discography (long post)
28 Mar 08
Foreman, Lewis. Systematic Discography. Hamden, CT: Linnet Books, 1974.
Rust, Brian. Brian Rust’s Guide to Discography. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1980.
Both Foreman and Rust (especially Rust) seem more interested in early recording, mainly 78s. Rust makes it clear that this in part because his musical interests focus on that era, but consider this:
A truly comprehensive world discography will probably now never be compiled, but through a large number of ad-hoc subject discographies. . . access to the history of performance in the twentieth centuryas it took place is gradually being made possible. (Foreman 11)
Imagine trying to do a full discography of a contemporary artist whose work exists in umpteen digital formats. The very obsolescence of the LP makes it a tempting target for discography, only because it will stand in one place. And I imagine, in the 70s, discontinued formats from the early 20th century would have been tempting in the same way.
My notes from Foreman and Rust are below the fold.
Posted by pzed on March 28, 2008 at 2.19pm
Bibliographic Relationships in Music Catalogs
14 Mar 08
Vellucci, Sherry L. Bibliographic Relationships in Music Catalogs. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1997.
whole-part relationships
- hierarchichal and fairly obvious; quite common in musical compositions which are often in segments that can be performed independently of the whole
- can be a relationship involving a specific physical entity, such as a song in an anthology
- more importantly, a physical part can be related to a work as an abstract whole; this concept of the work is used to create the primary element in a uniform title
- in principal both part and whole can be abstract, although you wouldn’t normally find this in a library catalogue
- a whole-part relationship can be either inclusive or extractive
- an inclusive relationship exists when the part is contained entirely within the whole
- an extractive relationship exists when the part is removed from the whole to exist as a separate entity
- a part can be extracted vertically from the work, such as when a segment is excerpted to be a complete, performable unit; Vellucci gives the example of a chorus from an opera
- or a part can be extracted horizontally, such as when the music for one instrument is extracted from the complete score; in bibliographic terms this would normally occur in the publication of a score “with parts”, but one could imagine a performance of a single instrumental part from a larger work (although this might be more accurately described as a derivative relationship)
derivative relationships
- a derivative relationship “exists between any new conception of a work and its original source”
- a derivative relationship is normally considered to involve some kind of modification; however, a recording of a musical performance should be considered derivative even where the performers carefully follow the score
- new editions are considered derivative, but subsequent printings of an edition, facsimiles, etc. are not; I’m not sure if this means a CD release of an original LP is derivative, although probably yes if it’s “digitally remastered”
- an amplification is a derivation that adds to an original
- includes arrangements, involving a change in either the medium of performance (e.g. with different instrumentation) or the musical intellectual content (e.g. a simplified version for the beginning musician)
- also includes adaptations (where the intellectual content of a work is so altered as to be considered a new work), translations (not of interest to music per se, but relevant where choral works might involve translation), and notational transcription (e.g. from a medieval to a modern notation)
accompanying relationships
- the relationship between a primary musical item or work and complimentary material that accompanies it
- may be physically separate from one another, or may share the same container
- restricted to the function of augmentation, not a continuation
- for sound recordings, examples would include booklets and other inserts, and might even be extended to include liner notes; such items might also exhibit a descriptive relationship to the primary material
sequential relationships
- embody a chronological and sequential relationship
- include series, serials, and sequels
- exclusive of derivative relationships
equivalence relationships
- exist between exact copies of the same manifestation of a work
- reproduction is a mechanical rather than intellectual process
- the reproduction is normally intended to serve as a substitute for the original
- related to derivative relationships, except that in an equivalence relationship absolutely no alteration is made to the intellectual content
- examples include exact copies, microform copies, manuscript reproductions, issues/reissues/impressions, photocopies; Vellucci studied only scores and gives no specific examples for sound recordings
descriptive relationships
- exist between a work and a criticism, evaluation, or description of the work
- includes annotated editions, commentaries, analyses; may or may not include the musical work being described
Posted by pzed on March 14, 2008 at 11.48am
