The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) - International Inventory of Musical Sources - is an international, non-profit organization that aims to comprehensively document extant musical sources worldwide: manuscripts, printed music editions, writings on music theory, and libretti that are found in libraries, archives, churches, schools, and private collections. RISM’s over 1.5 million records can be searched at no cost through the RISM Catalog and RISM Online. RISM was founded in Paris in 1952 and is the largest and only global organization that documents written musical sources. RISM records what exists and where it can be found.

Upcoming events

IAML Deutschland conference in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 17-20 September 2024. Details here

Library Sigla

Search RISM’s abbreviations for libraries, archives and collections with historical music holdings

RISM for Libraries

Librarians, see here what RISM has to offer you

Muscat

All about Muscat, RISM’s specialized program for cataloging musical sources

News

2024 IAML Germany Annual Meeting in Frankfurt am Main

From 17 to 20 September 2024 the annual meeting of the German branch of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres) took place in Frankfurt am Main. The German National Library was the main venue, and they along with the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Oper...

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Musical discoveries from English local archives

The previous RISM news item introduced the project Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Musical Collections of England’s County Record Offices, led by Royal Holloway, University of London. This article introduces some of the sources recently discovered or catalogued in the project, to show the range of musical heritage found in...

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Music from English local archives in RISM

The following guest post is by Stephen Rose (Head of Music Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK): Until recently, RISM’s records for the United Kingdom have focused on the holdings of major research libraries such as the British Library, Cambridge University Library and Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Now a richer...

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The New Köchel Catalog

This morning the long-awaited new edition of the Köchel Catalog was presented to the public in the Great Hall of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. The new edition was compiled by Neal Zaslaw, Professor at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York), and meticulously prepared for printing by the research team...

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A Visit to the André Archive in Offenbach

You may have already seen that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of Johann André’s publishing house, which started in Offenbach in 1774. Though no longer publishing, the venerable business still exists and its historical archive has remained in the André family’s hands this whole time. In...

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All the news

Upcoming events

IAML Deutschland conference in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 17-20 September 2024. Details here

Library Sigla

Search RISM’s abbreviations for libraries, archives and collections with historical music holdings

RISM for Libraries

Librarians, see here what RISM has to offer you

Muscat

All about Muscat, RISM’s specialized program for cataloging musical sources