IMSLP Forums

Currently, for example, if I want to find a score by Shostakovich, I go the the Composer index and click on Shostakovich. This takes me to a list of Shostakovich scores. I then click on a selected title. This takes me to a page of information about the piece. I then click on the PDF link and this takes me to the score itself.

What if, instead of having the PDF link, you had a link to another Internet site for the score. Everything else would be the same; that is, there would be the composer's name in the Composer index, there would be a list of composition titles, which would in turn take one to an information page. The equivalent of the PDF link would take one directly to the score at another Internet site.

This idea was inspired by my looking for Bruckner scores. I looked first on the IMSLP site. Not finding them there, I found that they are available at the http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/ site.

You could have a Bruckner listing in the IMSLP Composer index, a list of Bruckner compositions, which would take you to a composition's information page. The link to the score itself would take you to, for example, http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/ ... index.html, which would be practically the same as going to the score on the IMSLP site.

Such a change in the IMSLP philosophy would allow for a more comprehensive site for finding scores without the labor of scanning, uploading, etc.

Perhaps this idea would work in the short term, but I don't like it for the long term. What if the external site goes down or moves. It is more annoying to me to go to a site that references other sites of which 90% are broken links. Keeping the actual score with the repository is a better approach. Though it may be a good idea to add links to where a score can be found until the work is done to get it properly in imslp.

----Horndude77

What Horndude said is exactly why I don't allow external score links in IMSLP. I know CPDL does have such links, but I don't like that for the reasons Horndude gave. I'm quite aware of the Variations project going on at that site, and I have been meaning to write a script that will automatically convert the images on that site into PDF, so that I can put it on IMSLP (think of all the Schoenberg songs! lol). But... I'm not exactly a great programmer, so figuring out the script will take me some time. I'd love it if somebody who thinks they can do it will give it a try.

I have to agree with IMSLP and Horndude. Broken links are the curse of the internet. Considering how new the technology is, I am hopeful that at some point the stability will be improved, but how, and when, remains to be seen.

Until that time we have to accept that the internet provides far greater accessibility than any previous media, but its vulnerability is its instability.