News archive
The English Broadside Ballad Archive
In its heyday, broadside ballads were everywhere in England. In the seventeenth century, these sheets, which were commonly printed with a woodcut illustration and printed in heavy black-letter type (what we call Gothic today), were highly visible - posted at the alehouse or hawked on the streets - and audible...
11 April 2016 – Electronic resources
Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704)
Last month we discussed Italian composer Giacomo Insanguine (1728-1795) in our series RISM A–Z, and today we stay in Italy but step 100 years back to look at composer and nun Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704). Much is still unknown about her life. At the young age of sixteen, she joined the...
7 April 2016 – RISM A-Z
Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae: Critical Editions of Ottoman Manuscripts
A new project has started that aims to prepare critical editions of important Ottoman music manuscripts from the nineteenth century. The project Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (CMO) began in October 2015 and their website was launched this March. The project is based in Münster, Bonn, and Istanbul with partners at the...
4 April 2016 – Electronic resources
First Music Manuscript Discovered in Antarctica
The RISM online catalog documents musical sources from five continents – so far, only Africa and Antarctica were missing from our map. So it came as a surprise, even to us, that Antarctica - of all places - will offer RISM users musical sources in the near future. In a...
1 April 2016 – Rediscovered
Happy Birthday, Johann Erasmus Kindermann (1616 - 1655)
Today is Johann Erasmus Kindermann’s 400th birthday! The son of a comb maker, Kindermann worked as a teacher and organist at various churches in Nuremberg, a city in which he stayed his whole life. He wanted to leave, however, as evidenced by many compositions he wrote as part of applications...
29 March 2016 – Musical anniversaries
Digitized Music from Christ Church Library
Efforts are currently underway to digitize music holdings from Christ Church Library, University of Oxford (GB-Och). This is part of a larger joint effort between Christ Church Library and the Bodleian Library (GB-Ob) to digitize important Western, Byzantine, music, Hebrew, and Arabic manuscripts and early printed books. The collection is...
24 March 2016 – Electronic resources
Jane Austen's Music Collection Now Online
“When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley and Elizabeth for an indulgence of some music. Miss Bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte; and, after a polite request that Elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived, she seated herself....
21 March 2016 – Electronic resources
Giacomo Insanguine (1728-1795)
“Maestro delle pezze” (Maestro of patchwork) is the not-so-flattering judgment delivered by Giovanni Paisiello about the tendency of Giacomo Insanguine (1728-1795) to (unadeptly) “patch up” the works of other composers by inserting his own compositions. And even though Paisiello’s razor-sharp tongue was well known, his verdict about Insanguine went unchallenged...
17 March 2016 – RISM A-Z
Magdeburg in Georg Philipp Telemann's Footsteps
These days, illustrious performers are expected once again in Magdeburg. The 23rd Magdeburg Telemann Festival focuses this year on Telemann and the concert, spotlighting works that Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) himself once presented as a concert promoter. Beginning last Friday and continuing until March 20, there are numerous events taking...
14 March 2016 – Events
"From Bologna to Beromünster" – Maurizio Cazzati: Messa e Salmi, op. 36
We have received the following from Cédric Güggi of RISM Switzerland: The music library of Beromünster Abbey (CH-BM) houses the Bonus Ordo Musicus, a handwritten inventory from 1696 which lists a music collection from the time that is largely lost today. In a separate project, Historical Music Inventories 1500-1800, RISM...
10 March 2016 – RISM Digital Center
