News archive
Eugenia Tadolini
Italian opera of the 19th century presented new challenges for singers, especially for coloratura sopranos. Eugenia Tadolini (1808-1872) delighted the public as well as numerous composers throughout her over twenty-year career. Atypically for a coloratura soprano, she refrained from adding her own coloratura passages, such as in the role of...
28 September 2020 – RISM A-Z
Friedrich W. Riedel (1929-2020)
Prof. Dr. Friedrich W. Riedel, who led the RISM Zentralredaktion from 1960 to 1967 when it was in Kassel, died on 10 September 2020. Friedrich Wilhelm Riedel was born in 1929 in Cuxhaven and studied sacred music in Lübeck and music, history, and liturgics in Kiel, earning his doctorate in...
24 September 2020 – In memoriam
Help RISM identify unknown languages
We were editing some records and found that around 100 vocal pieces in the RISM database have the language code “undetermined.” Do you recognize any of the languages used in the text? Take a look at the table and let us know if anything looks familiar (link also here): ...
21 September 2020 – RISM online catalog
RISM Projects While Working from Home
With Coronavirus restrictions still in place to varying degrees around the world, not everyone has been able to return to their library or archive to work at full capacity. We have a few suggestions for those of you who are looking for projects that can be carried out from home...
14 September 2020 – New at RISM
RISM Data Now in EROMM
Digitized musical sources (manuscripts, printed music, writings on music theory, libretti) from RISM are now available through EROMM Search. EROMM is the European Register of Microform and Digital Masters, which has the goal of coordinating digitization and microfilming activities and helping users find out where such surrogates are available. There...
10 September 2020 – New at RISM
Isabella Leonarda at 400 (1620-1704)
Isabella Leonarda was baptized 400 years ago yesterday, on 6 September 1620. The very thin documentary evidence tells us that the composer joined the order Collegio di Sant’Orsola in Novara at the age of 16 and lived there until her death. The young Ursuline sisters also received music instruction. Gasparo...
7 September 2020 – Musical anniversaries
Nicola Porpora's "Carlo il Calvo" in Bayreuth
The Bayreuth Festival was cancelled this year due to coronavirus, but a different Bayreuth festival, the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, is opening tonight with Nicola Porpora’s Carlo il Calvo. Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) was one of the most important voice teachers of his day, and his students included Farinelli. In addition...
3 September 2020 – Events
New Book about Music in Stams Abbey, Austria
We have received the following from Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider (RISM Tirol-Südtirol & OFM Austria): New publication: Wo die Engel musizieren. Musik im Stift Stams The RISM catalog currently (August 2020) contains over 8,300 records from the Music Archive of the Cistercian Abbey in Stams, Tyrol (RISM siglum: A-ST). Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, responsible...
31 August 2020 – New publications
A Farewell from Long-Time RISM Director Klaus Keil
Dear working group contributors, supporters, and friends of RISM, I have been the director of the RISM Central Office for nearly 30 years and have worked here for more than 37. The time has come for me to go. On 31 August 2020, I will leave my position and go...
27 August 2020 – New at RISM
Taking on “Anonymous”
Thanks to numerous tips from several colleagues, we are now able to provide more specific information about collections of arias that are housed at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena (I-MOe). Many of the composers of unattributed arias have been identified, as well as the operas that the arias are from....
24 August 2020 – Library collections
