Medieval music on the web: musical resources for the 21st Century

John Stinson - La Trobe Univeristy

Abstract
The revival of Gregorian chant at the end of the 19th century and the more recent production of monumental editions of other repertoires of medieval music have revealed the richness and beauty of the earliest European musical traditions. They have also stimulated a great deal of scholarship, so that we now know of the existence of even more music from the middle ages. The expense of printing new editions of this music and the loss of original notational information have both been overcome by a project at La Trobe University. Music from original manuscripts has been transcribed, employing custom-written software (SCRIBE) which has been used to produce musical scores in which the original notation is preserved along with the modern equivalent. These files are linked to extensive databases which correlate textual, musical and bibliographic information; some are linked to CD quality sound files. When these are linked to colour images of original source manuscripts the source, edition and audible music are made available in a unique, accessible and inexpensive way.

First presented at IAML National Conference 4 October 1996, University of Melbourne.