Projects

Specialised Information Service for Musicology (musiconn)

(Funding: German Research Foundation)

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has managed the Specialised Information Service for Musicology since 2014. Previously, the library had been responsible for the special subject-related collection field of musicology ("Sondersammelgebiet Musikwissenschaft") from 1949 to 2013. At the beginning of 2017, at the start of the 2nd funding phase of the Specialised Information Service, the Saxon State and University Library Dresden joined as project partner.

The qualified information provision of the Specialised Information Service for Musicology encompasses the expansion of printed and electronic collections including their provision and long-term archiving, among others with the help of the FID licenses.
FID licenses

In addition, digital services for the musicological community are developed and operated. On the part of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek these are the RISM Catalog, the search application musiconn.search, the sheet music search musiconn.scoresearch, the blog musiconn.kontrovers, the dissertation reporting office, the WebGuide Music including the archiving of internet resources.
RISM Catalog | musiconn.search | musiconn.scoresearch | musiconn.kontrovers | WebGuide Musik

All services of the Specialised Information Service for Musicology are pooled under the musiconn homepage.
musiconn – Für vernetzte Musikwissenschaft  (musiconn – Musicology connected)

Project webpage "Specialised Information Service for Musicology"

Book request service

Do you have a particular acquisition request or a recommendation for us? Within the scope of the FID profile, we appreciate receiving your requests and indications regarding gaps in our collections, web contents of scholarly relevance and research trends and will check whether we can incorporate them in our spectrum of media and services.

Communicate requests  |  FID profile

International Catalogue of Musical Sources (RISM)

(Funding: Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities)

Within the framework of a cooperation between the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the State Library of Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage and the RISM, the RISM Catalog has been developed at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, offering free-of-charge access to around one and a half million data sets. The database contains predominantly historical, handwritten sheet music (mostly composed before 1800). These originals can be consulted in the specified libraries, music archives or private collections. Frequently, also reproductions can be made.

Répertoire International des Sources Musicale (RISM Catalog)

The description of the sources is managed and funded by various bodies on national and international level. For further information please visit the website of RISM International.

Website of RISM International

The RISM working group Germany has two offices. The branch office established at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich in 1953 is in charge of the territory of the "old federal Länder", the Dresden branch office seated at the Saxon State and University Library Dresden is in charge of the "new federal Länder". The title entries are forwarded by the branch offices to the RISM central editorial office in Frankfurt for further processing.

RISM working group Germany

RIdIM Germany

(Funding: Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities)

The "Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale" (RIdIM) is an international association for indexing and cataloguing representations of music and dance in the field of the fine arts and handicrafts. The German RIdIM office was established at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in 1979. The work is funded by the German federal state and the Länder via the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities in Mainz.

Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities

The catalogue contains predominantly objects from larger museums, collections and libraries in Germany. Currently, the Munich RIdIM office has catalogued around 17,000 objects in the "RIdIM Deutschland: Datenbank zu Musik und Tanz in der Kunst" ("RIdIM Germany: Database on music and dance in art") .

Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale
(RIdIM Deutschland: Datenbank zu Musik und Tanz in der Kunst)

The music manuscripts of the State and City Library Augsburg up to the middle of the 17th century: Online cataloguing, digitization and watermark thermography

(Concluded project 2020 – 2023)

As of November 2020, around 80 music manuscripts from the early times of music notation up to the middle of the 17th century from the holdings of the State and City Library Augsburg are catalogued and digitized at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Running for the duration of two years, a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) will permit the first comprehensive musicological documentation and free-of-charge provision of the sources on the Internet. In addition to online cataloguing and producing high-quality scans of the sources in their entirety, the digitization also encompasses the documentation of the watermarks contained in the paper by means of state-of-the-art thermography technology.

Project data and further information about the project

Watermarks in music manuscripts up to the end of the 17th century

(Concluded project 2018 – 2020)

The music collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek cover a broad spectrum of handwritten sources which go back as far as to the late Middle Ages. In a project supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the watermarks of the oldest stratum of music manuscripts are digitized using thermographic technology and made available free of charge via the digital collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Two historical segments of the holdings with part music are encompassed by this project. On the one hand, the 170 choir books and manuscripts with notation in the manner of choir books are included, the majority of which go back to the performance materials of the Munich court music ensemble of the 16th century. On the other hand, 70 handwritten tablatures and part books are processed.

Project data and further information about the project

Cataloguing, digitization and online presentation of the historical archive of the music publishing house Schott

(Project phase 1: 2017 – 2020)
(Project phase 2: 2022 – 2025)

The historical archive of the music publishing house B. Schott's Söhne, seated in Mainz, is considered unique in view of the volume and comprehensiveness of the company's archive. It was entered in the German register of archives of national value (Länderverzeichnis national wertvoller Archive) in 2004. The particular importance of this archive is based on both its very comprehensive safekeeping of the printed sheet music and its sources published by Schott since the late 18th century (starting around 1770) up to around 1945, and the comprehensive archiving of the company's business records (as of 1787), and in addition the large volume of preserved historical company correspondence as of 1816, which together form the publishing house's archive.
A total of eight research institutions and libraries each acquired parts of the overall archive on individual outstanding composers, in line with their individual areas of collection emphasis. Two of these institutions, the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage (SBB) and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB), in contrast acquired almost closed, very voluminous segments of the publishing house's archive. A description of the Schott holdings and the project contents at the Berlin State Library can be found on the webpage of the library's music department with the Mendelssohn archive.

Description of the Schott holdings and project contents of the Berlin State Library

In order to permit a homogeneous cataloguing and virtual synopsis of the spatially separate holdings in one, comprehensive "Schott portal", the Berlin State Library and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek jointly submitted to the German Research Foundation a funding request to be able to catalogue and digitize the acquired holdings and develop a portal. The request was granted in December 2016. For legal reasons, but also due to their state of conservation, certain segments of the publishing house's archive can be merely registered or catalogued, but not digitized. A detailed overview of the archive segments acquired by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the locations of the materials at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the associated work projects can be found on the overview page of current projects of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Project data, project description and work scheduled at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Handwritten opera scores of the 18th century

(Concluded project 2017 – 2020)

In the 18th century, the Electoral court of Munich was one of the most important centers of the European opera north of the Alps in addition to Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Mannheim and Stuttgart.
The handwritten opera scores of the 18th century held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, a collection of more than 200 works in over 400 volumes, will be catalogued, digitized and made available on the Internet as of February 2017 within the framework of a three-year project funded by the DFG.

Digital Collections: The handwritten opera scores of the 18th century held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Collection of German Printed Works

Within the framework of the "Sammlung deutscher Drucke" (Collection of German Printed Works), the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek sets emphasis on acquiring printed works published in the German-language area from 1450 to 1600 and printed sheet music up to 1800. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is thus responsible for the earliest, longest and most cost-intensive period within the project.

Further information about the cooperation "Sammlung deutscher Drucke"

Digital music collection

Complementing the respective special projects, the digital provision of copyright-free music manuscripts, printed sheet music, libretti and literature about music is expanded continuously on the one hand by current purchases and on the other hand by the digitization of materials already held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek for reasons of conservation.

Digital Collections: Musical manuscripts, music sheets, music autographs, libretti, music literature

Manuscript tablatures and partbooks

(Concluded project 2015 – 2018)

In addition to the early printed sheet music and the choir books, the manuscript tablatures and partbooks of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek up to the mid-17th century are a further central segment from the collection of music materials of the Bavarian dukes since the foundation of the Court Library under William V in the year 1558. The earliest manuscripts date back to the 15th century.

In total, the collection includes 66 classification marks, conserving, in addition to ecclesiastical vocal works, predominantly worldly genres such as chansons, songs and madrigals, as well as intabulations for organ and lute.

In a project supported by the German Research Foundation the music manuscripts have been indexed online, digitized and made available on the Internet since December 2015.

Digital Collections: Manuscript tablatures and partbooks up to the 17th century
Musicological conference in March 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MQI8SH8-AU
Video of the digitization project

Printed sheet music of the 16th and 17th century with music for several voices

(Concluded project 2011 – 2016)

With around 2,200 sets of printed sheet music of the 16th and 17th century containing vocal or instrumental music for several voices, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds one of the largest collections from the onset of printing sheet music. It is based on the collection of the court library of the Bavarian dukes at the time of foundation in the 16th century and has been expanded continuously ever since. The printed sheet music is registered in the international source bibliography "Répertoire International des Sources Musicales" (RISM).

Since February 2012, high-resolution, colour digital copies have been produced and made available free of charge online of these music sheets within the framework of the DFG-funded project "Printed sheet music of the 16th and 17th century for several voices in the BSB: Digitization and online provision".

Digital Collections: Printed sources of polyphonic music (1501 – 1700) from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Choir books and manuscripts written in choir-book notation

(Concluded project 2012 – 2015)

The choir books of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, an internationally renowned collection of 165 manuscripts with music for several voices, predominantly from the 16th and 17th century, have been catalogued, digitized, and made available on the Internet in a three-year project supported by the German Research Foundation from 2012 to 2015.

Digital Collections: Choir books and manuscripts written in choir-book notation
Virtual exhibition: Pleasing to the eye and the ear – The choir books of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek  (in German)

Collection of libretti Her and further libretti

(Concluded project 2010 – 2013)

The collection of around 5,700 libretti, which could be purchased in 1860 by the then Court- and State Library from the artist and gentleman of independent means Christian Her (1815 – 1892), is one of the world's largest libretto collections. Its comprehensiveness represents a unique source for the history of opera, literature and culture in the countries of the German language area from the 17th to the 19th century. In addition to around 4,900 books of opera texts (among them i.a. the libretto of the premiere of Mozart's "Idomeneo"), the collection also comprises over 430 oratories and around 350 ballet libretti.

The collection was catalogued in accordance with national and international guidelines and digitized in its entirety from 2010 to 2013. The provision of the metadata and digital copies takes place within the framework of the Digital Collections, the online catalogue of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the online catalogue of the Bavarian Library Association, the Virtual Library on Musicology and a special website, the Libretto Portal, in which around 1,500 libretti of the German Historical Institute in Rome can be searched in addition.

Libretto Portal

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