Bach Bibliography
http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/bachbib/
Yo Tomita
School of Music / Sonic Arts Research Centre
Queen's University Belfast, UK
What is “Bach Bibliography”?
Online resource for scholars studying the life
and works of J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Offering a range of useful features:
– Closely-integrated cross references
– Highly-structured search options
– Inclusion of unpublished papers, thesis, online
review of hot-from-the-press books
What is “Bach Bibliography”?
Released online in May 1997
Currently accessed c.200 times per day
Receives contributions from c.70 scholars
world wide.
Focus of this presentation
Background
Search Strategies
Under the Bonnet
Future Plans
Background
J. S. Bach is one of the most wellresearched composers
Flood of new publications every year
Research becoming increasingly
specialized and fragmented:
900
800
700
–600Biographical Studies, Historical Studies, Manuscript Studies,
500
Compositional Process, Rhetorical Approach, Music Analysis,
400
Symbolism, Theological Studies, Mathematical Approach, Historical
Performance, Interpretation, etc.
300
Difficult to follow the latest research
200
100
0
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
History of Bibliographical Studies
Table 1: The coverage of ‘Bach-Schrifttums’ published in the Bach-Jahrbuch
Coverage
Items
BJ
Compiler
Notes
1800–1904
1905–1910
1910–1944
1945–1952
1953–1957
1958–1962
1963–1967
1968–1972
1973–1977
1978–1980
1981–1985
1986–1990
1991–1995
[1996–2000
453
321
299
941
402
807
715
884
845
560
1144
1174
1331
c.1500
2 (1905)
7 (1910)
(see notes)
40 (1953)
45 (1958)
53 (1967)
59 (1973)
62 (1976)
66 (1980)
70 (1984)
75 (1989)
80 (1994)
86 (2000)
91 (2005)]
Max Schneider
Max Schneider
Christoph Wolff
Wolfgang Schmieder
Wolfgang Schmieder
Erhard Franke
Rosemarie Nestle
Rosemarie Nestle
Rosemarie Nestle
Rosemarie Nestle
Rosemarie Nestle
Rosemarie Nestle
Karin Germerdonk
mostly German literatures; no pp given
some with page numbers
in Bach-Bibliographie (1985)
more systematically described
projection based on data shown in Figure 1
Blue -- also repr. in Bach-Bibliographie, ed. Christoph Wolff (Kassel, 1985)
Data collection
Main body of data come from the BachJahrbuch
Support receiving from:
–
–
–
–
Many individuals
The American Bach Society
The Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Ohio
The Bach-Archiv Leipzig
Lots of my time being invested into the
collection of additional information
Size
Currently it contains 19,029 records
Table 2
Comparing the scope of bibliographical data for Bach Studies
Bibliographical Reference
items coverage
notes
The on-line Bach Bibliography
‘Bach-Schrifttums’ in Bach-Jahrbuch
RILM online
IIMP CD-ROM (reviewed in 1998)
ArticleFirst
18300
9876
7857
1588
629
plus c.700 of pre-1800 ref.
see Table 1 for details
keyword search ‘Bach’
keyword search ‘Bach’
keyword search ‘Bach’
1800–2003
1800–1995
1967–2003
1920–1995
1990–2003
Search Strategies
DEMONSTRATION
Under the Bonnet (1)
Database format
– 1985-86 (ViewStore on BBC Micro)
– 1986-92 (dBase IV on IBM compatible PC)
– 1992- (Idealist on Windows PC)
– (1997-: comma delimited text file on the Webserver)
Relational Database
– Main Bibliography database
– Periodical database (also managing abbreviations and the
progress of research)
Under the Bonnet (2)
Table 3
Selection criteria of references for the Bach Bibliography
Selected references
Published books of scholarly
contents and reviews
Published articles of scholarly
contents (including reviews and
correspondence)
Published facsimiles
Unpublished dissertations (Master
and Doctor) from universities
Unpublished papers read at
recognised conference or meeting
Excluded references
Printed editions of music and
scores (except those of a highly
scholarly nature)
Recording and its reviews (except
accompanying books or booklets
of a highly scholarly nature)
Books for children
Fiction
On-line essays posted on the
internet
Under the Bonnet (3)
Table 4
Additional fields made available in each record
Field
Notes
Genre
Music
Aspect
Publication type
Language used
general classification of genre, i.e. vocal, keyboard, instrumental, etc.
specifying Bach’s works (in 3-letter abbreviation) discussed
specifying the aspect of discussion in 3-letter abbreviation
book, article, thesis, facsimile, music, unpublished paper, review
specifying with 3-digit telephone codes: 001=English; 049=German;
033=Dutch...
list of its reviews or author’s own summary in separate publication
date on which the record was first created
date on which the record was last modified
reserved for future use for feedback, comments, etc.
Reviews
Created
Modified
Memo
Under the Bonnet (4)
Search engines written in perl by Malcolm Vincent
(formerly a QUB staff at computer services)
– Relatively simple, portable, and platform independent
This set of scripts is available for other scholars
– Used by Dr. Paul Laird of University of Kansas for his
“International Inventory of Villancico Texts” database
(http://www.sun.rhbnc.ac.uk/Music/ILM/IIVT/)
Future Plans (1)
Data Collection and Editorial Control
Invite collaboration of other scholars
Dynamic link to RIPM?
Integrated into a much larger system of
musicological project conceived in e-Science
model
Example model of an e-Science approach to
Bach Source Studies
1. Basic OMR
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
2. Advanced OMR
Digital Image Library
of Sources
3. Graphoanalysis
D
4. Staff measuring
Middleware
Bach’s Scribe
E
Bach’s sources
F
Bach’s works
GH I
J K
Bach Bibliography
USER
Future Plans (2)
Enhance search facilities
Sort search results in alphabetical /
chronological order
Sort search results according to the relevance
to queries
Widen/narrow down the search
Future Plans (3)
Introduction of AI-driven search techniques
Table 5
Knowledge required for measuring the significance of a scholarly contribution
category of
knowledge
about the author
about the book
about the article
knowledge
publication
extractable from record
the existing
participation in
database
NBA project
publisher’s prestige by its
prestige of the journal by
history of continuity
its history of continuity
page numbers
page numbers
year of publication
number of reviews
knowledge to
be assigned
(either manually
or by vote on
the internet)
into database
specific scholarly
contributions
the number of citation by
others
specialisation
education
posts held
prestige of the journal by
referee status
specific scholarly
contributions
the number of citation by
others