gcallon@istar.ca
http://ace.acadiau.ca/score/gjc/home.htm

The Acadia Early Music Archive is an online FTP collection of early music scores … original editions prepared from primary sources (see Figure 1.). The scores in the Archive can be downloaded using a browser or by FTP. By definition, the Archive is a site permanently "under construction," since scores are being added continually.

The focus of the collection is the early English Baroque, but contents date from as early as 1546 through the mid-eighteenth century. Below is a list of Archive contents of the scores in the Archive as of 26 January 1999. Other than the early English Baroque focus, there is no governing logic to the selection of scores, other than availability of primary sources, and the limitation to late Renaissance and Baroque.

Until this month (January 1999), the size and scope of the Archive has been severely limited by lack of disk space on the main University server, the only server that can provide FTP access. Indeed, toward the end of December 1998, the server completely ran out of free space. During the third week of January 1999, the University installed a new server with much greater capacity. This will permit more scores to be added soon to the Archive (as time permits for transcribing and editing).

The Acadia Early Music Archive began almost incidentally. During the 1994–1995 academic year, the Score Notation Software Archive and the Perth Score Archive were established as supplements to the Score Users' e-mail discussion list (November 1994).

Later that same year, the Thames Valley Early Music Forum was seeking scores of sacred music by William Lawes, for performance in a service to commemorate the 350th anniversary of his death during the siege of Chester in the English Civil War. By the time the Forum had discovered that I had transcribed William Lawes’s Psalms (from Choice Psalmes…, 1648) there was only a week to input the scores into notation software, write a thoroughbass resolution (for performance), and deliver the scores to the Forum. Consequently FTP was the only way to deliver the scores on time. These scores were added to the Score Notation Software Archive and became the initial core for the Acadia Early Music Archive.

Most of the scores are in the form of PostScript printer files (*.EPS). A few are in the proprietary format of the Score music notation software. This means that, under normal circumstances, the scores cannot be viewed in a standard World Wide Web browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.

PostScript printer files, delivered by FTP, were chosen on the assumption that serious users of the scores in the Archive would want paper copies of the scores for use in study and performance. Since PostScript printer files are not platform specific, and provide the maximum resolution of the printer or typesetter available when printed, it was felt that these are the best format for delivery. (Using similar logic, the Perth Score Archive provides the scores in proprietary format of the Score music notation software—more on this below.)

Users who wish to view the PostScript printer files on screen can use a PostScript interpreter such as Ghostview (that operates in conjunction with Ghostscript). Ghostview and Ghostscript are available free of charge as shareware from the Aladdin Ghostscript World Wide Web Site. Ghostview easily is set up as a helper program for Netscape, that loads automatically when a PostScript file is selected from within the browser, displaying the file on screen. With Ghostview and Ghostscript, the user can print PostScript files to non-PostScript printers, and convert the files to other image formats, including PDF files. Ghostview and Ghostscript will run on a variety of platforms, including PC/Intel computers, the Mac, Unix, Sun workstations, and VAX and Alpha systems.

The Acadia Early Music Facsimile Archive is an adjunct to the Acadia Early Music Archive. The Facsimile Archive contains material resulting from student projects. Several students in the School of Music, Acadia University are preparing online publishing projects. Of these, two are working with facsimiles of early primary sources.

Facsimiles of pages from: Charles Burney, A General History of Music, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (London, 1776-1789), Vol. IV. [Marlene Murtonen, from an original of Burney’s History in the collection of Gordon J. Callon.] [http://axe2.acadiau.ca/~022542m/]. [This URL is probably temporary, since it is on the student server, and if not moved before the end of the academic year, will be deleted once the students leave campus.]

Ms. Murtonen (a fourth-year undergraduate) is preparing facsimiles of selected pages from Vol. IV of Burney’s text Included online is a facsimile of Burney’s original Index with live links to individual pages in the History. Vol. IV was selected because it is the part of the History text concerned with Burney’s own time, so represents information resulting from his own observations and experiences. In other words, this resource provides primary source content rather than earlier history filtered through Burney’s perception.

To capture the page images, the Scanning was done in Adobe Photoshop 5.0, and then "Print/Save" to Adobe Acrobat 3.01 as a PDF files. The PDF files were then blown up to 125%, cropped and saved as GIF files. The images were then "marked up" into HTML format.

Facsimiles of woodcuts (by Michael Wohlgemuth, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, and Albrecht Dürer) from The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). [Michelle Muggridge, from an original 1493 printing of The Nuremberg Chronicle in the Acadia University Special Collections].

Ms. Muggridge (a third-year undergraduate) began this collection as a study of Musical Iconography in The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Discovering that working with the original of a book printed in 1493 is particularly stimulating—and because she had access to borrowed equipment for a limited time so wished to use it as completely as possible—she began reproducing all of the prints in the source … approximately 1800 images. Images that are duplicated more than once in the source are reproduced only the first time they appear in the Chronicle.

The images were captured with a JVC Colour Video Camera, TK-1280U (digital) and Panasonic 14" TV. The software used is: Snappy Video Snapshot, a program that captures the image from the camera to the connected computer, and Lview, a program for viewing and editing saved images. Initially the files were to be converted to PDF format in Adobe Acrobat 3.0 for use in Adobe Acrobat Reader. This has proved too cumbersome, so the images are now being set up in HTML format.

GMD Music Archive: Sheet Music, an FTP site with scores mainly in PostScript format. (Composers include: J. Agrell, J. Ascher, J.S. Bach, A.P.F. Boëly, J. Bloch, Brant, A. Bruckner, G.R. Bruner, D. Buxtehude, D. Clement, A. Corelli, J.P. Coulon, C. Delioux, J.L. Dussek, Ph.E. Erlebach, J. Harrington, G.F. Händel, H. Herz, H. Irsen, F. Jordan, F. Kalkbrenner, N. Kedrov, E. Ketterer, J.Ph. Kirnberger, K. Knopper, F.J. Krafft, L. Lacombe, L.J.A. Lefébure-Wely, G. Messaus, Ch. Mondrup, W.A. Mozart, A. Pervazov, É. Prudent, A. Quidant, J.H. Roman, C. Saint-Saëns, F. Schubert, C. [Prilipp-] Schubert, J. Schulhoff, C. Shoemaker, A. Talexy, T. Tallis, D. Taupin, J.P.v. Westhoff, É. Wolff, L. Zhurbin, misc.)

Early Italian Baroque Library (Hiromi Okamotoand Yoshiko Okamoto), a normal World Wide Web Site, with scores in GIF format, so viewable in browser. (Contents are mainly early Baroque chamber music, including Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Dario Castello, Giovanni Battista Fontana (16C-1631?), Biagio Marini (1587?-1663), Bartolomeo De Selma, Bernardo Storace, and Tarquinio Merula (1595?-1665).)

on the Acadia University Internet server: http://ace.acadiau.ca/score/download.htm

at Western Australia Conservatorium of Music, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia: ftp://scorpion.cowan.edu.au/pub/music/

also on the Acadia University Internet server: score@acadiau.ca

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/aladdin/doc/New-user.htm#Platforms … the view on screen is at screen resolution, so the files will appear to have the "jaggies". Nonetheless, when saved to disk or printed, the files are produced at highest resolution.

http://axe2.acadiau.ca/~022542m/index/glossary/1.htm