Toward a Definition of Sheet Music
1999; Music Library Association; Volume: 55; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/899580
ISSN1534-150X
Autores Tópico(s)Copyright and Intellectual Property
Resumois This question posed more difficulties for MLA's Working Group on Sheet Music Cataloging Guidelines than perhaps any other raised during four years group existed. Ultimately, a universal answer to this question may be as elusive as one to such questions as What is love? or What is music? The difficulty in answering this type of question is, of course, that everyone has ideas of what these words and their underlying concepts mean, but defining them in terms with which all will agree is probably impossible. The conditions for our contemporary concept of are similar in that term has had various meanings in past - as this essay will demonstrate - and we have been influenced by accretions of these former meanings, as well as by contemporary thoughts and experiences. Nonetheless, a set of guidelines intended to facilitate cataloging a specific format logically ought to attempt to define what that format is and how one can recognize it. Since a universal definition seems unattainable, a heuristic one - intended for application within confines of guidelines - must suffice. One avenue toward developing this heuristic definition is to consider composite term both as a whole and as its component parts, i.e., individual words sheet and music. Chapter 5 of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, second edition (AACR2) is entitled Music, and its scope is the description of published music.(1) Given fact that has so many meanings that do not pertain to published documents, why not simply use term score? Perhaps because score is a technical term, whereas is vernacular, simpler, and inclusive; it does not make distinctions, and may therefore be more easily understood by individuals without musical training. AACR2 uses word score as well, but with additional technical distinction that in order to qualify for this term, notation in document must present more than one part - a distinction that may be more difficult for untrained to grasp, but one that must be useful in some way, or we would always speak of and never of scores. In case of is modified by word sheet, a clear reference to major physical attribute of this medium, format of paper on which notation is printed. But this is an odd appellation, considering that virtually all published documents of music notation are printed on sheets of paper. Why did this rather curious terminology develop? The answer to this question has three interrelated aspects. The first derives from a need to distinguish among varying concepts of second from a need to differentiate among physical formats, and third from a historical fact: despite many changes over time, term was simply transferred from each declining format to each emerging one, thus adding layers of connotative - rather than denotative - meaning. These three aspects must figure in development of a heuristic definition. The etymological information in The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) implies that originated in United States, claiming first written use of this phrase appeared in a newspaper printed in Lawrence, Kansas.(2) The 3 June 1857 Lawrence Republican carried an advertisement for a drug store that included Periodicals, lithographs, music, etc. among its sundries. The OED is mistaken in case of earliest written appearance of this term, however, though apparently not about country in which it originated. The earliest occurrence of known to this author is an advertising circular printed in 1832 in Worcester, Massachusetts, promoting Aaron Leland's Umbrella and Music Store of that city and noting a supply of music, instruction books, &c, &c for sale.(3) The following year, Boston Transcript of 1 November 1833 reported that music printer Mr. …
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