Project Description

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The International Dictionary of Musical Sources - Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) - is a transnational, non-profit enterprise with the aim of comprehensively documenting the sources on music that have been handed down worldwide. The musical sources recorded are handwritten or printed music, writings about music and textbooks. They are held in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections. RISM identifies what is available and where it is kept.

In 40 countries, one or more national RISM working groups participate in this global project. They forward the results of their work to the RISM central editorial office in Frankfurt am Main, which edits and publishes the title reports. Through cataloguing and publication in a comprehensive encyclopaedia, the musical tradition is protected on the one hand and made accessible to musicology and performing musicians on the other.

In a series A/I, individual prints are listed under the names of the composers with the places where they were found, and in a series A/II, music manuscripts after 1600 are listed. Series B is intended for special repertories such as collective prints of the 16th and 17th centuries, German hymnody, music-theoretical sources in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Persian, etc. These three series are complemented by a Series C, the Directory of Music Research Libraries. Series A/II forms the most extensive complex of the entire RISM and is currently the main focus of the work.

The handwritten scores are extensively described according to a uniform scheme with more than 100 categories and stored in a database.

Due to a cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, RISM can offer an online catalogue for free research.

RISM data is open data. Their use in other scientific projects is welcome and is supported by the central editorial office with various tools.