Music library

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A music library is a library with a collection focus on music sound carriers and music items . Music libraries are often also institutions for specialist information . In addition to entertainment and further education, they are used in musicology and the music industry.

Music libraries can be divided into public, academic, and conservatoire libraries by library type ; there are also special libraries and the radio libraries of the broadcasting corporations .

General

The music libraries are mainly united in the trilingual International Association of Music Libraries, Music Archives and Music Documentation Centers (AIBM), founded in Paris in 1951 . Their organization in four working groups (public music libraries, music departments at academic libraries, music college libraries and radio) shows the range of the various tasks. After the USA country group, the AIBM Group Federal Republic of Germany with 213 members is in second place in the association, which consists mainly of institutional members and to which around 2,000 members in over 50 countries worldwide belong. A national and an international AIBM conference takes place annually at different locations.

The German Music Information Center (MIZ) , which opened in 1998 at the German Music Council in Bonn, should be mentioned as a very important institution in the field of music information and music documentation . In his specialist library you can find out about all aspects of contemporary musical life in Germany; its databases contain extensive collections of information on the infrastructure of musical life, including the addresses of the music libraries and archives, information on their holdings and references to printed and electronic library catalogs. The GDR Music Information Center, which had in part performed similar tasks, was incorporated into the German Music Archive of the German National Library in 1991 . The so-called " International Music Library " of the GDR is now administered by the European Center for the Arts Hellerau in Dresden.

Public music libraries

Public music libraries primarily have the task of covering the basic musical needs of the population; They offer a wide range of music items, music books and music magazines, sound carriers and music videos from all areas of music to borrow at home. Large public music libraries also have academic editions and corresponding secondary literature as well as reference works that are limited to borrow.

The holdings of public music libraries are usually set up according to a uniform system and are freely accessible so that they can be loaned out quickly. The lending statistics are much more important for public music (and other public) libraries than for others - they are used for staff and budget assessment. Public music libraries therefore need to be more attentive to the needs and wants of users.

Public relations play an important role in public libraries - and in music libraries, depending on the situation, it is even bigger than the others: they organize their own concerts, lectures and exhibitions and often enrich the cultural offerings of a city or region. They also document their respective musical lives, they collect program slips from operas and concerts, as well as newspaper clippings; sometimes they supplement this inventory with their own publications. In some cities, the public music library also acts as an academic music department; she then also collects old prints, manuscripts and bequests (e.g. in Leipzig, Lübeck, Mannheim).

In 1904 the first public music library in Germany opened in Frankfurt am Main. New foundations followed very quickly in Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, where the largest music libraries of their kind are still today. The Munich City Library, with its music library founded in 1905, claims to be the first public music library in Germany. The public music libraries in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart are also important. In addition to the public music libraries of individual districts, Berlin also has the “ America Memorial Library ” founded in 1954 in the western part of the city as a donation from the USA with a focus on music from the USA and music in Berlin. In the former eastern part of the city, the Berlin City Library also had a large music department. Both libraries each performed a central task for the city's public music libraries; they have since been brought together under the name “ Central and State Library Berlin ” and entrusted with the collection of deposit copies for the State of Berlin. The music departments of both institutions are now united in the America Memorial Library; this makes this music department one of the largest in Germany.

In terms of population, there are too few public music libraries compared to other European countries or they are unevenly distributed in Germany. The city-states (Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen) and North Rhine-Westphalia are best supplied, while the states Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are the worst. There is an unsatisfactory distribution in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Bavaria. In the new federal states in particular, there are many public libraries with a larger inventory of audiovisual media without an expanded music library. They do not count as full-fledged music libraries and are therefore not included in the corresponding statistics of the music libraries.

Scientific music libraries

Scientific music libraries are usually music departments at scientific libraries (state, regional or university libraries) which, in addition to musical literature and music, also own and collect source materials: music manuscripts, old prints, bequests, letters. In addition, a number of scientific music libraries also have collections of audiovisual media, here mainly sound carriers. In contrast to the public music libraries, the scientific music libraries have different restrictions on the loanability of the holdings, most of which are not freely accessible in magazines. However, some academic libraries without a music department have music departments that provide at least a basic inventory of musicological or music-pedagogical literature and the corresponding editions and often work in close cooperation with the libraries of the musicological or music-pedagogical institutes of the universities.

The academic music libraries also include the libraries of the musicological institutes of the universities and comprehensive universities, which are well equipped and are usually only available to the institute members. The specialist libraries of the research institutes for the edition of complete scientific editions, e.g. B. the Bach archives in Göttingen and Leipzig should be mentioned.

The most important academic music libraries include:

  • the music department of the State Library in Berlin Prussian cultural heritage with rich holdings of manuscripts and old prints, letters, bequests and libretti. The library has the required copies of music for the period from 1906 to 1945 and the music that was published in the GDR between 1960 and 1990. A special focus of the collection is the “Collection of German Prints” for the music prints published between 1801 and 1945.
  • the music department of the Bavarian State Library in Munich with extensive holdings of manuscripts and old prints, letters and bequests. The library looks after the special collection area of ​​musicology, funded by the German Research Foundation, for the procurement of literature from abroad, as well as the collection focus “Collection of German prints” for music prints published up to 1800.
  • the Proskesche music department of the Episcopal Central Library in Regensburg . With more than 20,000 manuscripts and prints as well as more than 10,500 letters from musicians, it is the third largest music collection in the Federal Republic of Germany. The focus is on the music of the 16th to 19th centuries (especially church music).
  • the music department of the Saxon State Library / State and University Library in Dresden with a significant inventory of manuscripts and old prints, letters and bequests. From the time as the central library for music in the GDR comes an extensive collection of publications from the GDR on the subject of music; the phonothek has a very extensive collection of sound carriers.
  • the music and theater department of the Frankfurt University Library with important holdings of manuscripts and old prints, letters and personal papers. The library looks after the theater studies special collection area funded by the German Research Foundation and a collection of programs from major German opera houses.

Other important music departments are located in the Hamburg State and University Library , the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart, the Baden State Library in Karlsruhe, the University and State Library Münster / Westphalia, the Hessian State and University Library Darmstadt , and the State Libraries in Schwerin, Speyer , Coburg and Detmold (with manuscripts and prints, especially from the 19th century) and in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel (with a very rich collection primarily of prints from the 16th and 17th centuries).

The aforementioned libraries in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Darmstadt suffered great losses in the war. Significant old stocks u. a. from Berlin and Dresden are still kept or presumed to be in Poland and Russia. There are also larger collections of music from a wide variety of origins in Bremen, Kassel and Regensburg.

Archive material from 16 music publishers, including such important ones as Breitkopf & Härtel, CF Peters, CF Kahnt or the VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, is located with a total volume of approx. 700 running meters in the Saxon State Archives - State Archives Leipzig. It includes music (manuscripts, engraving templates, prints) as well as correspondence with composers, music theaters and musicologists and internal business documents of the music publishers, e.g. B. Disk Directories.

The German National Library, with its locations in Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig (Deutsche Bücherei) and Berlin (German Music Archive (until 2010 in Berlin, then in Leipzig)) collects all kinds of music literature, printed music and sound carriers and edits the German National Bibliography, Series M ( Music) and series T (sound carrier). While the compulsory pieces of the printed music from 1906 to 1945 are in the Berlin State Library, the music books and printed music published in the GDR between 1945 and 1990 are in the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig; it also has a lot of new publications from the earlier days of the Federal Republic of Germany, since the German Music Archive only began collecting the compulsory pieces from the Federal Republic of Germany and Berlin (West) in 1973. The music prints published from 1945 to 1972 are retrospectively recorded by the German Music Archive, u. a. from the holdings received from GEMA . In the case of the sound carrier collection, the historical holdings from the time before 1945 should be mentioned in particular.

Since 1991 the German Library has received two compulsory pieces each of printed music and sound carriers, one for Berlin and one for Leipzig. Since the move of the German Music Archive, the publishers have delivered both deposit copies of each new publication in Leipzig. The regional deposit copy libraries receive a third compulsory item; these are usually state and regional libraries.

At this point, there are also a few special libraries that only care for a certain sector of music:

  • German Archive of Music History , Kassel: Microfilm collection of music manuscripts and printed music from the 15th to 18th centuries from over 500 public and private music libraries.
  • International Library of Women Composers, Unna / Westphalia.

Furthermore, research institutes, musical instrument museums and music memorials have libraries and archives that can also be of importance for special questions or for local music history, e.g. B. Bach Archive Leipzig, Beethoven House Bonn, Handel House Halle / Saale, Richard Wagner Memorials Bayreuth.

Finally, the source research companies set up at the international level by the AIBM and the International Society for Musicology should be mentioned:

  • RISM: Répertoire International des Sources Musicales with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main (university library) and the headquarters for Germany in Munich (Bavarian State Library) and Dresden (Saxon State Library / State and University Library) for printed music before 1800 and music manuscripts until around 1850,
  • RILM: Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale with the German headquarters in Berlin (State Institute for Music Research Prussian Cultural Heritage) for all publications in the field of music and musicology (monographs, dissertations and journal articles) with the headquarters in New York,
  • RIdIM: Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale with the German headquarters in Munich (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) and the central editorial office in Paris,
  • RIPM: the Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale currently has no German representation; The task of this company, based in College Park / MD and Parma, is to index the content of important music magazines, primarily from the 19th century.

Conservatoire libraries

Music college libraries occupy a special position insofar as, in contrast to almost all other music libraries or music departments, they work independently and have been more and more scientifically oriented in building up their holdings for many years; in addition, they oversee performance materials to a large extent. As with the libraries of the university institutes, the use of the music college libraries is reserved for university members only. External interested parties are not denied access to the holdings of a music college library in the reading room if they have justified concerns. Of the 24 music colleges, it is mainly those with a musicological collective focus that have the right to award doctorates. Otherwise, the equipment of the music college libraries is quite different in terms of the acquisition budget and the workforce. If municipal conservatories and music schools have smaller libraries, these do not play a major role in music librarianship, and they are usually not integrated into the structures of German librarianship.

Broadcast libraries

Broadcast libraries are generally only available to employees of the broadcasting corporations and are often divided into the areas (music) library , sheet music archive and sound archive . A press clippings archive is an important part of journalistic research .

Only the German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) in Frankfurt am Main and Potsdam is also open to external users for a fee. It is the central reference point for archived productions of ARD and ZDF. The archives of the GDR radio are located in Potsdam. In contrast, the important sheet music archive of the GDR radio was given to Deutschlandradio Kultur . The station RBB in Berlin / Potsdam manages u. a. also holdings of the former Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft.

More music libraries

Further music libraries and music archives, as well as other institutions with music-related collections, are contained in the “Handbook of Music Libraries in Germany”, which was published in conjunction with the AIBM Group of the Federal Republic of Germany by the German Library Institute (DBI) in Berlin. Published by DBI a. the German library statistics (DBS) and individual publications on music librarianship, including the magazine “Forum Musikbibliothek” in connection with the AIBM group for the Federal Republic of Germany. At the international level of the AIBM, the magazine "Fontes Artis Musicae" provides information. Even before the closure of the former DBI, another important reference work for music librarians appeared there in 2000 with the “Handbook of Music Legacies in Germany”. Since then, the magazine “Forum Musikbibliothek” has been continued under its own direction by the AIBM. As part of an overview of the German music librarianship, remarks on the topics of lending and training should be added.

Loans

Music books are listed in the databases of the regional general catalogs. The journal database jointly managed by the Berlin State Library and the German Library records music journals with proof of ownership nationwide. Unfortunately there are no central catalogs for printed music and sound carriers. However, printed music and phonograms published since around 1985 are included in the above-mentioned databases for books.

There is a special music collection area for the public music libraries of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Every major music library has a specific focus there (according to genre, edition format or composer). These titles are now included in the database of the North Rhine-Westphalia University Library Center in Cologne and can also be accessed on the Internet. Since a very large part of the music prints sought in the interlibrary loan system appeared before 1985 and a central catalog for the older holdings does not exist, the music departments of the state libraries in Berlin and Munich must try to compensate for this deficiency, especially in the international interlibrary loan system.

education

Most libraries are financed by the public sector (federal, state and local governments) or foundations; the official structures in the library service are designed accordingly. In addition to studying musicology at a university, a two-year library training course is required for higher service at academic or public libraries. Graduates of the four-year training course to become so-called qualified librarians for high-level service at academic or public libraries must have the Abitur as a prerequisite. In addition to other training places, the Stuttgart Media University offers an integrated course that takes music library issues into account; this replaces the previous one-semester postgraduate course to become a music librarian for high-level library services that was associated with an internship. The prerequisite for a two-year training for middle library service is the completion of middle school.

Musical instrument collections and museums

The most important musical instrument collections in Germany include the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, the musical instrument collection of the State Institute for Music Research Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin, the musical instrument museum based on Georg Neuner's private collection in the City Museum in Munich , the musical instrument collection of the German Museum in Munich , the musical instrument collection of the University of Leipzig, and the musical instrument museum Markneukirchen, the musical instrument museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Prussian Cultural Heritage, the Museum of Ethnology and the Ethnic Music Department of the Überseemuseum in Bremen.

In contrast to the music libraries, there are many privately run institutions among the musical instrument museums. These are mostly special collections on certain musical instruments that can also have regional references. The approximately 90 museums and collections of musical instruments store around 30,000 instruments. However, due to lack of space, only parts of the collections can often be shown.

Many city historical museums and some state museums also have smaller collections of musical instruments, some of which are also regional. In addition, materials on the music and theater history of a city can often be found here. Mention should also be made of a number of memorials for musicians, which also show or collect musical instruments and sources on the musical history of a city or region. B. in Arnstadt, Eisenach, Halle / Saale, Leipzig and Weißenfels. The musical instrument collections of the musicological institutes of the universities in Erlangen, Göttingen and Cologne are only accessible to a limited extent.

There remains a variety of museums that collect only certain groups of instruments, the bell and the Municipal Museum (Apolda) , the Trumpet Museum Bad Säckingen that Geigenbaumuseum Bubenreuth , the Harmonica Museum Hamburg , the Geigenbau- and museum Mittenwald, the Bell Museum Eiserfeld (Siegen ) and the German Harmonica Museum Trossingen . There are museums for mechanical musical instruments (barrel organs, music boxes, automatic pianos, orchestrions). a. in Ettlingen, Hanover, Linz / Rhine, Rüdesheim / Rhine and in Wohlhausen / Vogtland.

Phonographic devices are also included in some musical instrument collections; But these can also be found in music libraries with holdings of historical sound carriers, even if not directly as exhibits. So far, only the Phonomuseum in St. Georgen / Black Forest is known as an independent collection. The German Broadcasting Museum and the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation in Berlin should also be mentioned, both of which have such devices and also collect materials on the subject of film music.

A special place among the museums are those who u. a. also own musical instruments, but this is not the focus of their collection. These include the Feuchtwangen Singers' Museum, the Beatles Museum Hattersheim / Main, the German Shepherd Museum Hersbruck , the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt and the Beatles Museum Halle . Due to the variety of such and often only locally known institutions, this can only be a selection.

See also

literature

  • "Public music libraries", "Scientific libraries, archives and research institutes", in: German Music Council (ed.): Musik-Almanach 2007/08. Data and facts on musical life in Germany, Regensburg, ConBrio, 2006, pp. 652–713.

Web links

Wiktionary: Music library  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Music library. (No longer available online.) In: Münchner Stadtbibliothek. 2002, archived from the original on September 7, 2006 ; Retrieved September 25, 2006 .
  2. ^ Stefan Lieser: Cologne, the city of music? A musical instrument museum is to be built. In: Guitar & Laute 8, 1986, Issue 1, pp. 28–35; here: p. 30 f.