Donizetti.
Opera in Italy, Austria, and Germany (1770-1830)
Website: Opera in Italy and Germany (1770-1830)
This site contains an array of resources for the study of operas (most unavailable in modern editions) that were contemporaneous with the life of Beethoven (1770–1827), who was notoriously frustrated in his attempts to succeed in the world of opera. Its holdings include 483 manuscripts, reproductions of printed libretti for every work listed, and an extensive metadata apparatus for basic information on composers, performances, and sources. Its reach is broader than the title suggests, for works performed in France, Austria, and elsewhere beyond Italy and Germany are found. In cases in which an included opera has an anterior antecedent, metadata is also given for the pre-existing opera, even when it predates the new work by as much as a century. This enables a reader to trace some of the long tendrils of gestation that might otherwise be found only in a critical edition. The manuscript sources used in Opera come from libraries in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Weimar. Wolf-Dieter (romance languages) and Wolfram Steinbeck (musicology) are the project leaders.
Other Genres and Traditions
Gospel Music History Archives
Website: Gospel Music History Archives
This umbrella website at the University of Southern California aims at durable preservation of materials in fragile collections. Its contents come from the Gospel Music History Project, the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, the Archives of African American Music and Culture (Indiana University), and USC collections. Contributions are welcome.
Kleiner Collection of Silent Movie Music
Website: Kleiner Collection of Silent Movie Music
The Kleiner Collection of Silent Movie Music at the University of Minnesota contains roughly 700 silent films. In 1939 Alfred Kleiner, an immigrant from Vienna, was named director of the New York Museum of Modern Art's film festival. After retirement (1967) he continued his work in Minnesota. Scores and recordings with expired copyrights are accessible online.
Institutional Histories
New York Philharmonic
Website: New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Library
A comprehensive site containing images, scores marked up by famous conductors, correspondence, concert programs, and much else. In addition to recreating much of the concert life of New York in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the archive provides open data access. Scholars are already digging into subscriber information of past decades.