News archive – In the news
Instrument of the Year 2019: Saxophone
The following was written by our intern from Spain, Carmen Álvarez (English below): Cada año, en Alemania, un intrumento tiene el honor de ser elegido el instrumento del año, y en 2019 el turno ha sido para el saxofón. Inventado a principios de la década de 1840 por Adolph Sax,...
11 November 2019
Mapping the Musical Landscape of the Sixteenth Century (MML16)
We have received the following announcement courtesy of Emily Hopkins (McGill University): The invention of music printing transformed the European musical landscape in the sixteenth century. Access to clear and affordable notated music made it possible for far more people to learn to read music and perform it in their...
29 July 2019
Music History's Earliest Engraved Notes – Simone Verovio
While printed music in the 16th century was primarily produced using type printing, which gave it a typically blurry overall look (except with Ottaviano Petrucci), the printed editions by Simone Verovio are particularly striking because of their handwritten appearance. The engraved printed music is easily recognizable through its characteristic platemark....
22 July 2019
New CD: Tiroler Weihnachtskonzert 2017
The live recording of the 29th Tyrolean Christmas Concert from 2017 has just been released as the CD Klingende Kostbarkeiten aus Tirol, vol. 101, by the Institute for Tyrolean Music Research. One outstanding musical Tyrolean treasure is Silent Night in a version by the famous Tyrolean singers Geschwister Strasser from...
13 December 2018
Instrument of the Year 2018: The Cello
Even though the year is drawing to a close, there is still enough time to take a look at the Instrument of the Year. Last year, the state music councils in Germany selected the oboe to be the Instrument of the Year. This year, it is the cello. At RISM,...
6 December 2018
Music and Mozart's Starling
The European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is wrapping up its final weeks as Bird of the Year here in Germany. The environmental organization NABU hopes to call attention to the familiar songbird and its extremely versatile vocal chords, but unfortunately the species is also facing loss of habitat and declining numbers....
3 December 2018
Current Mozart and Clementi Projects
The high point of every summer for RISM is the annual IAML congress, which as you may know was in Leipzig this year (you can read our reflections on the congress). One session in particular sponsored by the IAML Bibliography Section focused on three current bibliographic projects that are sure...
20 September 2018
Music by Antônio Carlos Gomes part of the UNESCO Memory of the World list
Recently, as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, we wrote about European music manuscripts registered on the UNESCO Memory of the World list. One of our readers, Rosana Lanzelotte, kindly pointed out to us that this list was expanded last year to include manuscripts by a composer about...
30 July 2018
Celebrating Music Manuscripts and the European Year of Cultural Heritage
The year 2018 has been named the European Year of Cultural Heritage. Throughout the continent, the focus is on cultural heritage as expressed in a wide variety of manifestations: monuments, books, clothing, historic towns, oral traditions, landscapes, digitized objects—even performing arts and music—and much more. The goal is to “encourage...
25 June 2018
Frisian and the European Capital of Culture 2018
We have received the following from Simon Groot (Universiteit van Amsterdam, RISM Netherlands): One of the European Capitals of Culture in 2018 is Leeuwarden, the capital city of the northern Dutch province Friesland (Frisia). Although a small country, in the Netherlands several dialects of the national language do exist. The...
5 March 2018
