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Hopefully I'm not throwing too many things into one topic, but they all seem to relate to Catholic hymn & chant books.
Is there a preferred numbering system to index music in a hymnal that included both numbered and unnumbered hymns/chants/mass parts?
Is there a particular policy about chant books (i.e. Liber usualis) as to whether or not to include them in the index?
Lastly, if adding chant books is supported/encouraged, would there be difficulties in editing the entries and authorities if the particular books used Neumes rather than modern notation?
Thanks.
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files
Comments
(1) I'm sure Gregorian Chant
(1) I'm sure Gregorian Chant collections would be accepted. I have one book that's on my list of books to do--fairly low priority, so if you're starting this year (probably this decade), you'll beat me to it. I am working on some American Indian books--it looks like there's a real lacuna there also. There are probably some missing immigrant-language hymnals.
(2) The basic DNAH index includes information about text and tune. The Hymnary website has the capability to include the complete text, additional background information, and media files of the tune. The tune could be included as a simple scan of the page (scanners work equally well on shape notes, neumes, or cheironomic hieroglyphs). It could be included as a MIDI file--which works equally well on any music with a fixed scale. And there are musical editing programs which produce neumes.
Gregorian chant
We've been trying to figure out how to better support books with liturgical components such as readings or mass parts. At this point we don't have much support for book contents other than texts and tunes. Our search tools wouldn't really help you find other liturgical elements except by first line or full text search.
Chant books are encouraged, though, and Neumes notation should be fine. It could either be scanned and offered as page images or entered into some music notation program that supports the notation. MP3 or midi recordings are also supported.
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Harry Plantinga
CCEL Director