Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale

Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale is an international project, founded on 26 August 1971 at a meeting of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centers (IAML), with the objective of developing methods, means and research centers for the classification, cataloguing, and study of iconographical material relating to music. It is designed to assist performers, historians, librarians, instrument makers, record manufacturers, and book publishers in making the fullest use of visual materials for scholarly and practical purposes. The initiative for the project came from Barry S. Brook, with the support of Geneviève Thibault and Harald Heckmann.

The cataloguing of iconographic documents significant to music was, until the early 1970s largely a private and uncoordinated affair, and poorly equipped with methodology and research tools. Several systems of cataloguing visual materials had been proposed, but RIdIM took the lead because of its use of new technologies that facilitate the cataloguing of vast numbers of sources. This is how RIdIM followed RISM (1952) and RILM (1966) as the third important international cooperative bibliographical venture in music. Like them, RIdIM is sponsored by the International Musicological Society and IAML, as well as the International Council of Museums. It is governed by the Commission Internationale Mixte, appointed by the executive boards of its three sponsoring societies.

RIdIM functions through national committees. The oldest and by far the largest national center is the Centre d'Iconography Musicale in Paris, founded by the Countess of Chambure (Geneviève Thibault), in 1967. Since 1992 the center, which works under the auspices of the Institut de recherche sur le patrimoine musical en France, affiliated with the Bibliothèqie Nationale de France in Paris. The Research Center for Music Iconography, established in 1972 at the City University of New York, serves as the American national RIdIM center. It has a photographic archive and RIdIM Master Catalogue. The Swedish national committee was established in 1975 at the Svenskt Musikhistoriskt Arkiv, Stockholm. The German national committe, sponsored by RISM-Germany, was established at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, in 1976. The Italian center, Catalogo Italiano di Iconografia Musicale, founded in 1987, is housed at the library of the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan. National centers are also established in Canada, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Poland. Cataloguing of iconographic sources is also done in a number of local research institutions and universities.

 

Under the auspices of RIdIM following inventories of music iconography have been published:

General

A corpus of Trecento pictures with musical subject matter, by Howard Mayer Brown

I/1: Pictures signed by or attributed to particular artists or their followers: Altichiero de Zevero to Duccio di Buoninsegna. Imago musicae: International yearbook of musical iconography I (1984), 189-243.

I/2: Pictures signed by  or attributed to particular artists or their followers: Deodatus to Meo da Siena. Ibid. II (1985), 179-281.

I/3: Pictures signed by or attributed to particular artists or their followers: Nanni di Jacopo to Zacchi. Ibid. III (1986), 103-187.

II/1: Pictures without attribution, addenda to installments 1-3, and index of places. Ibid. V (1988), 167-243.

France

Inventaire des tableaux à sujets musicaux du musée du Louvre

I: Nicole Lallement & Brigitte Devaux, L’école italienne des XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d'organologie et d'iconographie musicale II (1996), 235-259

II: Nicole Lallement, La peinture française des XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d’organologie et d'iconographie musicale III (1997), 186-219

III: Nicole Lallement, La peinture française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (tableaux mis en dépôt), Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d'organologie et d'iconographie musicale IV (1999), 161-189

IV: Nicoletta Guidobaldi, La peinture de la Renaissance, Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d'organologie et d'iconographie musicale V (2003); 198-231

V: Nicole Lallement, Peintures hollandaises et flamandes des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d'organologie et d'iconographie musicale VI (2004), 1211-244

 

Germany

Birgit Heise, Darstellungen von Musik in und an sächsischen Kurchen von 1230 bis 1600. Imago musicae: International yearbook of musical iconography IX-XII (1992-95), 234-285.

 

Italy

Iconografia musicale in Italia, sponsored by Società Italiana di Musicologia.

1: Emanuela Lagnier, Joseph-Gabriel Rivolin, and Elena Ferrari-Barassi, Iconografia musicale in Valle d’Aosta (Roma: Torre d’Orfeo 1988); 149 p. ISBN 88-85147-19-4.

2: Mariagrazia Carlone; introduction by Elena Ferrari-Barassi. Iconografia musicale nell’arte biellese, vercellese e valsesiana: Un catalogo ragionato (Roma: Torre d’Orfeo 1995), 192 p. ISBN 88-85147-42-9.

 

The Netherlands

European musical instruments in prints and drawings. Collection of the music department of the Haags Gemeentemuseum (Zug: Inter Documentation Company, 1972), 28 microfiche with 600 items.

Portraits of composers and musicians from the collection of the music department of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague  (Zug: Inter Documentation Company, 1975), 33 microfiches with 830 items.

 

Sweden

Musikmotiv i svensk kyrkokonst = Musical motifs in Swedish church art, sponsored by the Svenska RIdIM-kommittén, Statens Musiksamlingar.

Ingebjørg Barth Magnus and Birgit Kjellström, Uppland fram till 1625 = The region of Uppland up to 1625 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell 1993), 408 p. ISBN 91-972117-0-2.

 

USA

RIdIM/RCMI inventories of music iconography, published by the Research Center for Music Iconography, New York (ISSN 0889-6607)

1: Earl Terence Ford, Andrew Green, and Emilio Ros-Fábregas, National Gallery of Art, Washington (New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1986), 15 p..

2: Earl Terence Ford, and Margareth Boyer Owens, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1987), 26 p

3: Earl Terence Ford, Andrew Green, Elizabeth Wright, and Emilio Ros-Fábregas, The Pierpont Morgan Library: Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts (New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1988), 114 p.

7: Elliott S. Hurwitt, and Earl Terence Ford, The Frick Collection, New York (New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1987), 26 p.

8: Ross W. Duffin, and Earl Terence Ford, The Cleveland Museum of Art (New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1991), ix, 59 p.

 

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