1. Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT)
(A Potential Resource for Musiconis?)
Russell Merritt
December

3. MLA/ALA Webinar October 28, 2015 [Introductions]
Welcome everyone. Casey, Hermine, and I are here today to provide a short introduction to the new Library of Congress terms for music medium of performance and music genre/form vocabularies. While we may touch on vocabularies from other domains and vocabularies, our emphasis today is on music terms in LCGFT and LCMPT.

4. Genre/form + additions/combinations in LCSH
Concertos (Bassoon)
With medium of performance (following)
Bass clarinet music (Jazz)
With medium of performance (preceding)
Rock music $z Norway.
With geographic subdivison
Overtures $y 19th century.
With chronological subdivision
Heavy metal (Music) $z Norway $y
With geographic + chronological subdivisions
Mexican Americans $v Music.
With ethnic group
Children’s songs
With other demographic group
Buddhist hymns
With religious term
Sacred cantatas
Combination of 2 g/f terms (Sacred music + Cantatas)
Musical instruments—or medium of performance—is not a form, a genre, or a subject, but something else again. However, in LCSH, medium of performance is regularly combined with genre/form terms also in a variety of ways. In the first example, the medium comes first with the genre/form in parentheses. More commonly, the medium follow the genre term. And in some cases, the medium is implied as in the simple heading “Overtures” which is intended for overtures for orchestra, not overtures in general.

5. What’s wrong with this? Variations in practice
Genre/form in different parts of the string ($a or $v or as a qualifier)
Combined Demographic and Genre/Form terms
Combined Medium of performance and genre/form terms
Endless combinations available
All combinations are not provided with authority records in LCSH
So besides the complexity what’s wrong with all this? Well we have variations in practice (that singular/plural vs History and criticism), we find genre/form terms and medium of performance terms in a variety of different places in a subject string ($a, $v, as a qualifier), and we add into the mix demographic, and religious terms joining in. This makes it very difficult for a searcher to find all the records for a particular genre or medium, and is maybe even more difficult for a computer to parse.
A special problem is the action of combining genre and medium of performance. Endless combinations of terms are possible—think of the combos of instruments! In fact there are so many combinations that not all of them are provided with authority records—only examples exist in some areas.

6. Here is a sample of the problem
Here is a sample of the problem. This is a listing from NAF of the g/f term “Sonatas” followed by medium of performance. We only get to Koto; trust me it goes all the way to the end of the alphabet.
Really, the biggest problem is that genre/form in LCSH is so intermingled with other vocabularies and present in different parts of a subject string, that it is difficult to manipulate by machine or even complete simple search strategies that will confidently encompass all the available resources for the genre/form desired.

7. The Solution: LCGFT + LCMPT
Collaboration between the Library of Congress, the Music Library Association Cataloging and Metadata Committee (CMC) Vocabularies Subcommittee and the CMC Genre/Form Task Force
LCMPT terms published February 24, 2014
800 published in in initial phase
New terms added through SACO Music Funnel
LCGFT terms published February 15, 2015
567 published in initial phase
New terms continue to be added by the task force and Music funnel
So what is the solution? In the mid-2000s, LC decided it was time to develop a separate thesaurus for genre/form terms apart from LCSH. Music would be one of its largest sets of terms to work with. The project was to be a collaboration between the Library of Congress music genre group (then headed by Gerry Ostrove) and a task force under the Music Library Association’s Bibliographic Control Committee. Early on, it was decided that before the genre terms were finalized, a vocabulary for medium of performance and a place to put it in the bibliographic record needed development. The Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus for Music was created and published in February This year, also in February, the initial set of LCGFT terms were published, a total of 567 terms.

8. Examples: LCSH vs LCGFT
LCSH: 650 _0 $a Sonatas (Cello and piano), Arranged $v Scores and parts. LCGFT: $a cello $n 1 $a piano $n 1 $s 2 $2 lcmpt 655 _7 $a Sonatas. $2 lcgft 655 _7 $a Arrangements (Music) $2 lcgft 655 _7 $a Scores. $2 lcgft 655 _7 $a Parts (Music) $2 lcgft
Now while Hermine and Casey will speak of this more, I wanted to show you how one precoordinate LC subject heading might transform into lcgft.
This example contrasts the formulation of a music heading in LCSH in comparison to the genre/form terms. The example is a sonata for say bassoon and piano, that has been arranged for cello and piano and we have both the score and musical parts. In LCSH, this is expressed in one complex string with a form subdivision. While efficient in use of space and reasonably readable by humans, this string is not as easily parsable by machine, given that it combines a number of genre/form facets and also medium of performance. It also requires a complex system of rules to create, and I mentioned before, not every string of this length and complexity gets given a corresponding authority record. This can become complicated if one wants to express the string as a URI to make it more linked data friendly. This particular string has one, but that is not typical of all LCSH music headings.
When it is put into terms of genre/form, we end up with a medium of performance statement in the 382, plus 4 separate genre/form terms [read]. Much easier to create and much more friendly in a linked data world.

9. LCMPT (Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus)
Music Library Association Subject Access Subcommittee (now Vocabularies Subcommittee) and LC
Instruments, voices, and ensembles—any forces needed to perform a piece of music
Over 800 terms approved in February 2014; still growing
Most derived in some way from LCSH
Generally lower-case and singular
MARC work to accommodate authority records for terms (162, 462, 562) as well as expanding the 382 for greater granularity

10. LCMPT – Top Terms ensemble performer visuals
Only 3, and visuals is an outlier, having no narrower terms.
Next I’m going to show an overview of the ensemble and performer hierarchies—these are not all the terms! Just the first couple layers of hierarchy.

11. LCMPT – Ensemble hierarchy overview
audience
instrumental ensemble
accordion band
balalaika orchestra
band
bowed string ensemble
concertina ensemble
continuo
dulcimer ensemble
electronics
gamelan
gonrang
keyboard ensemble
harmonica ensemblejug band
khrū̜ang sāi
mahōrī
orchestra
percussion ensemble
pipe band
pīphāt
plucked instrument ensemble
plung orchestra
string band
toy orchestra
washboard band
wind ensemble
zither ensemble
mixed media
vocal ensemble
chorus
solo vocal ensemble
Majority of ensemble terms are instrumental ensembles, including all sorts of ethnic ensembles, as well as standard western ensembles like orchestra.

12. LCMPT – Performer hierarchy overview
actor
audience
celebrant
conductor
dancer
tap dancer
instrument
aerophone
electronic instrument
friction instrument
idiophone
keyboard instrument
mechanical instrument
membranophone
percussion instrument
plucked instrument
string instrument
toy instrument
mixed media
mime
signer
voice
singer
speaker
Majority of the performer terms are under instrument, but there’s also voices, of course, and some more unusual terms like dancer, mime, and signer (sign language). I’ll go into how we divided the instrument kingdom a bit more in the next few slides.

13. LCMPT – Deep Hierarchy performer instrument aerophone wind instrument
woodwind instrument
reed instrument
single reed instrument
saxophone
alto saxophone
Dramatic example, but shows the hierarchical nature of the thesaurus.

14. LCMPT - Highlights
Some gathering terms taken from a well-known instrument classification by Sachs and Hornbostel, e.g., “aerophone;” “membranophone.”
Generally divided into single performers (instruments and voices) and ensembles.
flute flute choir
child‘s voice children’s chorus
brass instrument brass ensemble
Unusual terms
mouseketier
leaf
tin can
Grouping that made logical sense, even if these terms are unlikely to be used much in bib records.
Ensemble terms usually have loose scopes—2 or more flutes, 2 or more brass instruments.
Unusual terms – composers love to invent new instruments and find new uses for objects. All you need to submit a term is literary warrant, so we can get some interesting things in here.

16. Thanks!
Any Questions?