Finding Old Musical Sources - RISM is Online!

Great News from RISM!

If you research or play music from earlier times, you'll know how important it is to see the sources that our forebears composed, published and played from.  

Nowadays, the first problem is locating these materials!

For printed publications, we have Copac (British national and universities combined ('union') catalogue.  There's also WorldCat, which pulls together library holdings particularly from the USA and the UK, regardless of public or academic affiliation.

But there's nothing quite like the fabulous RISM, the Online Catalogue of Musical Sources that locates printed and manuscript music from worldwide locations.  It was a really useful resource when it was just a series of printed books, but now the free RISM Online Catalog offers online access to series A/I, A/II, and years 1500-1550 of B/I.  (See the RISM Publications page to understand precisely what is in the various series!)

Type keywords or a composer into the search box and see what you find - details of the publication, and where copies can be found.

Music Manuscripts - a RISM Trial for the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Valuable Music Manuscripts Accessible Online

Musicologists at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will be interested to learn that a trial is available until 21st February, to RISM - Series A/II: Music Manuscripts after 1600. 

This resource can also be cross-searched with the other music resources via this link.  Further information is available here.

NB Staff and students of the Conservatoire are reminded that online resource trials are set up for on-site use, within the campus buildings.

Music manuscripts from Ireland (pre-20th century) - RISM listing

Kilcormack Missal,Trinity College Dublin

'Whittaker' gladly shares with you this excellent news of improved bibliographic access to Irish music manuscripts.  Here's the communication from Dr Catherine Ferris:-

"First Phase of the RISM Ireland Database Launched

http://www.rism-ie.org

RISM Ireland is delighted to announce the launch of a new Irish-focused free-to-access database of pre-twentieth century musical materials held in repositories throughout the island of Ireland. This new resource highlights the contents of Ireland’s collections in a national context. In addition, records from the RISM Ireland catalogue are shared with the RISM Zentralredaktion in Frankfurt, which publishes the collective work of RISM groups in thirty-five countries throughout the world, thereby placing the Irish sources in a worldwide context.

The work of RISM Ireland is project-based, focusing on diverse areas of Irish musical life and individual institutional holdings. This launch highlights the first major research project to be published in the database: The Mercer’s Hospital Music Collection. This project, undertaken in collaboration with RISM Ireland and RISM UK, resulted from a DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama research scholarship. The scholarship to carry out doctoral research on the collection was awarded to Tríona O’Hanlon and supervised by Dr Kerry Houston.

For further information, see the IAML (UK & Irl) February 2013 Newsletter or contact Dr Catherine Ferris."