Music Archival Collections at the Bavarian State Library

Uta Schaumberg

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The following article is by Uta Schaumberg, our colleague from RISM Germany at the Music Department of the Bavarian State Library.

Extending to all aspects of music and musical culture, the Bavarian State Library holds over 350 archives and collections of various sizes pertaining to individuals. The collection is cataloged and made accessible for research by two different administrative units of the library. The Music Department is responsible for manuscript music, printed music, and sound recordings. All other archival materials, such as correspondence, writings, documents, images, etc. are kept in the Section for Archives and Autographs of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books.

Approximately 300 of the musician collections contain music manuscripts, printed music, and sound recordings and are partly or exclusively held in the Department of Music. On the Department of Music’s website, an alphabetical overview (PDF) of these archives can be found with information about how much has been processed. The majority of the collections have been processed to the item level. The manuscript music is cataloged in a conventional card catalog and the printed music and the sound recordings can be browsed in the BSB’s online catalog. The contents of another large part of the archives have been indexed in list form and some of these lists are available online as PDF files. Information can be provided by staff members for other collections. Very few have not yet been processed at all.

Yet the number of archives and collections with music manuscripts that are entirely or in part in the RISM online catalog continues to grow. This includes numerous collections that have been processed by the Munich office of RISM Germany from the oldest collections of the department, such as Johann Kaspar Aiblinger, Clemens Franz von Paula, Ferdinando di Donato, Johann Ernst Eberlin, Caspar Ett, Johann Michael Hauber, Johann Michael Haydn, Georg Augustin Holler, Peter Hueber, Max Keller, Donat Müller, Alois Pacher, Karl von Perfall, Eduard Rottmanner, Karl Emil von Schafhäutl, Wolfgang Schubert, Josef Hartmann Stuntz, Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut, Georg Joseph Vogler, and Georg Weissinger, plus the “Collectio musicalis Maximilianea“ of King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and collections related to the Munich Court, Electress Maria Anna of Bavaria, and King Otto of Greece. In addition, since 2010 the Music Department has been cataloging important archival collections in Kallisto (Hugo Distler, Hermann Reutter, Karl Marx, a donation from the Heinrich Kaminski Gesellschaft in 2014, and the Fritz Walter and Gabriele Wiedemann guitar collection). Furthermore, since 2013, a Music Department colleague has been taking paper records from older holdings of larger collections and entering them into RISM (for Alexander Ritter, Gerhard Frommel, Günter Bialas, the older Heinrich Kaminski materials, and in preparation: Joseph Haas).

The autograph music manuscripts of the most prominent composers have already been completely digitized. Digital copies of works that are no longer under copyright are available online: Hugo Distler, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (with permission of the heirs), Michael Haydn, Adolf Jensen, Gustav Mahler, Max Reger, Georg Joseph Vogler, Josef Rheinberger (in progress). Works by the following composers are digitized but still under copyright and they can be consulted in the Music, Maps, and Images Reading Room: Carl Orff, Hans Pfitzner, Richard Strauss, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Heinrich Kaminski (in progress).

Picture credit: Max Reger, Gesänge, op. 144, “Der Einsiedler,” BSB Mus.ms. 21233

Category: Library collections