“Zoom In and Find Out”: How a ‘Smart’ Painting Reveals Two Piano Works From London 1806

Sheet music and musical notation in visual art can be many things: the attribute of a musician, composer, or performer, as well as a pictorial element used to suggest a context of music or simply to depict a setting of music-making. But the level of accuracy varies widely, ranging from...

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Felix gives you wings! A previously unknown source of a known Mendelssohn lied

The following post by Roland Schmidt-Hensel was first published on the blog of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The manuscript described here can be found in RISM under RISM ID no. 1001329438 (RISM Catalog | RISM Online). Even though Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) left behind more than 100 lieder...

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The four versions of Leonardo Leo’s opera Demetrio

Like many other opera composers of the eighteenth century, Leonardo Leo often set the text of a given “dramma serio” several times, realizing the work in different musical versions. Sorting out the diverse versions of an opera can at times become an arduous musicological task, since the available librettos are...

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Le projet de numérisation ciblée ‘Digital Music Unica in Switzerland’ (D-MUS)

Historiquement, la numérisation des publications imprimées - historiques ou récentes - a été initiée il y a plus de 20 ans avec des projets de grande envergure tels que Gallica et Google books. Aujourd’hui, il est nécessaire de lancer des projets ciblés pour documenter spécifiquement des sources plus rares. Comme...

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European Capitals of Culture 2025

Each summer we are happy to seize the opportunity offered by the European Capitals of Culture to call attention to a few special musical events or the characteristic musical culture of the regions in question. In 2025 the cultural world is focusing on Chemnitz in Germany and the city of...

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