Re: Cataloguing Jewish music

[L_Cahan <L_Cahan...>]

I would be interested in following the upshot of this discussion also.  Perhaps
a Jewish Music Cataloguing mailing list should be started for all interested,
although I have no clue as to how this is done.
Lorele

holden (at) dircon(dot)co(dot)uk wrote:

> Dear library colleagues
>
> I am assisting in the setting up of the new library at the Jewish Music
> Institute in London. In my professional capacity I have had a lot of
> experience in cataloguing 'classical' music to AACR standards, but haven't
> really tackled many of the interesting problems associated with cataloguing
> Jewish music.
>
> I would be very interested to hear from any other librarians on the list
> with this sort of experience, to discuss how you have approached some of
> the inherent problems. Unless you feel that this discussion would be of
> general interest, it would perhaps be better to contact me off-list.
>
> Occupying my attention in particular at the moment is the formulation of
> uniform titles for conventional forms in printed music transcriptions. For
> example, a volume containing several works titled 'Freylekh' (or variants
> therof). If a distinctive title has at some stage been applied to a
> particular freylekh, then this could be used as a distinguishing soubriquet
> - but if there is none? I wouldn't feel comfortable in quoting the key as
> written (except in the descriptive part of the entry), since a) there is no
> guarantee that this is the original key and b) this is almost certainly a
> transcription of a piece of music with an aural, rather than a
> composed/notated history. Typically there is a numbered sequence of the
> form in many collections (eg the Russian shers in the Stacy Phillips
> Klezmer Collection) but this is merely a handy means of differentiation by
> the publisher. Is there any other approach save to surrender and use the UT
> 'Freylekh', with as much about the provenance as possible in the
> descriptive part of the entry?
>
> I would be really interested - and grateful-  to hear how any of you have
> tackled these problems. Also, is your catalogue - or any other
> professionally produced catalogue of Jewish music - accessible on the
> Internet?
>
> Paul Holden
> Formerly Senior Librarian
> Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London
>

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