News archive
International Women's Day: Women Composers in RISM
In 2017 we celebrated the International Women’s Day by publishing a list of all women composers found in the RISM database. Following a 2021 update, it is time to yet again publish a revised list to reflect RISM’s ever more complete coverage. The list that in 2017 included 800 names,...
6 March 2025 – Events
New Website for RISM Cataloging Guidelines
The RISM Editorial Center announces the publication of the RISM Cataloging Guidelines on a dedicated website, guidelines.rism.info. The guidelines are RISM’s rules and procedures for describing historical musical sources, and are adapted for use in the cataloging program Muscat which is used by RISM contributors worldwide. As the the largest...
27 February 2025 – New at RISM
The Musical Public Domain in 2025
The Roaring Twenties have finally completely arrived! On 1 January 2025, works published in 1929 entered the public domain in the United States, making publications from the 1920s free to use, at least in the US. In law, the phrase “public domain” refers to works without copyright, usually because copyright...
20 February 2025 – In the news
The Warsaw Chopin Institute has acquired yet another Chopin autograph
The National Frédéric Chopin Institute (in Polish: Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, abbreviated as NIFC) has acquired a Chopin autograph from the collection of the late Rudolf F. Kallir (1895–1987). The purchase was made possible by the generous support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The acquired source...
13 February 2025 – Library collections
Goethe’s Muse and Co-Author: Marianne von Willemer
Our RISM A-Z series reaches letter W today and, as so often, we decide in favor of a lady, also with an eye to local history. Marianne von Willemer (born 20 November 1784, Linz (?) – died 6 December 1860, Frankfurt am Main) was an Austrian-born actress and dancer. After...
6 February 2025 – RISM A-Z
Unknown Beethoven sketch leaf acquired by the SLUB Dresden
The Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) has acquired a privately owned Beethoven sketch leaf previously unknown to scholars. It forms part of a small collection (RISM Catalog | RISM Online) that once belonged to the Saxon music teacher Carl Otto Böhme (1807-1874). The Beethoven autograph (D-Dl Mus.4193-T-608, RISM Catalog...
30 January 2025 – Library collections
Looking back on 2024
As in past years, we are using the beginning of a new year to take stock of the previous year and share what was most popular with our website readers. These are the year’s blog posts that were read the most often, according to our website statistics: The...
23 January 2025 – Events
Historical Ornamentation Sources Catalog: A New Resource for Researchers and Performers
We have received the following from Javier Lupiáñez (Director and General Editor, Historical Ornamentation Sources): The development of digital technologies has opened up a vast virtual world of knowledge. From a simple smartphone, anyone can access the RISM Database, locate musical sources, use numerous tools to learn more about them,...
16 January 2025 – Electronic resources
Musical Anniversaries in 2025
Happy New Year! As in past years, we are using the beginning of the year to look at significant anniversaries of birth or death for people found in RISM. We are listing not only our RISM composers, but also librettists, performers, dedicatees, or other people who are connected to a...
9 January 2025 – Musical anniversaries
Cherubini's Best Wishes for the New Year
Approaching the end of the year, we would again like to call your attention to an intriguing musical document originally conceived as a kind of new year’s wish. However, whereas the piece by Carl Eberwein we introduced to you a year ago had formulated a series of friendly greetings to...
19 December 2024 – Events
