News archive
RISM for Musicians
Although at the time of its founding RISM was designed for libraries and scholars, there are of course many cases where our database can be a particularly valuable resource for musicians. Those who simply want to play from the latest commercial edition of a work will not find what they...
9 October 2025 – New at RISM
Conference of the RISM Working Group Germany "Music Prints and Digital Transformation"
The RISM Working Group Germany, in collaboration with the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), is hosting an interdisciplinary conference on 13 and 14 November 2025. Under the title “Music Prints and Digital Transformation: Perspectives on Documentation, Representation and Interconnectivity”, experts from the fields of musicology, book studies, information...
2 October 2025 – Events
Ignaz Joseph Pleyel’s Violone Concerto Identified
We have received the following from Darija Andelic-Andzakovic (musicologist and double bass player). Johannes Mathias Sperger (Feldsberg/Valtice, 1750 – Ludwigslust, 1812) is widely known as the composer of 18 concertos for double bass. Sperger’s concertos survive in autograph scores as part of his estate housed at the Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Günther...
25 September 2025 – Rediscovered
Private Collections and Libraries - Part 2
In this second part of our introduction to private collections and libraries, we would like to focus on collections that have a long history of continuity, or happen to be relatively young but have already found a safe haven in an institution. In addition, we will also discuss the relocation...
18 September 2025 – New at RISM
Using RISM Data to Map Opera Premieres
The following is a guest post by Matthew Lorenzon (Digital Marketing Manager, Musica Viva Australia): I made an animated map of opera premieres from the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) database. Here’s how. The growth of Big Data over the past decades has fed a wave of professional and...
11 September 2025 – In the news
RISM at the Annual Congress of IAML Germany in Dresden
This year, the annual conference of IAML Germany will take place in Dresden. From 16 to 19 September 2025, music librarians primarily from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will gather at the Central Library of the Städtische Bibliotheken Dresden, in the so-called Kulturpalast. Once again, we are looking forward to a...
4 September 2025 – Events
Looking back at IAML Salzburg 2025
Following the meetings in 1967 and 1979, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centers (IAML) held its annual congress in Salzburg, Austria, for the third time. No doubt also thanks to the alluring location, the congress was well attended, ensuring a broad international audience for the numerous...
21 August 2025 – Events
“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...
7 August 2025 – Rediscovered
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...
24 July 2025 – Library collections
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...
10 July 2025 – New at RISM
