Digitizing Materials from Dresden's Royal Music Collections

Nina Eichholz

Monday, May 11, 2015

This entry is by Nina Eichholz (SLUB Dresden) and originally appeared on the Hofmusik in Dresden (Dresden Court Music) project website. It is reprinted here with kind permission.

In February 2015, the first manuscripts were digitized from the DFG-funded project Dresden Court Church and Royal Private Music Collection (Hofkirche und Königliche Privat-Musikaliensammlung). High-resolution images can be found of compositions by Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann David Heinichen, Antonio Lotti, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and others. The order in which the sources are scanned is primarily determined by the complex work flow of the digitization process. Once the project is completed, all sources that are related in content, such as all manuscript by a certain composer, will be available in digital form.

In the RISM online catalog, the digital scores can be found by using the Advanced search (also described on the SLUB’s website) in the section Limit search under Document Type by selecting Digital versions exclusively. In addition, digital scores can be found in the “Digital Collections” section of the SLUB’s website in the collections “Musikalien der Dresdner Hofkirche digital” (Music from the Dresden Court Church digital) and “Königliche Privat-Musikaliensammlung digital” (Royal Private Music Collection). Please note that these collections do not only contain sources from this project’s chronological scope (the time of the Saxon-Polish Union) but also later sources from the Catholic Court Church and the Royal Private Music Collection.

Category: Library collections