The Digital Interactive Mozart Edition

Thursday, January 24, 2019

To celebrate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 263rd birthday on 27 January, we would like to draw your attention to the Digital Mozart Edition (DME), a joint project from the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg and the Packard Humanities Institute in Los Altos, California, and to the release of the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition. This long-term project aims to offer the entire oeuvre of Mozart in digital form at no charge.

The Music Edition (DME::Music) is a follow-up project to the New Mozart Edition (NMA), which has been available as NMA Online with a new look since 2006. The Digital Interactive Mozart Edition (DIME) is therefore the next logical step. A visualization program converts the machine-readable XML code into normal music notation. Editorial intervention and variant readings are made visible in the notation. MoVi, the Digital Mozart Score Viewer, is the name of the web interface developed for the DIME and is based on the Verovio program developed by RISM Switzerland. MoVi enables the visualization of digitally coded music and allows you to listen and follow along at the same time.

The six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn (KV 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465), the Ave verum corpus (KV 618), and Eine kleine Nachtmusik (KV 525) are currently available for browsing. You can view the score or individual parts note by note or listen thanks to a MIDI piano. Different editions, autograph manuscripts, and sound recordings are available. Once more material has been added, you will be able to search for Mozart’s favorite motifs or melodies. There are plenty of research opportunities here.

The website is available in English and German. We are looking forward to seeing how the 10-year project will develop because after the music phase is complete, Mozart’s letters and the Köchel catalog will be offered on this platform.

Image: Ave verum corpus for mixed voices, orchestra, and organ, KV 618

Category: Electronic resources