News archive
New Music from Old Fritz: Manuscripts by Frederick the Great Discovered
“Diese Noten haben Ihro Majestät der König Friederich von Preußen eigenhändig geschrieben.” This music was written by Your Majesty the King Frederick of Prussia in his own hand. Three autograph music manuscripts by Frederick the Great that were believed to have been lost were discovered in the Art Collection at...
8 November 2012 – Rediscovered
The MassDataBase (MDB) is online
In June, the MassDataBase was presented at the international RISM Conference, still in the stages of preparation. It has been open to the public since the beginning of October. The database records around 40,000 settings of the Ordinary to range from the closing years of the 14th century up to...
31 October 2012 – Electronic resources
Michael Haydn @ RISM
This September marks the 275th birthday of Johann Michael Haydn. To celebrate the occasion, the city of Salzburg is hosting a variety of concerts and events where one can hear works by Michael Haydn (14 September 1737, Rohrau, Austria – 10 August 1806, Salzburg). A new, compact biography will be...
24 September 2012 – Musical anniversaries
Giovanni Gabrieli @ RISM
August 12 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1554 - 1612). His music represents the high point of the Venetian School. Together with Claudio Monteverdi, he helped with the transition of Italian music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Early on, he made use of...
15 August 2012 – Musical anniversaries
New Tools for Kallisto in English
We are pleased to announce that there are a couple of new tools to assist our colleagues who use Kallisto in English. Kallisto is RISM’s software program for cataloging music manuscripts in series A/II, Music Manuscripts after 1600. The program is available at no charge from the Zentralredaktion to anyone...
1 August 2012 – New at RISM
Significant Bach Discovery in Stade, Germany
A significant discovery was made while cataloging music manuscripts of the Seminary Library in the northern German town of Stade, held on deposit at the Stade City Archives (D-STs). Steffen Voss, a staff member of the RISM Germany–Munich office, discovered two contemporary scores of so-called Quartalsmusiken by Carl Philipp Emanuel...
14 June 2012 – Rediscovered
RISM in the Classroom at the University of Vienna
At the University of Vienna, Ikarus Kaiser taught the first course that focused on working with the RISM database. Ten musicology students attended. Thanks to the outstanding cooperation of Martin Czernin, the leader of the Schottenstift Archive (Scottish Abbey) in Vienna, nine class sessions were held in the archive from...
25 April 2012 – Events
Digitization Project at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Among the distinguished treasures in the Music Department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin are the approximately 10,000 works in the autograph music manuscripts collection. The collection, part of the world’s cultural heritage, consists of a broad spectrum of composers with pieces in their own hand, including the world’s largest collection...
14 April 2012 – Library collections
A unique collection of music manuscripts by the Belgian composer Henry Vieuxtemps in the Music Department of the Royal Library of Belgium
The King Baudouin Foundation bought an exceptional set of music manuscripts by the violinist Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-1881), Belgium’s most famous composer of the 19th century. The manuscripts, unknown so far to musicians and musicologists, have been recently brought to the Music Department of the Royal Library of Belgium, which has...
10 April 2012 – Library collections
Unknown piano piece by Mozart discovered in Tyrol, Austria
The musicologist Univ.-Doz. Mag.art. Dr. phil. Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider came upon a handwritten music book from around 1780 during her everyday work for RISM in Tyrol. This volume contains, among other pieces, a previously unknown piano piece, which is unequivocally attributed to the junior “Wolfgango Mozart”. On pp. 12-14 there is...
23 March 2012 – Rediscovered
