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- Wednesday, 10 December, 2025
- Thessaloniki, Greece
- 28 June, 2026
Bibliography
Terms of reference
The Bibliography Section is concerned with the description and interpretation of musical sources of all periods, including printed music, music manuscripts and performance ephemera. Its main purpose is to promote the dissemination of bibliographical research in music and to debate methodological issues relating to the description of musical sources. It also provides a forum in which scholars and librarians can formulate proposals for bibliographical projects and initiatives both within IAML and more widely. Bibliographical research in music helps to support the work of libraries in cataloguing and documenting their holdings, but it is also a much broader field of enquiry that ranges beyond the organisation of data into the realms of social, economic, and political histories. The Bibliography Section is therefore concerned with analytical bibliography in its widest sense – encompassing descriptive, textual, and historical bibliography – in which the study of musical sources may be regarded as a distinctive subset.
Among other activities, the Section oversees the following study group:
- Study Group on Access to Performance Ephemera (formerly Indexing of Music Performances)
Papers given under the auspices of the Bibliography Section can be found here:
Former activities include:
- Project Group on Hofmeister(formerly Hofmeister XIX)
Officers:
2024 – 2027
Chair: Barbara Schwarz-Raminger (University Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria)
Vice-Chair: Matthias Pernerstorfer (Don Juan Archiv, Vienna, Austria)
Secretary: Jennifer Ward (RISM Editorial Center, Frankfurt, Germany)
Past officers:
2021-2024:
Stefan Engl, Austria (chair) – Matthias Pernerstorfer, Austria (vice-chair) – Jennifer Ward, Germany (secretary)
2017 – 2021:
Stefan Engl, Austria (chair) – Beatriz Magalhães Castro, Brazil (vice chair) – Jennifer Ward, Germany (secretary)
2014 – 2017:
Rupert Ridgewell, UK (chair) – Balázs Mikusi, Hungary (vice chair) – Jaakko Tuohiniemi, Finland (secretary)
2011 – 2014:
Rupert Ridgewell, UK (chair) – Balázs Mikusi, Hungary (vice chair) – Jaakko Tuohiniemi, Finland (secretary)
2008 – 2011:
David Day, USA (chair) – Mark Germer, USA (vice-chair) – Ole Bisbjerg, Denmark (secretary)
2005 – 2008:
David Day, USA (chair) – Susanne Staral, Germany (vice-chair) – Berit Holth, Norway (secretary)
2002 – 2005:
Susanne Staral, Germany (chair) – David Day, USA (vice-chair) – Thomas Leibniz, Austria (secretary)
1999 – 2002:
Susanne Staral, Germany (chair) – Barbara Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk, Poland (vice-chair) – Thomas Leibniz, Austria (secretary)
Activities
- Bibliography Section – 2023 Post-Congress Report
- Bibliography Section – 2022 Post-Congress Report
- Bibliography Section – Congress Summary 2021
- Bibliography Section – Congress Summary 2019
- Bibliography Section – Congress Summary 2018
- Bibliography section – Congress Summary 2017
- Bibliography section – Report 2017
- Bibliography commission – Report 2016
Materials presented in the sessions
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: catalogue of works. Online-database and critical presentation of the sourcesCarola Finkel (Deutsches Musikgeschichtliches Archiv, Kassel)
- Modelling, providing and visualizing performance data from theatre almanacs and journalsMatthias J. Pernerstorfer (Don Juan Archiv Wien), Andrea Gruber (Don Juan Archiv Wien) and Marcus Ebner (LeitnerLeitner, Wien)
- Digital projects on Italian sources: Arrigo Boito’s papers now online, including new documents on Giuseppe Verdi (revised slides + text)Federica Riva (Conservatorio di musica „Antonio Scontrino“ (Trapani), Rome) and Olga Jesurum (Rome)
- Some viewpoints to the private theoretical library of Johann Gottfried Walther (1684–1748)Tommi Harju (University of Arts Helsinki Library, Helsinki)
- Rheingold v. Blue Danube: various methods, possibilities and solutions of cataloguing ephemera in the field of performing arts in German speaking countriesAnn Kersting-Meuleman (Universitatsbibliothek Frankfurt, Frankfurt)
- Challenges and perspectives of access to musical ephemera: OnStage — a case study from SwitzerlandClaudio Bacciagaluppi (RISM Switzerland)
- Further impressions: Digitising the Annotated Catalogue of Chopin’s First EditionsJohn Rink (Cambridge University)