Staff Papers

Building Theological Libraries: Building and Managing Your Music Collections

A paper presented by Robyn Holmes, Curator of Music, National Library of Australia on the 5th July, 2002 at the ANZTLA conference (Australian and New Zealand Theological Library Association) with the theme "Building Theological Libraries" held in Canberra from the 4th -7th July 2002.


I. Building your collections: the musical perspective. Why music in theological libraries?

Most traditional thought systems across diverse civilizations have accorded music a central place in the cosmos, the social order and the human mind. Whilst music-making itself may be linked to everyday functions and human pleasures, its dominant place in the belief systems of many cultures gives music status as a mirror of the inner world or as a form of communication that links to the realm of the spirit, conveyed in a multitude of types, forms, styles and modes of sacred musical expression. It is not surprising that such a significant proportion of the world’s musical repertoire is religious in orientation. Equally, music is integral to the life of organised religion and spiritual practice across many cultures and faiths.

I have taken as my text for this paper the following statement from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II, 1963:

“The musical tradition of the …Church is a treasure of inestimable value; …it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy…whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters oneness of spirit, or invests the rites with greater solemnity …”[1]

This statement is a summation of hundreds of such tracts on music and the church, repeated in various guises, ever with subtle differences, in Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Orthodox, and other traditions over centuries. Given that music has such a seminal, integral role in the life of the church, should we not argue that learning in music is essential across the curriculum for theological education? And what obligation does that place upon libraries, as the resource hubs for theological learning, to incorporate music into collections, services and resources?

Let me demonstrate the significance of music to key aspects of theological education based on four recorded music examples.

1. Theology

AUDIO: J.S. Bach’s Mass in b minor. Excerpt from the Credo “Crucifixus–Et resurrexit’.

This music represents the central tenet of the Christian faith: God’s self–revelation and sacrifice though the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. The musical imagery here speaks this directly to our heart and mind: at once an intellectual and emotional understanding that unites text, music and soul. The slow descending chromatic steps of the recurring bass encapsulate the meaning of ‘Crucifixus’, overlaid with old style unaccompanied counterpoint, line against line, to the final descent of burial in “Sepultus est”. The spiritual joy of resurrection is immediately juxtaposed through the more contemporary musical gestures of the ‘Et Resurrexit’: the rising melodic lines, the rushing rhythm, the exuberant counterpoint, the trumpets and drums in the triumphal key of D Major. Here we witness the core of the theology of death and resurrection, sacrifice and redemption, the mystery of Christ crucified and raised from the dead. The music renders the mystery knowable, unifies the word and its meaning into a reenactment that lives for the moment in its very performance. It takes the past into the present; it not only depicts the image and arouses the emotions but, through its very musical language, it represents central theological concerns inherent in the Mass.

We could merely argue that Bach’s musical style is wholly grounded in a particular cultural and historical context that accounts for its approach, its theology and its musical rhetoric. Knowing that context of course makes more sense of the music itself. But there is a wider significance and implication here: music has the power to enact complex concepts, to invite us to hear and feel and understand difficult ideas in a highly immediate way. This both feeds and nurtures our understanding of theology and reminds us of the power of music as a medium for worship and prayer.

2. Liturgy and worship

AUDIO: Byzantine Chant: Excerpt from Monday liturgy for Holy Week

Public or private worship, ritual and prayer, in synagogue, temple, chapel, monastery, desert or home: with or without singing? Almost all faith traditions – indeed most traditional societies – have a complex of sacred rites in which music plays an essential role in communal ceremony. Across many traditions, music is fused in rites with text, gesture, action or visual imagery to heighten the solemnity, to perform the text with greater emphasis or understanding, to draw participants into the realm of contemplation of meaning, to connect with the spirit, or to cohere and overlay the action with a sense of the ‘sacred’.  Understanding such roles of music is essential to its effective performance in any context. Some ability to perform the rites – or to lead those who do – with a level of artistry and aesthetic judgment appropriate to the context is an essential for any person actively seeking to minister within a faith.  The integrity of the rite and its power as worship is dependent upon its performance, whether simple or elaborate, intimate or public, informal or formal. Inappropriate or poorly performed music can mean poor liturgy; and poor liturgy weakens the expression of the inner meaning of faith.

3. The community of faith

AUDIO: 19th century Australia hymn, The King’s Highway by Emma Woolley (published in Sydney 1872, dedicated by permission to the Lord Bishop of Sydney. Possibly the first hymn published by an Australian woman composer).[2]

The title of the most recent Australian ecumenical Christian book of song Together in Song: The Australian Hymn Book II,[3] encapsulates a third dimension of music – the power of music to “foster oneness of spirit” amongst a community of faith. The editor notes:

“Our prayer is that the book will be an aid to worship now and into the new millennium, and that those who choose to use it will be ‘filled with the Spirit’ as they ‘sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs’. [4]

This implies music for use by all – refreshing that practice of communal spiritual singing for which we have evidence dating back to the ancient Greeks. The spiritual song or hymn, psalm or response has been historically characterised by simplicity, intelligibility and clarity of style. Musical repetition, syllabic style (that is one note one syllable), moving and understandable words that often instruct and explain precepts, and a known relationship between music and text all facilitate group participation and ease of memory. The role of participatory music-making in all kinds of settings makes knowledge of a broad range of spiritual songs an essential component within any theological education. Where once this knowledge was generally confined to a local musical tradition and language group, more recently cross-cultural, even inter-faith, borrowing and subsequent internationalization has enriched the repertoires of many faiths, juxtaposed historical and contemporary sources, and necessitated broader understanding and knowledge of the diversity of cultural practice.

4. Church History

Audio: “Dina Helaga Ai”, sung in the Papuan Motu language, meaning  “During Sabbath”

In those cultures with notated musical histories, music provides a key monitor of historical change within religious life, an important record of changing church practice. The reforms, for example, of Luther affected the course of music history just as they affected theology itself: the two strands of church and musical history are interwoven. In oral traditions, the communal function and ‘aide-de-memoire’ that music provides to religious practice enables continuity to the past, a kind of living tradition that accommodates past customs and present realities. Because music can be re-lived, re-enacted and re-invented, it documents not only past religious practices and past thinking – broader than music itself – but enables us to experience this or gain insight in a dynamic, ever-present way.

Could the significance of the elaborate settings and rites of the Requiem Mass in the 18th century Catholic Church be so understandable without Mozart? Could the tenets of the Protestant Reformation remain so instructive without Luther’s hymns or the English psalm settings? Could we perceive the changing needs of our community without the range of spiritual songs that convey meanings and attitudes across changing generations? Would the missionising of the Pacific be so evident without the creation of Pacific Christian musical styles that fuse indigenous musical practice and language with the tradition of Western hymns? Can we understand contemporary Australian spirituality without any knowledge of cultural diversity?

My four examples have intended to convey that music collections should form an essential resource in all theological libraries, that a knowledge of music is intrinsic to the curriculum as a whole and, at the very least, should support studies of theology, church history and liturgy. The provision of music for contemporary worship also supports active communities of faith in theological colleges. Moreover, cross-cultural and inter-faith understanding is more accessible when experienced through the immediacy of music, requiring access to a range of at least recorded music experiences.

This, then, provides a ‘recipe’ for core collection development in music in theological libraries, documented both in score and recorded sound: 

  • Some key musical ‘treasures’ that provide insight into the significant tenets and belief systems of the faith;
  • Some historically representative repertoire that provides insight into past liturgical practice, changing notions of spirituality and communal worship, and the major social, structural and intellectual changes within the Church or organised religion;
  • Some practical sources for music-making that will support current liturgical practice and communal worship;
  • Some cross-cultural and inter-faith sources that provide broader cultural understanding, as well as a range of material that provides insight into our society.

II. Building your collections: User perspectives

What to select from this range of content, however, is equally determined by the functions of your library, your institutional contexts and your community. Who are your users, what do they need, and how will you best provide resources and services? Some obvious further questions underpin this. What is the philosophy of your organisation? What uses will the collection have? Are you serving denominational or ecumenical or broader interests? Are you training ordinands as well as supporting academic study and/or community outreach? What is the general scope and coverage of your collections? Is your library part of a larger organisation and how large is your collection budget? What opportunities exist for cooperative collecting and sharing arrangements with other libraries?

I will explore these issues as they directly influence users of music collections through imagining some user scenarios:

I am a trained musician and I want some splendid music for my small choir of singers to perform during the Gradual at our college’s end of year valedictory service. The theme of the day is salvation. But where can I find scores that I can use?

User issues: High level of user music literacy; the wide range of musical resources needed for perusal and selection of repertoire; provision of multiple copies of scores; use as against preservation.

I have a research project to undertake on the forms and orders of Western liturgy from the 13th to the late 16th century. How can I find out what elements of the liturgy were sung and if and when this changed?

User issues: Need for research level access to a representative range of scores; music only likely to be available in expensive scholarly editions or antiquarian or facsimile editions; access to CDs reconstructing historical performance practice; access to specialist musical information, indexes, books and journals.

I am going to undertake a six week stay serving a community on Tiwi Island in the Torres Strait. The pastor there tells me the people love to sing during worship but desperately need some new resources. The trouble is I do not know whether they read music or learn by ear. How can I find some materials to take with me that will be appropriate? If I can find some music, can I make multiple copies?

User issues: Access to range of cross-cultural materials and a variety of contemporary sources, both in sound and score; web access to musical sources; information on copyright in music; some historical information on religion and culture in the Torres Strait.

My lecturer was so excited yesterday: she had discovered this musical score in the library that she said demonstrated how the English church musicians and nobility kept their Catholicism secretly alive during the period of the destruction of the monasteries. The trouble is that I can’t read the music and the thesis she referred us to is so full of technical jargon that I can’t understand it. But I really want to find out about it!

User issues: Lack of user music literacy; lack of information on music in church history sources; specialist technical jargon of the music history literature.

I have been attached to a local parish where the organist has just left. However, I have a small group of kids who want to form a band for our family services. I am keen to help them but I don’t know how to access any music for them to play and I can’t arrange it myself.

User issues: Range of contemporary sources required; web access (for contemporary music); need to access parts for performance; music unlikely to be in the specialist music library with which you have reciprocal borrowing rights; need to find music suppliers; prohibitive cost of music for the ‘kids’.

I know this old hymn tune but I cannot find the original version of it. Where could I access the original words?

User issues: need to maintain access to older out of print materials as well as contemporary sources. Need for music reference materials, including thematic indexes and on-line music resources.

Music users make special demands on us – partly because they range from the trained musician through to the musically non-literate, and partly because they want to access every range of resource, from the serious research inquiry through to sources to listen to or perform, across contemporary, historical and cross-cultural styles.

Building your collections: the Library perspective

Each institution will need to determine its collection building policy with the following key issues in mind:

  • What level of musical knowledge amongst your users are you going to support?
  • Are you able to invest in a core collection or just order, hire or borrow music on demand?
  • Can you invest in and manage a representative range of musical scores for research?
  • Do you need to support your own community with resources for worship?
  • Can you supply scores and parts for practical use; that is are you able to support music resources for performing, as well as study and research?
  • Can you also supply listening and multimedia facilities and resources?
  • Can you provide access to a keyboard or other sound source for people to create sound from the score?
  • Do you have the knowledge to select and support specialist information on music, and if not, how can you provide other forms of access to it?
  • Given that much church music is unpublished, do you need to archive any materials and support any archival collections?

Part of the problem is that, today, non-specialist users are less likely to be able to read music than they once were and thus find it difficult to access musical information from a musical score. Mostly, they need to be able to hear as well as see! In recent decades, there has been a marked change in thinking about what kind of documents properly represent the ‘music’, and therefore what libraries should collect.  A score may be considered a mere artefact and not the music itself! A sound or audio-visual recording used to be considered the supplement to the musical score; now more often the score is considered the blueprint for the live realisation of the music that is documented in recording. Often the oral version is now disseminated first before being realised in notation. Unlike the Western classical music canon, much music, including more popular contemporary music, is not notated. Sound rather than score has become the prime means of access to music for the general user and younger musicians, yet the vast array of past musical treasures of the Church exist in complex musical scores or parts, much of it written in older styles of notation.

Thus the earlier days of the theological library focussing on a core of the Western classical church music ‘canon’, collecting beautifully presented scores and often rare musical editions, has long gone. Theological libraries need not only to care for past musical treasures but must ensure that music remains a vital and relevant core collecting field, for research and study, for use in worship, for performance and for enrichment.

III. Managing your collections: the Library perspective

Musical works are represented in many different manifestations and expressions, versions and editions. Musical editions range from the utilitarian – ephemeral in nature and designed for regular use – through to the exquisitely rendered work of art. This range makes for great variation in quality, quantity and functionality and demands special consideration about the physical conditions, space and access arrangements in your library.

Organisation

The physical properties of music – whether in print, audio or in manuscript formats – place special demands in terms of storage and management. Sizes of music editions range from 12cm to 50cm, from miniature study scores to oversized elephant manuscript, from two pages to hundreds of pages. A large orchestral or choral work may comprise multiple items across score and parts. Decisions need to be made about whether to store according to format and size or according to the musical content. Organising and arranging can be alphabetical, by a music classification system, chronology, genre, type, musical form, performance resources or groupings.

Storage

Scores often come in loose pages, either unbound or spiral bound, or in relatively fragile sheet music items, albums or anthologies. Musical works for ensembles will contain multiple related items which should not be separated. Some solutions to maintenance are to use archival boxes or customised folders that allow music to be stored flat. Items can be physically contained in plastic or mylar envelopes to stop separation of loose parts, and to assist in preservation. Flat deep wide shelving is best used for non-standard sizes, and shelving with supportive dividers used for non-hard copy albums and scores. CD storage, control and stack access similarly require special consideration: specially sized shelving, CD drawers, and care in retrieval and matching of the actual recording to its physical container will assist. Should such items be on open stack access and made available to all for loan? Security and copyright are key issues both for scores and recorded sound.

Use versus preservation

If you collect or borrow music for use in performance or worship, then space requirements are a consideration if you are collecting or handling multiples sets of music. If the music is used for performing, then a system for recording, listing, monitoring and retrieving individual parts must be in place: a missing violoncello part can destroy an expensive set of music. The conflict between use and preservation becomes significant. When the choir conductor gives special performance instructions for particular phrasing, breathing, dynamics, or ornamentation, the chorister has to mark the score: annotations, scribblings, markings, torn pages abound in music that is well used. Which musical key, or which part, or in which version, whose edition, for instance, does the musician want? These can matter greatly to the performer and can alter the nature and quality of the music.  If you are not able to support performance materials in your own library, you need to be aware of the methodologies and processes for resource sharing and hiring and supply of such musical materials. Acquiring music in Australia is affected by the low level of music publishing in Australia, high costs of overseas materials, and the limited number of specialist importers and suppliers who tend to order on demand.

Copying music

Copying music for use in worship and associated activity has been greatly facilitated by church music licensing schemes [5]. Copyright exists in both the manifestations of a musical work (mechanical rights) [6] and in the rights to use the work (performing right) [7]. Instead of seeking permissions to copyright for performances, churches can pay a general fee so that musical works performed under the authorization of churches are covered by licence. The copyright collecting agencies provide on-line information about religious music publishers and the various licensing organisations that represent them internationally, and publish specific guidelines on ‘Music Copyright for Churches’.

Bibliographic control

Musical data and symbolic notation make special demands not only on the user but also on the cataloguer and reference librarian. Accurate locating, cataloguing and retrieval of specific music items becomes a specialist area. Cataloguing and bibliographical control and access is a major issue for most music collections and many musical items tend to remain uncatalogued, or described only at the collection level, perhaps with in-house finding aids. Music collections, both scores and recorded sound, have the lowest percentage of format coverage on Australia’s National Bibliographic Database and small special collections frequently remain invisible. Nevertheless any system of description and location applied consistently will facilitate access. Use of standard AACR2 cataloguing rules, Library of Congress Music Subject Headings and use of music thesauri are some of the methods used in libraries.

Technologies

The multiple formats of music, not only scores but also recorded sound, video and emerging electronic resources in multimedia formats, require quality facilities for listening and recording and downloading. Sound, audio-visual and multimedia formats have faced abrupt technological changes and changing standards – the shift from 78 to LP to CD to DVD demands replacement strategies and poses problems for preservation and ongoing access. Web delivery of music is opening up qualitative shifts in delivering musical data in integrated formats in real time. The digital revolution can support the conversion of music collections into digital media and provides new opportunities for digital preservation, publishing music on demand, centralised digital storage and management systems, storing and streaming digitally formatted sound to computer work stations or the controlled provision of music library materials legally for distance education, research and study. But the cost of supporting new technology is expensive for small libraries; specialist plug-ins and software is required as the standards and formats are not yet standardised; and access requires higher level computing facilities, server and broadband capacity plus headphones or listening posts! The popular commercial music market as yet dominates music on the web, although there are many sacred music sites emerging from the USA.

Resource sharing

How can you significantly add layers of support to your music resources and services, when you are a small specialist library?

  • Ready access to information about music has massively improved with specialist on-line international music databases, indexing and lexicographic services and products.[8] The National Library of Australia recently developed the Australian agency for International Standard Music Numbering (ISMN) [9], providing support for publishers and composers and access to Australian music publications and the International Directory of Music Publishers. [10] The Australian Musical Association provides directories of music retailers, suppliers and importers. As part of our work on national music infrastructure, the National Library of Australia has developed a register of international music web delivery and gateway projects. [11]
  • Cooperative agreements and reciprocal borrowing rights with specialist music libraries provide a ready-made solution to both collection building and access. Music libraries, like theological libraries, tend to be small and specialised in nature but benefit from close working relationships with their users, often the central hub of their organisations. The problem is that music libraries are mostly housed within music schools with their own priorities for music performance: in Australia today this does not generally mean sacred music. Therefore their commitment to support cooperative collection development and collection management might require an appropriate exchange of funds or services.
  • In larger centres, maintaining relationships with churches, church schools and church archives often provides extended access to music collections for worship; these are not always able to be well managed, so pooling of library services and collections access might benefit all parties.
  • Building relationships with other special interest organizations faced with similar issues – for example with the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) – will provide some benefits. Like theological libraries, music libraries also have specialist needs, often stand outside mainstream library organisation, can be somewhat isolated, and are often poorly resourced.
  • The National Library and IAML (Australia) have been working to improve the situation of music on the National Bibliographic Database, including easier batch loading of records that will recognise and maintain local in-house music data. A guide for searching for music in the Kinetica service has been developed. [12]

National infrastructure

The National Library of Australia, together with ScreenSound Australia and other national music organisations, is currently developing national web infrastructure for music: MusicAustralia. The vision is to develop a web-based music service that will provide integrated, seamless access to Australian music resources and information. In the first instance, we have undertaken a pilot to develop, test and evaluate delivery mechanisms to make accessible digital music objects in score and sound.  The first pilot service is now available on www.musicaustralia.org. This pilot has involved

a) Digitising selected Australiana sheet music and digitising selected sound recordings as mp3 files for web delivery;

b) Building institutional digital storage, management and delivery systems to retrieve digitised and digitally generated scores and audio and to deliver and manipulate these musical objects on-line;

c) Developing and testing the cooperative mechanisms for retrieving and simultaneously delivering score and sound from across different institutions, providing the user with an integrated experience of the music from a single search.

A future challenge for theological libraries will be how to network and deliver sacred music resources as part of this national endeavour!


[1]  ‘Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy’, Chapter VI, Sacred Music, promulgated by Pope Paul VI, Dec 4, 1963. Published in The Sixteen documents of Vatican II and the instruction on the Liturgy. Vatican Council 2nd , 1962-65. St Paul Edition, Magister Books, Boston, 1967. p 49. (Note that translations vary: ‘oneness of spirit’ = unity of minds; invests the rites with greater solemnity’ = confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites.)

[2] Score available from the National Library Australia web site in digital form http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an6260761

[3] Together in song: Australian Hymn Book II, East Melbourne, HarperCollins Religious, 1999.

[4] Ibid, p.ix.…..

[5] In Australia, through the Australian Performing Right Association (APRA) Church licence and the Christian Copyright Licensing system. More information from the APRA web site: http://www.apra.com.au/dist/disnbcst.htm [Accessed 21 August 2002]

[6] Covered by Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) http://www.apra.com.au/About/AbIntro.htm [Accessed 21 August 2002]

[7] Covered by the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) http://www.apra.com.au/index.htm [Accesed 21 August 2002]

[8] Most notably, RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale), RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales), RIPM (Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale), RidIM (Répertoire Intemational d'Iconographie Musicale) and Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians revised second edition available on-line.

[9] ISMN Agency home page  http://www.nla.gov.au/ismn/index.html [Accessed 22 August]

[10] Australian Music Centre home page http://www.amcoz.com.au/ [Accessed 22 August 2002]

[11]   http://www.musicaustralia.org/info/internationalprojects.html

[12] Searching for Music in KineticaWeb available online http://www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/manuals/guide2.html [Accessed 21 August 2002], in PDF and Word format.

Back to the top