Dissemination of information regarding Silesian printed scores from restricted collections and former Wroclaw’s libraries by means of electronic cataloging in Virtua system

Project donated by Ministry of Science and Higher Education (resolution No 741/P-DUN/2015), time of completion: 15.04.2015 - 31.12.2015

In 2015, thanks to the funding of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education dedicated to the disseminating of science, employees of the WUL’s Music Collection Department participated in the project: Dissemination of information regarding Silesian printed scores from restricted collections and former Wroclaw’s libraries by means of electronic cataloging in Virtua system. During realization of the project 500 descriptions of Silesian printed scores were entered into NUKAT catalog, along with bibliographical records and necessary authority files.
The premise of the project was to present the most important manifestations of the musical culture of Silesia in the nineteenth and early twentieth century through the electronic cataloging of Silesian printed scores. The results of the work are directed to both musicologists, librarians, historians, Germanists as well as everyone else interested in this topic. Created descriptions could serve as source material for possible publication of thematic catalogs of Silesian composers.
The primary criterion in the selection of materials were musical achievements of Silesian composers. Among the works of artists selected for the project were the names of such composers as: Paul Caro, Friedrich W. Berner, Carl Schnabel, Max Filke, Emil Boh, Moritz Ernemann, Bernard Hahn or Moritz Brosig. Electronic cataloging of printed works of these composers seems to be the perfect complement of an international database of musical sources RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales), where there are descriptions of their autographs and music manuscripts.
The second criterion of selection was the production of Silesian publishing houses being specialized in the dissemination of musical prints.
One of the publishing houses that have been included in the project was the company founded in 1788 by Franz Ernst Christoph Leuckart, later taken over by the Sanders family, and having been prospered until 1871. It published works of both local and classics composers. The company has also published some works of Karol Lipinski - Polish virtuoso and teacher of music.
Another publishing house was the Carl Gustav Förster company, later taken over by Carl Weinhold. It was active in Wroclaw in the years 1802-1835 and published, among others, works of F. W. Berner and J. I. Schnabel.
Another significant publishing house was Carl Cranz company (acquired approx. in 1850 by F. W. Grosser), that was active in Wroclaw in the years 1820-1850. In addition to the works of local artists it also published, among others, the works of Chopin and Karol Lipinski.
Also Grass u. Barth publishing house greatly contributed to the dissemination of music in Silesia region. In the years 1800-1826 it has published works by, among others, G. Hensel, J. I. Schnabel and J. Elsner. This company is also known as the publisher of the Silesian music magazine "Schlesische Musicalische Blumenlese." In the second half of the nineteenth century printed musical scores were also published by the companies Gleis F. W. and C. F. Hientzsch, but they could not rival with by far the largest Wroclaw music publishing house led by Julius Hainauera. The company was established in 1852 and was the longest running Wroclaw’s publishing company. To approx. 1934 it has published works by F. Mendelssohn, A. Jensen and Polish composers: M. Moszkowski, Z. Noskowski, S. Moniuszko, J. Hofman, W. and J. Żeleński Zarębski.
The idea to provide descriptions of Silesian printed scores in the NUKAT public database was dictated by the growing interest in the region's history, that is closely related with the musical culture of Silesia.