News archive – Library collections
New Research Guide on Robert Schumann
The following post originally appeared on the “In the Muse” blog from the Library of Congress. The Music Division is pleased to announce the publication of a new research guide outlining the Library’s rich primary and secondary sources concerning Robert Schumann. Schumann (1810–1856) was an influential composer, pianist, and music...
3 April 2025
The Warsaw Chopin Institute has acquired yet another Chopin autograph
The National Frédéric Chopin Institute (in Polish: Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, abbreviated as NIFC) has acquired a Chopin autograph from the collection of the late Rudolf F. Kallir (1895–1987). The purchase was made possible by the generous support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The acquired source...
13 February 2025
Unknown Beethoven sketch leaf acquired by the SLUB Dresden
The Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) has acquired a privately owned Beethoven sketch leaf previously unknown to scholars. It forms part of a small collection (RISM Catalog | RISM Online) that once belonged to the Saxon music teacher Carl Otto Böhme (1807-1874). The Beethoven autograph (D-Dl Mus.4193-T-608, RISM Catalog...
30 January 2025
Microfilms? Microfilms! 70 Years of the German Archive of Music History
On 1 October 1954 the Musikgeschichtliche Kommission, a free association of renowned musicologists and music librarians, laid the foundation stone for the German Archive of Music History (Deutsches Musikgeschichtliches Archiv, DMgA), which has been located in Kassel since its founding. With an eye to the substantial changes caused by the...
14 November 2024
Digitised music manuscripts made available online
The following originally appeared on the Music Blog of the British Library and is posted here under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence. Following the cyber-attack on the British Library last year, staff have been working behind the scenes to restore access to the Library’s digitised manuscripts. The Library has now...
24 October 2024
Musical discoveries from English local archives
The previous RISM news item introduced the project Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Musical Collections of England’s County Record Offices, led by Royal Holloway, University of London. This article introduces some of the sources recently discovered or catalogued in the project, to show the range of musical heritage found in...
4 October 2024
Music from English local archives in RISM
The following guest post is by Stephen Rose (Head of Music Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK): Until recently, RISM’s records for the United Kingdom have focused on the holdings of major research libraries such as the British Library, Cambridge University Library and Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Now a richer...
26 September 2024
‘The Seven Last Words of Christ’ by Haydn and Barbieri
An ambitious digitization project targeting the musical heritage collections of the National Library of Spain has provided access to 31,000 musical sources that were long accessible only in the reading room, thereby inspiring both musicians and scholars to new discoveries. In the following we reprint from the library’s blog –...
18 July 2024
Samuel Wesley’s Fugue for Mendelssohn
The following is by Dominic Newman and originally appeared on the British Library’s Music blog (© British Library Board, Creative Commons Attribution Licence). Just before the end of his life, Samuel Wesley – the elder composer, 1766–1837, the middle of the three main Samuels in the Wesley dynasty – experienced...
18 April 2024
Early sources of J.S. Bach's English Suites united in Leipzig
The following originally appeared on the Bach Archiv Leipzig, Germany. It is published here with kind permission. New collectibles from our treasury Early sources of J.S. Bach’s English Suites united in Leipzig The »English Suites« – one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most famous collections of works for keyboard instruments –...
28 March 2024
