Musicology in the Digital Age 26 April 2010 Introducing musicSpace David Bretherton

Contents 1.Motivation 2.Solutions 3.Evaluation 4.The Future 2

1. Motivation (the problem were addressing) 3

4 Centuries of material...

5... is now increasingly digitised,

yet data is typically siloed. 6

Geographical dispersal has been replaced by a virtual dispersal on the web. Data is now segregated into a plethora of online resources by: – Media type (text, image, audio, video) – Date of creation/publication – Subject 7

yet data is typically siloed. Geographical dispersal has been replaced by a virtual dispersal on the web. Data is now segregated into a plethora of online resources by: – Language – Copyright holder – Ad hoc/insecure nature of project funding 8

yet data is typically siloed. Crucially: Data sources are not usually interoperable. Data and metadata from one source cannot be used (automatically) as the basis for a query of another source 9

10 The Google/textbox search paradigm is limiting.

Interacting with current data resources present barriers at all stages of the research process: 11

12 Inchoate ideas Something on Monteverdis madrigals? Specific complex questions Which scribes have created manuscripts of Monteverdis works, and which other composers works have they inscribed? What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded?

13 What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded? Wed use BLSA, Copac and Naxos. 1.Search for recordings where the composer is Cage in: i.BLSA ii.Copac iii.Naxos (Each requiring a different search formulation) 2.Collate results and make a list of performers.

14 What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded? 3.Search Naxos for recordings where these performers are given as the performer and Cage is given as the composer. 4.Search BLSA and Copac for records that name these performers and Cage, and then manually filter out results where names do not occur in relation the appropriate role. 5.Manually collate repertoire lists for each Cage performer.

15 The barriers to tractability and their solutions Need to consult several sources … and metadata from one source cannot guide searches of another source. Insufficient granularity of data and/or search option. Multi-part queries have to be broken down and results collated manually. Pen and paper! Solutions: Integration Increase granularity Optimally interactive UI

2. Solutions 16

Integration 17

18 Rather than using many portals...

19... what if you could use just one?

20 Our partners use a variety of data formats MARC-XML MODS-XML Custom MARC Source-specific XML Tables/CSV We import these as RDF Why RDF? 1.Standard format for the Semantic Web. 2.Its modular; we can add records and record fields without having to start from scratch. 3.RDF can be created using lots of different tools.

Granularity 21

22 Metadata hierarchy We use a multi-level hierarchy based on metadata type. Person ComposerScribeAuthorPerformer etc. Crucially, our search UI exposes this hierarchy so that both broad and narrow searching is possible.

23 Adding/exposing granularity Where possible we add to/expose the granularity of the metadata. Person: Alcock, John [fmo]. Former owner: Alcock, John.

24 Generating metadata: Grove works lists

25 Our Tool for the Works Lists

User Interface 26

27 musicSpace is a faceted browser

28 What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded? Screencast

3. Evaluation 29

30 Initial Feedback Integration: All the information showed up very quickly, and it was easy to find material. It was really good to have different kinds of material in the same place. Changing search paradigm: I would recommend musicSpace for its ability to manipulate queries in order to get results that you wouldnt otherwise be able to get [without starting over]. Granularity: I used musicSpace to explore how many operas have a character named Alceste. This information simply isnt get-at-able using other search interfaces – youd have to sort through the information by hand.

An invitation to try our demo Musicologists: – Monteverdi recordings – C19th opera buffa – Schuberts songs – C20th electroacoustic music Music librarians / library scientists Music technologists / web scientists 31

An invitation to try our demo musicspace.mspace.fm (needs Firefox) 32

4. The Future 33

34 Works lists project with Grove Music Online Composer URI project

35 Thank you!