Digital Du Chemin

Our Colleagues at the CESR have made some excellent progress towards a working model of the site. Follow the link below and see what you think of the basic functions, layout. Of course there will be changes, but this should give a sense of how things work.

So far, you can search (but only the Premier livre has full images and transcriptions), scroll through books, toggle among the voice parts, download PDFs, and download transcriptions.

Test Version of the Du Chemin Site

If you would like to PLAY the transcriptions using Sibelius Scorch player, you will need to install the Scorch player using the link below.

Instructions for Scorch Download

Next Steps–Future Projects?

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:58:23 +0000

Can you imagine a repertory you’d like to see treated in this way in the months and years to come? Tell us something about it. How defined? What problems of access to originals? What audiences? Possibilities for pedagogical or research uses? Performance?

What new tools would you like to see developed for searching, displaying, and sharing?

Transcribe, Learn, Collaborate

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:52:07 +0000

Transcribe (modern transcriptions of the approximately 300 chansons found in the 11 complete sets of Du Chemin’s chansonniers, with the added ability to download these in various formats, including for use with the free Sibelius Scorch Player that will permit users to display, print, and hear the music without the purchase of additional software. We will also provide blank templates for use by students and others who would like to learn how to transcribe Renaissance notation themselves. We will post partial transcriptions of works that remain incomplete, inviting participants to try their hand at re-composing the remaining pair of voices based on aspects of musical style seen elsewhere in the volumes);

• Learn (with links to the commentaries on the music, to the biographical gazetteer of the composers represented, plus a bibliographical notice for each composition listing information on literary texts, rival settings, other modern editions, or secondary literature);
• Collaborate (electronic forums for exchange of questions, ideas, or information by scholars, students, and performers; links to related resources, announcements of concerts or scholarly conferences, sharing of transcriptions, etc). This will probably take the form of a moderated social media site, perhaps like this one.

Search, Display, Download

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:51:38 +0000

• Search (by book, composer, poet, incipit, etc., with ability to sort results by various criteria; the commentaries will also be fully searchable);
• View (high-quality scans of the albums, with facility for scrolling through books, toggling through all voice parts of a composition, plus the ability to download the facsimiles as PDF files in various combinations–such as individual voice part, all parts for a piece, an entire book, etc.);

Data Fields–Some questions to consider

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:41:47 +0000

Questions:

What to do with compositions that are longer than one page?
What to do with works having conflicting attributions?
Do we imagine that scholars will want to study questions of mode and/or tonal type? Can tonal types simply be from a list, as one field, or as they are here? If only tonal types, will that limit searches (by final, for example)?
What other fields would we need if (eventually) the database is expanded to (for example) motets, madrigals?

Data Fields–A Tentative List

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:38:04 +0000

Our initial project will build on an existing database compiled at the CESR for the French chanson of the 16th century. This data set will provide the foundation for our “search” tool. But of course we will want to think about other fields that will be useful when our scope expands. Consider:

Composer: a regularized list, or as they appear in the original books? And if the former, how will we handle questions of conflicting attributions?

Text incipit: Regular spellings, as the CESR database currently uses, or to follow original spellings?

Number of Voices: In the Du Chemin set, all but one of the works is for 4 voices. But clearly we will need a field for this as the project expands.

Musical source: Title of book where this image can be found
Publisher: Name of printer
Date:
Standard reference: RISM or other standard reference to the source?
Location: which copy of the source?

Fields identifying the exact reference of the image

Superius This will be the number of our image

Altus This will be the number of our image

Tenor This will be the number of our image

Bassus This will be the number of our image

Quintus, etc.

Folios: We might need this for manuscript sources
Clefs: All four, or just superius?
Final: Lowest note of bassus. Or some other indication of ‘mode’?
System: hard/soft

Language:
Poet: (when known)
Literary Source : (when known)
Verse form:
Meter:

Image type:
Resolution :

Modern edition of composition:
Commentary in this Resource: This will be a link.
Transcription in this Resource Sib and scorch.htm file

Settings of same text by other composers:
Composition on same page: [In the case of books where adjacent pieces might bear relationship to each other]

Participants

rfreedman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:09:04 +0000

Here is a list of those who are taking part in the project:
Coming to Haverford for March 16, 2009:

Stefano Mengozzi, University of Michigan “smeng@umich.edu”
Giuseppe Gerbino, Columbia University “gg2024@columbia.edu”
Honey Meconi, University of Rochester “hmeconi@rochester.edu”
Patrick Macey, Eastman School of Music “pmacey@esm.rochester.edu”
Jennifer Bloxam, Williams College “jbloxam@williams.edu”
Cynthia Cyrus, Vanderbilt University “cynthia.cyrus@vanderbilt.edu”
Jennifer Thomas, University of Florida “thomasjs@ufl.edu”

Still others who have expressed interest, but will not be able to attend:

David Crook, University of Wisconsin “dcrook@wisc.edu”
Joshua Rifkin, Cambridge, MA “jrifkin@compuserve.com”
Bob Kendrick, University of Chicago, “rkendric@uchicago.edu”
Kristine Forney, University of California “kforney_enjoy@yahoo.com”

Colleagues at Haverford College who will join us March 16:

John Anderies, Special Collections Librarian, “janderie@haverford.edu”
Michelle Oswell, Music Librarian, “moswell@haverford.edu”
Norm Medeiros, Associate Librarian of the College, “nmedeiros@haverford.edu”
Laurie Allen, Coordinator for Research, “lallen@haverford.edu”
Laura McGrane, English Department, “lmcgrane@haverford.edu”
David Moore, Web Designer, “dmoore@haverford.edu”

And of course our colleagues from the CESR in Tours, France:

Philippe Vendrix, Director, “vendrix@univ-tours.fr”

Vincent Besson, Engraver and Designer, “vincent.besson@univ-tours.fr”

Calendar

rfreedman — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:57:35 +0000

February 15: Review Ideas, Post Comments

March 15-16: Haverford Retreat

Schedule for March 16:

8:30-9:00 Coffee, Breakfast
9:00-10:00 History and State of the Project
10:00-12:00 Demonstration and Discussion of individual components
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Ideas for Future Projects
3:30-4:30 Tour Special Collections (?)
4:30-5:00 Wrap-Up, Dinner, Depart