Recataloguing Max's opus
As a cataloguer at the Netherlands Radio Music Library (NRML) one is privileged. With some 400.000 items of classical and popular sheet music its collection counts among the largest in Europe (and maybe even worldwide). The cataloguing standards are high as well, so our professional skills are challenged to the full.
The basis of the catalogue’s records are the rules of the International Standard Bibliographic Description. To this other metadata are added in order to make it possible for music lovers to find scores not only by their title, composer or publisher but also by e.g. the year of composition, the nationality and birth/death years of the composer or their instrumentation. This service is provided via online public catalogues in Dutch as well as English.
The NRML-cataloguers keep themselves up-to-date and this is how we came upon Peter Maxwell Davies's Opus and WoO numbers: a new work list by Nicholas Jones and Richard McGregor (Musical Times, Vol. 151, p. 53-86). This new thematic catalogue is authorized by the composer and therefore we decided to use it. By recataloguing all PMD-editions in our collection (approximately 300) they can be found also by their thematic number (opus or WoO).
These editions used to be catalogued by my former colleague Annelies van der Saag, who is an admirer of the composer’s music and a regular visitor to the Orkney St. Magnus Festival. She is, however, enjoying her well-deserved pension. So – being a lover of modern music – I volunteered for the task of entering the new opus numbers and sometimes adding the original title given by Sir Peter to the one presented on the publication.
The Dutch radio’s classical orchestras and chorus have regularly performed the music of Peter Maxwell Davies regularly, Veni Sancte Spiritus (op. 22) as early as 1966. In 1996 the composer came to Hilversum for the first time to conduct the Radio Symfonie Orkest (A Spell for Green Corn: the MacDonald Dances and Caroline Mathilde: Concert Suite from Act I of the Ballet). Sir Peter was also the conductor when two of his compositions received their Dutch premiere; Antarctic Symphony (Symphony No. 8) (in 2003, RSO) and Strathclyde Concerto No. 4 (in 2009, Radio Kamer Filharmonie).
The Dutch government has decided to cut the budget of the Netherlands Broadcasting Music Center - of which the NRML is part – by more than 50%. This means that the existence of music library and some of the ensembles is seriously threatened.
This text was originally published on the weblog of the St. Magnus Festival on Orkney (with additional links and pictures).
The work numbers of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies compositions can also be found on the composer's official website
Laatste aanpassing op Monday 4 July 2011
