Classifying musical performance: the application of classification theories to concert programmes
Creators: name: Lee, Deborah
Publisher: name: unknown
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Music
subject: Library science
subject: Information science

description: Concert programmes are an increasingly important source to those studying the history of musical performance and concert life, providing rich sociological and musicological context. Though there are currently projects in place to improve access to these vital documents, the arrangement of programmes has so far escaped in-depth study. Therefore this study considered the theoretical framework underpinning the arrangement of concert programmes.

Theories in archival arrangement, bibliographic classification and ephemera organisations were the base of this study; particularly, the system of characteristics of division and scattering (bibliographic classification) and provenance (archival arrangement). Literature on concert programmes was also discussed from both a musicology and collection management perspective. The various classification theories were then used as a framework to analyse three case study institutions which hold programmes: an archive, a library and a research centre. Two models of the arrangement of concert programmes were suggested followed by a list of ten decisions that concert programme managers may consider in the process of managing concert programmes.

The study revealed that the arrangement of concert programmes could be viewed as a bridge between archival, bibliographic and ephemera arrangement theories. The arrangement could be theoretically justified as the bibliographic system of characteristics of division, where some divisions were archival (provenance) and ephemeral (arrangement by form). An alternative way of considering this arrangement was proposed: a triumvirate of event, object and manuscript. The complex relationships between elements of the triumvirate were considered, as well as how the various characteristics which constitute a concert programme fit into the model. Results suggested that aspects of programmes relating to the event rather than the physical object were more likely to be used for arrangement purposes.
description: Concert programmes are an increasingly important source to those studying the history of musical performance and concert life, providing rich sociological and musicological context. Though there are currently projects in place to improve access to these vital documents, the arrangement of programmes has so far escaped in-depth study. Therefore this study considered the theoretical framework underpinning the arrangement of concert programmes. Theories in archival arrangement, bibliographic classification and ephemera organisations were the base of this study; particularly, the system of characteristics of division and scattering (bibliographic classification) and provenance (archival arrangement). Literature on concert programmes was also discussed from both a musicology and collection management perspective. The various classification theories were then used as a framework to analyse three case study institutions which hold programmes: an archive, a library and a research centre. Two models of the arrangement of concert programmes were suggested followed by a list of ten decisions that concert programme managers may consider in the process of managing concert programmes. The study revealed that the arrangement of concert programmes could be viewed as a bridge between archival, bibliographic and ephemera arrangement theories. The arrangement could be theoretically justified as the bibliographic system of characteristics of division, where some divisions were archival (provenance) and ephemeral (arrangement by form). An alternative way of considering this arrangement was proposed: a triumvirate of event, object and manuscript. The complex relationships between elements of the triumvirate were considered, as well as how the various characteristics which constitute a concert programme fit into the model. Results suggested that aspects of programmes relating to the event rather than the physical object were more likely to be used for arrangement purposes.