News archive
Creating Your Own Catalog Printout from the RISM Database
Musicologists and librarians working on diverse projects frequently approach the Editorial Center to have RISM records gathered and printed as a separate catalog. Such catalogs may be needed for all sorts of reasons: to publish a printed catalog of the holdings of a collection, to provide funding agencies and sponsors...
17 May 2021 – New publications
Charpentier, 12 points
It is this manuscript that started it all—or more specifically, the first few bars of the page. The collection of autograph music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) gathered in a volume known as Mélanges autographes, vol. 10, contains the Te Deum (H. 146), whose opening bars we have been hearing more...
12 May 2021 – In the news
Virtual Conference: Watermarks and Musicology
We have received the following from Bernhard Lutz (Bavarian State Library): The Bavarian State Library (BSB) will be hosting a virtual conference in German on 21-22 May 2021 entitled “Wasserzeichen und Musikwissenschaft.” The event will mark the close of a DFG-funded project concerning digital cataloging of watermarks in music manuscripts...
10 May 2021 – Events
Publishing Patriotism: The Napoleonic Wars in Musical Print
The following is by Dominic Bridge and originally appeared on the Music Blog of the British Library. We are reprinting it here to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoléon Bonaparte’s death (© British Library Board/Creative Commons). At the turn of the 19th century, British perceptions of revolutionary France and the...
5 May 2021 – Musical anniversaries
Announcing the Second RISM Lecture: The Bach Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek
The warm reception of the First RISM Lecture centered on the music collection of the Cappella Sistina has inspired us to continue our series. We are now pleased to announce that Professor Christoph Wolff who (among countless other accomplishments) was President of RISM from 2004 to 2013, and has since...
29 April 2021 – Events
Johann Michael Closner (1786–1860) and the historical music manuscripts and prints in the Trostberg City Museum
We have received the following from our colleague Helmut Lauterwasser (RISM Germany): One of the most important tasks for RISM is to catalog historical sources of music also in small libraries, archives, and museums. In extreme cases one encounters collections that contain very few historical music sources, sometimes only a...
21 April 2021 – Library collections
A Musical Dialogue from 1544
The Dialogo della musica by Antonfrancesco Doni (1513-1574) is not meant to teach but rather to entertain. The conversations are divided into two evenings with music. On the first evening, the characters Bargo, Michele, Grullone, and Hoste converse. No fewer than 13 four-part madrigals are sung by the other participants....
14 April 2021 – New at RISM
The 300th Anniversary of Joachim Gerstenbüttel’s Death
Gerstenbüttel is a locality in the district of Gifhorn (Lower Saxony, Germany) - but not only. The name Gerstenbüttel also stands for the composer and cantor Joachim Gerstenbüttel, who died on April 10, 1721 in Hamburg. Born in Wismar in 1647, he first studied theology in Rostock and Wittenberg, to...
8 April 2021 – Musical anniversaries
Maundy Thursday
Today, Maundy Thursday, marks the beginning of the Triduum Sacrum, the three holy days of the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection, and thus the climax of Holy Week. Traditionally, in the Roman Catholic liturgy, the organ plays for the last time in the Gloria of the Mass of the Lord’s...
1 April 2021 – Events
The 2020 Annual Report
The 2020 annual report for the RISM Central Office has now been published. You can read the report in its entirety on the RISM website. Here are some of the highlights: The year 2020 brought an important change for RISM: Klaus Keil, who had served as director of the Zentralredaktion...
30 March 2021 – New publications
