IMSLP Forums

After having contributed for a long time (since 1999) to feed internet music archives, I feel obliged now to launch a more comprehensive "hunt" for achieving more complete results, and I believe that this project can be hosted and supported only by IMSLP and its most "professional" contributors.

I assume that score hunting - in order to complete as much as possible the collection of works not under copyright - may be carried on, above all, thru orders of copies at the main european and american libraries.

Now, as you know very well, this kind of orders implies :

1) the real existence of scores in the main libraries
2) the availability of money to spend for the orders
3) the more or less "friendly" attitude of each library or librarian towards the possible upload of score pdfs to sites like IMSLP

From my experience the sources for the most complete score collections are today the Berlin State Library and the British Library, followed by the Austrian National Library and partly by some italian libraries (Milan and Rome above all). Without speaking of another enormous source of scores - The French National Library - that represents today the most shameful example of non-online-catalogued music library.

Problems can arise from organizations like the British Library, not at all happy to see their extremely expensive copies floating on the web in digital format. I mean that they could refuse to sell more copies to those individuals that clearly feed sites like IMSLP.

Problems apart, and I come to the hearth of the matter, my proposal is to launch in this forum specific threads for the single composers in order to share as much as possible the organization (and the costs !) of library orders, with the final goal to feed more and more the IMSLP data base.

The efforts of the single contributors should be obviously concentrated on specific authors/periods.

I also suggest that IMSLP could promote the publication of comprehensive thematic catalogues for those composers that at the present are not represented by this kind of very useful books.

My main interests are around the piano production of , say , 1750-1920 (a very extended period indeed !) and I have already completed the purchase/scan of thousands of scores in the past 40 years, thru antiquarians, libraries and so on, for a total of pdfs that goes very much beyond the present IMSLP collection. I'd like to contribute more and more to IMSLP but I ask here for more cooperation from every single user, potentially a "contributor" and not just a "downloader".

It's probably best in these cases to not advertise the destination of these scores lest they impose their oft-felt rancor on online archives such as ourselves. This project could be worthwhile so long as it targets specific scores which can only be gotten through such a purchase, itself implying that these scores are beyond rare--they would need to be unknown treasures available no other place.

Caprotti wrote:I also suggest that IMSLP could promote the publication of comprehensive thematic catalogues for those composers that at the present are not represented by this kind of very useful books.

There has been discussion in these forums over a "bulk download" option, which would probably be in line with what you're talking about. Availability of files like "AllMozartSymphonies.zip". You might have more rare scores in mind, but I think that's the next logical step after undertaking a completionist project for a given composer.

Funny you should mention the creation of composer catalogs, Caprotti. I was just remarking to our colleague Eric Schissel the other night how it might be a good idea for us to do this with some composers whose works are a mind-numbing jumble of duplicate opus numbers, etc. at present. As for launching various projects to collect the complete published works of selected composers, it sounds like a wonderful idea for a community project. I see no problem apart from trying avoid confrontations with libraries over the magical super-copyright known only to deep-level initiates in the high-Poobahdom of super-select bureaucratic institutions. If Erik Satie were still with us, I'm sure he could write a perfect opera on the subject!

I also think of the worklists as a possible way of improving the plate tables (I was informed in the middle of an email conversation with a couple of (non-virtual, very recognizable institution, but this -was- email...) librarians/staff?... that even some name libraries use our publisher pages and plate tables as a way of approximating publishing dates now - ever better reason, not that one needs a reason, to improve them ) -which is why I try to include some plate information in them when I can for the more prolific composers (especially the less confusing more prolific composers.) ... sorry. As often, straying from the point. Though to do so one more time, there's some extremely prolific composers of piano music who we have very little representation by, due to circumstance - lack of representation of them in Sibley and other archives we've found so far (though I think there's more of some of them in some of the more obscure archives ) - Arnoldo Sartorio and Carl Faust for instance. We have partial worklists for Charles Grobe and Friedrich Baumfelder (I think the format of the latter, with its room for extra information, sortability- which hasn't been fully adjusted to yet , e.g. all the dates should probably start with the year if one's "going sortable" - etc. - ...- still, rather good ones both actually...) - and other impressive ones for prolific lesser-known piano-centered composers... yes, I think we do this, publisher pages, and similar "meta" things rather well - in my not-so-well-informed opinion - and _improvably_ well- what I always like about Wiki-style sites.
Erm. ... I mean "count me in" (multiply redundantly).