Download Requirements for Cataloging Music To catalog music, a cataloger

Requirements for Cataloging Music
To catalog music, a cataloger must be able to do the following:
Musical knowlege
 Read music.
 Read various musical clefs (treble, bass, tenor, alto)
 Recognize different types of notation (including neumatic notation; graphic
notation; solmization; chord symbols; and tablature)
 Identify the musical key, form, genre, and instrumentation of all works.
 For sound recordings, be able to listen and compare performed works to printed
music in thematic catalogs, complete works of a composer, or other scores in
various formats from the collection, in order to identify the works or portions of
works on the recording accurately.
o Note: this requires access to the physical scores collection, along with the
ability to play back various types of recordings.
 Know what an arrangement is: a musical work or a portion of a musical work,
rewritten for a medium of performance different from the original.
 Know that different types of scores represent different types of arrangements:
condensed score (score intended for conducting where the parts are reduced to a
minimum number of staves); close score (typically used for hymn books); vocal
score; piano score (orchestral score reduced to a version for piano); chorus score
(like a vocal score, except that the music where the chorus does not sing is
omitted.)
 Be familiar with music history and theory.
 Know forms, genres, and instruments corresponding to specific time periods
and/or locations. For example, know that “continuo” is a 17th-18th century
medium of performance which may mean one or more specific instruments, and
may or may not be written in figured bass.
 Be familiar with ethnomusicology and be able to identify world music genres and
instruments.
 Be able to discern the important information for ethnomusicological resources.
Bibliographic knowledge
 Identify editions of printed music.
 Use reference sources such as thematic catalogs, publishers’ catalogs, and
complete works in order to correctly identify musical works, and to identify first
or early editions of music if the library collects such materials.
 Identify or verify a musical work and create or verify its authorized access point.
 Know how to use a thematic catalog and a composer’s collected works to identify
works that have been incorrectly or incompletely attributed.
 Know which additional sources to use to identify musical works and construct
authorized access points, including biographical dictionaries such as the New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Die Musik in Geschichte und
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Gegenwart, national music encyclopedias from various countries, and RISM
(Répertoire International des Sources Musicales).
o Note: Of all these sources, only New Grove and a small part of RISM are
currently online.
Determine if a work is in its original form or is an arrangement, and know how to
identify and describe arrangements correctly.
Know when a work has been changed enough to become a new work (new
authorized access point) and when it is simply arranged (original authorized
access point + arranged)
Know how to use reference sources to identify the original title, key, date, and
medium of performance of a work.
Be able to distinguish non-western musical notation from non-Roman text.