Introduction to electronic resources in the performing arts

Performing arts are perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of electronic publishing and have made use of many nontraditional, technology-dependent formats. From online multimedia magazines to streaming audio and video databases, the publishing possibilities, while still not fully realized, are astounding. The greater availability of these resources as well as the speed and ease with which new text passages, video clips, images and sounds can be manipulated and added to any given source adds to their appeal and gives rise to new forms of creative expression. The latter often result in and will continue to inspire many interesting legal reforms such as the Creative Commons License.

As technology marches on, search engines are becoming more sophisticated, computer screens support higher resolutions, and increasing bandwidth allows for higher-resolution streaming, giving rise to numerous resources as described in this chapter. Open source technologies from federated search widgets to various video and audio players have allowed for the unprecedented development of digital archives internationally, giving access to primary source materials previously only available onsite or through proprietary databases. In some commercial electronic music score databases, as much as 50 percent of the content is public domain and available through the International Music Score Library Project. This contest between nonprofit organizations and commercial producers is expected to intensify as commercial databases employ increasingly sophisticated interfaces offering new ways of viewing and searching content.

While the list of resources presented herein is of necessity not exhaustive, it represents some of the most highly regarded resources in the performing arts as well as some recently published resources from reputable content hosts. Some of the large journal databases are interdisciplinary in nature and included in all appropriate sections with annotations addressing all applicable areas. Resources hosted by individuals are included sparingly as they tend to be unstable and limited in their scope. Digital archives are at present still predominantly mixed with traditional archives and in a few cases include only item descriptions. Most are included only if a substantial portion of their content was available online at the time of writing. CD-ROMs have not been included as the format has been largely superseded by the online databases.

Table 2.1

Music journal indexes and full-text databases

*Also covers e-books and reference works

┼Full text available through other linked GALE databases

╬Covers sources of music manuscripts, music theory and musicology works internationally

Music

Dictionaries and encyclopedias

The Aria Database

URL: http://www.aria-database.com/

Content provider: Robert Glaubitz, University of Colorado at Boulder

Description: This free resource provides information about operatic arias complete with texts and translations. Arias can be searched by title, composer, opera title, role and range. Results can be further limited by language and voice part. Users can limit results to those with accompanying midi files, translations or texts.

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online

URL: http://glnd.alexanderstreet.com/

Content provider: Alexander Street Press

Description: This subscription reference source includes the digital version of the ten-volume print encyclopedia and contains information on geographic regions, musical heritage, music genres and performance practices. Among the more obvious advantages of the electronic format are the audio tracks from represented regions, as well as the facility to search all ten volumes simultaneously. In addition, the source can be browsed by volume, people, subject, genre, instrument, ensemble, cultural group and places.

IPA Source

URL: http://www.ipasource.com/

Content provider:IPAsource.com

Description: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Source is a subscription database of transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. The current edition includes 4,400 texts with 714 aria texts. Texts can be searched by title, poet and composer. The extras section includes: Fach system description; list of free online libretto sources; diction charts; sound recordings with pronunciation of common Latin texts as well as recordings of pronunciations of arias in Latin, German and French; and a list of free related sources.

Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia

URL: http://www.loc.gov/performingarts/pae-home.html

Content provider: Library of Congress

Description: The site provides information about the sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other music, theater, dance and film materials housed in the Library of Congress. While it also serves as an access point for some of the Library of Congress sources referenced elsewhere in this guide, it is a work in progress and most collections still need to be accessed directly. The homepage features recent special presentation podcasts, articles, virtual exhibits and multimedia presentations.

Oxford Music Online

URL: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/

Content provider: Oxford University Press

Description: This subscription service includes a number of reference works in electronic form including: Grove Music Online, Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Dictionary of Music, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera and A Dictionary of Opera Characters. The subscription can include any and all of these sources depending on the institutional budget or needs. The sources can be searched simultaneously or individually by checking the appropriate box next to the source title. In addition to full-length articles about composers, musical works and instruments, it also includes bibliographies with helpful direct links to external content in other subscription or free sources.

Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary

URL: http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/

Content provider: Richard Cole and Ed Schwartz

Description: Hosted by the Music Department at Virginia Tech, this comprehensive dictionary of musical terms is accompanied by recorded pronunciations, video clips and images of rare instruments. Entries are available in most Western European languages and can be browsed alphabetically through an on-screen toolbar.

Electronic sheet music

Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL)

URL: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Content provider: ChoralWiki

Description: This is a peer-to-peer network choral music sharing website. All music is in the public domain and covered by the GNU GPL license, which allows the users to freely copy and print the available music and allows for modification of music, provided the modified version is then posted on the site. While the site administrators loosely control the postings, the majority of work is done by users. In addition to hosted scores, users can request scores to be added to the site which are then posted in the 'completed' section. Other useful features include text translations, composer catalogs and composers' anniversaries.

Chopin Early Editions

URL: http://chopin.lib.uchicago.edu/

Content provider: The University of Chicago Library

Description: This site hosts digitized copies of over 400 Chopin early editions published before 1881 and owned by the University of Chicago Library. In addition to keyword searching, the collection can be browsed by title, genre,...