Archives and music

• François Lesure,
• Roger Bowers,
• Barbara H. Haggh
• and André Vanrie
• https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01180
• Published in print: 20 January 2001
• Published online: 2001
Archival documents contain accurate and detailed information relevant to
many aspects of musical scholarship: to biography, chronology, history of
institutions and societies, the place and function of musicians in society,
performing practice (in the fullest sense of that phrase) and many others.
They yield the kind of information that primarily musical manuscripts and
printed sources cannot provide.

The term ‘archive’ is here used as defined under §1 below. It is also widely
used in a second sense, to denote what bibliographers would classify as a
‘collection’ or even ‘library’: the Deutsches Musikgeschichtliches Archiv in
Kassel, for example, is a library of photographic materials relating to sources
of German music. Many collections fall halfway between an archive in the
strict sense, consisting of the surviving papers of a historical person, and a
collection, which may include material added by subsequent collectors. Such
a case is the collection in the Library of Congress known as the
‘Rachmaninoff Archives’. See also Libraries; Collections, private; and Sound
archives .

1. Types of archive.
Archives are the totality of documents produced or received by a person or
an organization in the course of administrative activity and the transaction
of affairs. Most archives are now kept as an organized body of records in an
authorized repository and are maintained in their original chronological
order. Both the source of the documents and their method of classification
thus differ from those of an ordinary collection or group of manuscripts in a
library, where the documents are normally classified by other criteria, such
as date of acquisition, subject or original bibliographic order.

Archive collections differ greatly according to their institution of origin.

Public archives are produced by the many and various organs of
government, including both national and local government, the legislature
and the judiciary. They comprise archives of national scope, including the
records of all central government departments, of parliament and of the
higher courts of law, as well as archives of local governmental and judicial
activity, at provincial, county and municipal level. Private archives arise from
the activity of private businesses and organizations, institutions both
ecclesiastical and lay, and individuals. They include the archives of all
religious institutions, especially those of parish, collegiate, cathedral and
monastic churches; the records of notarial and business organizations of all
kinds; and archives accumulated by individuals, especially by landowners in
the creation and administration of extensive households and landed estates.
In free societies the principle that public archives should be accessible to the
public is generally accepted. Private archives remain the property of their
owners, and special permission must be sought before they can be
consulted.

2. Preservation; location.
Since the late 18th century it has become acknowledged that the state is
responsible for the preservation of its documentary heritage, and
throughout Europe public archives are readily accessible in record offices
maintained by the state. In general a central repository is provided for
central government archives, and in the larger countries there are also
provincial repositories. Since this movement began, with the establishment
of the French Archives Nationales in 1789 and Archives Départementales
in 1796, efforts have been made in every country to centralize dispersed
materials and create a unified administration for national and local archives.
A comprehensive annotated list of the major archives of the world prepared
by the International Council on Archives is found in the International Directory
of Archives (1992).
In western Europe there exist the following national public archives: the
Staatsarchiv in Vienna; the Archives Générales du Royaume in Brussels; the
The National Archives in London; the Archives Nationales in Paris; the
Bundesarchiv in Koblenz; the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome; the
Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague; the Archivo Histórico Nacional in
Madrid; and the Bundesarchiv in Berne. Then come the archives of the
counties in Britain; of the provinces in Austria, Belgium, Italy and the
Netherlands; of the départements in France; of the Länder in Germany; and
of the cantons in Switzerland. Next come the district, municipal, episcopal
and parish archives in these countries. An exception are the archives of the
Vatican, which are extraordinarily rich in history for almost every country,
and which have a distinct and unique organization.

In the USA, because of its federal constitution, there are two levels of
governmental administration and legal process. The federal archives are held
in Washington DC by the National Archives and Records Services, a unit of
the General Services Administration, or (in the case of material primarily of
regional interest) in regional branch archives; state and municipal archives
are held locally.

Obviously each national archive collection reflects the history of its country
of origin. Where the state has been relatively recently centralized, as in Italy,
it is necessary to search the archives of all the provinces that made up the
nation as well as the more recently established central archive in Rome; but
where centralization came early, as in England and France, the archives have
been grouped together in the capital from an early date. In many countries,
administration of both national and local archives has been vexed by
changes in national boundaries, particularly in Germany where a regrouping
of the archives was begun in 1815. A national Reichsarchiv was established
in Potsdam in 1919, but the partition of Germany in 1945–9 resulted in its
division into an archive for the Federal Republic in Koblenz and another in
Potsdam for the Democratic Republic. Since the reunification of Germany the
archive in Koblenz serves the entire country, and that of the former
Democratic Republic is now under its direction. As a result of transfers of
territory, there have been several exchanges of archive collections between
nations; for example, in 1861 France gave Italy the Piedmont archives, and in
return received from Italy those of Savoy.
Archive centralization has not always happened, however. Archival material
relating to certain provinces of northern Italy remains in Austria, for
instance; indeed, it was only by virtue of a special clause in the Treaty of
Versailles (1919) that the volumes of 15th-century music known as the Trent
Codices were transferred to Italy at the same time as the city of Trent was
ceded by Austria. Further, many archives have been destroyed, such as those
of the city of Paris in 1870, and of the state of Naples in 1943. The archives
of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) were severely damaged
by fire in 1922, and those of the city of Florence by flood in 1966.
European countries show great differences in the way they maintain certain
classes of archive. In France, for example, ecclesiastical archives, of special
value for the history of sacred music, have been kept in the public
repositories since the Revolution and its attendant separation of church
from state. In other Western countries, especially in Italy and Spain, they
remain at their institution of origin. Similarly, it is usual in France and Italy
for notaries’ archives to be kept in official vaults, whereas elsewhere they
remain in their place of origin.

Records of birth, death and marriage are of great importance in biographical

work. For many centuries such records were produced and retained by the
church, but in some countries a system of civil registration was introduced.
Such registration began in England, for example, in 1837, and since 1858 all
wills (previously proved in the church courts) have been proved in civil
probate courts. As a result, the scholar can consult one central repository for
such information since those dates. Where earlier records survive they can
often be found in local archival repositories such as county record offices.
Many countries have taken population censuses since the methods of
demography became known in the 19th century; the results, with a wealth of
personal information, are often available for consultation, as are registers of
electors. The largest repository of genealogical records, however, is the
Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in
Salt Lake City, where millions of microfilms of American and European
parish archives are kept. Copies can be consulted there and at regional
Family History Centers.
Since respect for historical material is relatively recent, there are numerous
exceptions in the distinction between libraries and archive repositories.
Occasionally, for example, whole music manuscripts are found in archive
collections, not to mention the many fragments discovered bound in as
flyleaves to non-musical volumes. A few examples may be cited: there is a
music manuscript dating from the end of the 15th century in the archives of
the city of Heilbronn; an entire collection of printed 18th-century music in
the departmental archives of Agen; and censored or forbidden operas and
songs in the national archives of France. Conversely, many libraries hold
important archival material. A whole series of account books of the French
royal household, originating in dispersed collections and important for
music history, is in the manuscript department of the Bibliothèque
Nationale, as well as in stray ecclesiastical archives (notably the chapter
registers of Parisian churches) and among the considerable quantity of
scattered pieces gathered by private collectors and genealogists. Archives of
defunct organizations may surface in a variety of places; in Britain, for
instance, extensive archive collections of extinct landed families and of
religious houses dissolved in the 16th century are in The National Archives
and the manuscript department of the British Library.

3. Archival research.
In western Europe general appreciation of the importance of preserving
archival records, for purely practical legal and administrative purposes, is of
long standing; their use by historians, however, is much more recent. During
the 19th century the study and writing of history ceased to be merely a
branch of literature and evolved into an exact science with techniques for
seeking accurate information. By supplying a wholly untapped reserve of
data that appeared to be completely free of bias and subjective distortion,
archives began to be appreciated as an important source of historical
information. Before long, historians of the arts discovered that archival
research could do much to illuminate the history of architecture, of painting,
of the theatre, and in due course also of music.

Even before the centralization of national archives was far advanced,

national series began to be published containing editions of important
chronicles (the Monumenta Germaniae Historica for Germany, The Rolls
Series for England); and from the mid-19th century several countries issued
transcripts and calendars of archival documents together with lists, indexes
and catalogues. Local and regional history societies began similar
publications, as did private organizations and societies. There is now a
massive literature, diffuse and highly complex yet immensely rich. (See
also Musicology, §II, 4 .)

4. Application to music history.

Archival research can be profitable in many ways to a musicologist. It can
produce biographical material about a composer or performer; the date of
composition of a particular piece; references to lost music or music
manuscripts; the history of a musical institution (royal chapel, church
school, liturgical choir, orchestra, conservatory); the music history of a town,
a concert society or a lyric theatre; insight into the practices of instrument
making and music publishing. In fact, it can produce information relating to
all the external aspects of music-making. In broader terms, it can give insight
into the place of the musician in society in past ages, and into the place of
music among the aesthetic values of the time. Further, archival sources can
be of use in the reconstruction of performing practice in music of the pre-
Classical era. In the case of sacred music for choir, details of performing
method can best be obtained from the archives of the churches maintaining
the choirs. The most valuable sources are codes of statutes; accounts and
hall books; registers and volumes of chapter decisions; obituaries and
cartularies; indentures of choirmasters, singers and organists; inventories of
music books; and visitation records. From these it is possible to reconstruct
certain features of performance, such as the number of singers, the number
of voices to a part, the deployment of solo voices and chorus, the availability
and participation of instruments, and by inference even such matters as
approximate pitch of performance. Similarly the archives of royal and
aristocratic households frequently reveal the exact composition of bands of
household musicians and minstrels, and list the instruments available to
them.

European scholars first felt the need to use the contents of archives during
the 19th century. Italy (Baini, Caffi, Bertolotti, Valdrighi, Radiciotti, Solerti),
France (La Fage, Campardon, Jullien), England (Lafontaine), Ireland (Flood)
and Germany (Haberl) were the first countries to show an example. These
pioneers were often amateurs, spurred on by the growth of learned societies.
Succeeding generations were more predominantly made up of professional
musicologists (such as La Laurencie, Ecorcheville, Michel Brenet, Prunières)
and organ specialists (Dufourcq and many others), of whom the latter were
the most active. However, few were willing to publish coherent and complete
editions of the texts, with the intention of providing a base for future
research. Exceptions were the Note d’archivio by Casimiri, the records of the
Confraternity of Our Lady of ’s-Hertogenbosch published by Smijers, and
more recently the ‘documentary biographies’ of Schubert, Handel and Mozart
by Deutsch. There remains a vast amount of editing (of accounts, archives of
churches, chapels and schools, diplomatic correspondence, theatre archives
and particularly notaries’ archives), for which the musicologist will have to
acquire the skills of the administrative historian.

5. Skills; aids.
Archival research can add a new dimension to the study of certain aspects of
musical history; but to be successful the researcher must have mastered a
number of skills not normally related to serious musical study. It is essential
to be acquainted with the rigorous standards of scholarship set by
professional historians for the acquisition, collation, evaluation and
interpretation of archival information. A sound knowledge of palaeography
(the decipherment of handwriting and of abbreviations) and diplomatic (the
study of the forms of documents) is no less essential. Awareness of
onomastics (the study of proper names), of toponymy (the study of place
names) and the history of economics and of the calendar can also prevent
erroneous interpretation. The techniques of full diplomatic transcription
(making clear exactly what is in the original document and what has been
supplied by the transcriber), of calendaring (producing a summary of the
essential information-giving section of a document) and abstracting (taking
and tabulating the vital facts from a document, particularly a will) are
essential. For this the scholar needs to understand how, administratively, the
document concerned was produced. Existing guides and inventories, printed
and handwritten, should be consulted and the wide range of categories of
archival material that may be relevant to his or her inquiry borne in mind.
Thus royal household accounts may have to be consulted for a musician’s
 career in courtly circles, university archives for his years of study, judicial
archives in the case of a lawsuit, notary’s and civil records for his private
and family life, diplomatic correspondence for his journeys abroad, parish
archives for references to his participation in some local event, his marriage
and his death, possibly police records, copyright records for publication
dates, and so on. For modern times, private archives still in the possession
of those who produced them are sources that must not be overlooked, and
that usually have no inventory; these include, for instance, the archives of
music and record publishers, radio stations, music schools and others.

Bibliography

Books and articles

• R. Benton: Directory of Music Research Libraries (Kassel, 1967)
• L. Boyle: A Survey of the Vatican Archives and of its Medieval Holdings (Toronto,
1972)
• F. Lesure: ‘Archival Research: Necessity and Opportunity’, Perspectives in
Musicology, ed. B.S. Brook, E.O.D. Downes and S. Van Solkema (New York, 1972),
56–79
• A. Leverett: A Paleographical and Repertorial Study of the MS Trento, Castello del
Buonconsiglio 91 (1378) (diss., Princeton U., 1990), chap.1
• M. Vázquez de Parga with others: International Bibliography of Directories and
Guides to Archival Repositories/Bibliographie internationale des guides et
annuaires relatifs aux dépôts d’archives (Munich, 1990)
• International Directory of Archives/Annuaire international des archives, Archivum,
38 (1992)
• A. Wathey: ‘Musicology, Archives and Historiography’, Musicology and Archival
Research: Brussels 1993, 1–26
• G. Moroni, ed.: La musica negli archivi e nelle biblioteche delle Marche (Fiesole,
1996)
• V. Duckles and I. Reed: Music Reference and Research Materials: an Annotated
Bibliography (New York, 5/1997), 391–496
• F. Blouin, ed.: Vatican Archives: an Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of
the Holy See (New York, 1998)
• Basic Archival Problems: Strategies for Development Archivum, 44 (1999)

Periodicals
• Archivum (Munich, 1951–) [pubn of the International Council on Archives]
• Annual Report (London, 1953–) [IAML, UK branch]
• Janus (Paris, 1985–) [pubn of the International Council on Archives]

See also
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres
Musicology, §II, 4: Disciplines of musicology: Archival research