Introduction: Music

 

There are two music collections. The first is Music Notation mainly in the ancient and medieval periods, but extending to present (collections 7.1 to 7.32). The second is "Composers at work" from the Baroque period to present (Collections 7.33 to 7.37). The first collection comprises 191 items of which 43 are listed here, including the 4 earliest ones. The presentation here aims at giving a fairly comprehensive overview of the main types of musical notation in Europe in the period 9th to 15th c, with some Asian notations added.

While the national or regional scripts were mostly standardized with the Carolingian reform around 800, musical notation continued to be regional during most of the remaining medieval ages. There are no standardized consequent designations. The notation is named after countries, regions, cities and even monasteries, scriptoria or monastic orders, while others are named according to their appearance. The following presentation is mainly based on the tables in Riemann: Musiklexicon, and The new Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. The presentation will complement the materials in the palaeography and liturgical collections.

The second collection, Composers at Work, comprises about 45 autographs and copyists' MSS aiming at covering the composition process from the earliest jottings and ideas, via single staff sketches, short scores, continuity drafts, full scores or parts with corrections,"Stichvorlagen", proofs with corrections, later versions or rearrangements, performance scores with composer's or conductor's changes, to excerpts made by the composers for gifts or education. The collection is, however, arranged here chronologically, covering Baroque music, Classical period music, Romanticism period music, Modern music until 1950 and Contemporary music.