CAML Review / Revue de l'ACBM (Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres / Association canadienne des bibliothèques, archives et centres de documentation musicaux)

Guise, Janneka L.

Drone, Jeanette Marie.  Musical AKAs:  Assumed Names and Sobriquets of Composers, 
Songwriters, Librettists, Lyricists, Hymnists, and Writers on Music.  Lanham, MD:  
Scarecrow Press, 2006. xvi, 645 p. ISBN: 0810857391.  $100.00 (Cloth). 
 
*“Excuse me, but I heard that Elvis 
Presley was once called ‘Sir Swivel 
Hips’.  Is there any way I could prove 
that?” Jeanette Marie Drone has 
provided the world of music 
librarianship with a volume to answer 
this and many other questions of 
“pseudonymity.” Musical AKAs:  
Assumed Names and Sobriquets of 
Composers, Songwriters, Librettists, 
Lyricists, Hymnists, and Writers on 
Music is an index to more than 15,500 
assumed names and sobriquets of about 
9,800 composers, songwriters, lyricists, 
librettists, hymnists, and writers.   
 
There are many reasons musicians might 
use one or more assumed names, as 
Drone explains in her very engaging 
preface.  A musician might use different 
names with different publishers, 
different names for different genres of 
music, or different names for work in 
different professions (e.g., one name for 
musical compositions, another name for 
literary works).  A musician might 
change names to hide ethnicity or for 
ease of pronunciation.  Many music 
critics have been known to “hide” under 
assumed names.  The author gives 
interesting examples for each type of 
assumed name.  She also discusses 
different ways of creating an assumed 
name:  using initials rather than entire 
names, translating a surname, 
scrambling the letters to create an 
anagram. 
                                                 
* © 2007 The author and The Canadian 
Association of Music Libraries, Archives and 
Documentation Centres / L’auteur et 
l’Association canadienne des bibliothèques, 
archives et centres de documentation musicaux 
The “Introduction” to Musical AKAs is 
comprehensive and explains very clearly 
the scope of the book, the author’s 
research process, and noted exclusions. 
Strangely, she defines her use of the 
term “assumed names” (“legal name 
changes, pseudonyms, pen names, noms 
de plume, nicknames, and initials”, xiii) 
but not the word sobriquet (“a 
nickname” according to The Canadian 
Oxford Dictionary, 1998 ed.).  The book 
excludes individuals who are performers 
only.  Common derivatives of forenames 
and nicknames are not given separate 
entries, and neither are cases which use a 
second forename instead of the first.  
Drone also does not consider women’s 
married names as “assumed names” in 
the book.  A short literature review 
places Musical AKAs in context, 
identifying other sources for musicians’ 
assumed names, and these sources’ 
limitations (not specific to music; out of 
date; limited in scope). 
 
Drone is an independent scholar 
currently working as a freelance 
educator.  Throughout her career she has 
gained great expertise and authority in 
many areas of music librarianship.  She 
holds graduate degrees in music and 
library science, including a Ph.D. in 
Library Science from The University of 
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She was 
music librarian at Memphis State 
University from 1969 to 1980, and has 
been a visiting scholar at several schools 
of library and information studies.  In the 
area of music cataloguing, Drone has 
worked for OCLC doing name authority 
work on a contract basis, and has also 
published music cataloguing tools 
 25
through OCLC.  In addition, she has 
published other bibliographic resources:  
Index to Opera, Operetta, and Music 
Comedy Synopses in Collections and 
Periodicals (Scarecrow Press, 1978), 
and Musical Theatre Synopses; An Index 
(Scarecrow Press, 1998).   
 
At 664 pages, Musical AKAs is a 
weighty hardcover and has simple, 
professional cover art.  The book is 
divided into four chapters.  Drone’s 
lengthy list of sources comprises 
Chapter 1. Chapter 2, “Original Names”, 
contains the bulk of the book’s data.  
Here is a reasonable facsimile of an 
entry for referral: 
 
Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille
 1835-1921 
 [composer, pianist] 
 
French Beethoven, The     Source(s): 
  http://www.gdyo.org/notes51803.htm 
  (12 Apr. 2005) 
  Note(s): See also George Onslow  
 
French Mendelssohn, The                         
Source(s): 
http://inkpot.com/classical/stsaensvc.htm
l (12 Apr. 2005) 
 
Phémius     Source(s): PIPE; RIEM               
 
Sannois, Charles     Source(s): PIPE 
 
This example shows the range of 
sobriquets included in this volume:  
nicknames given by colleagues or the 
popular press as well as self-assigned 
noms de plumes.  Large serif font makes 
pages of dense text very readable.  The 
formatting of the entries is clear, 
especially after reading the Introduction.  
The author uses square brackets [], 
italics, spacing, and punctuation to 
delineate parts of each entry.  Sources 
for the assumed names are listed in 
abbreviated form (URLs are given for 
Web sources), and this reader had no 
trouble locating the abbreviations in the 
source list that makes up Chapter 1.   
 
Chapter 3 is a list of assumed names and 
sobriquets with cross-references to 
Chapter 2.  For example, in the entry for 
“Phémius” in Chapter 3, there is a See 
reference to “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) 
Camille” but none of the data from 
Chapter 2 is duplicated here.  Chapter 3 
is handy for using a musician’s 
“common” name in order to find their 
birth name (e.g. Sting. See Sumner, 
Gordon (Matthew)). 
 
Chapter 4 is entitled “Notes” and 
contains a list of additional assumed and 
original names with more explanatory 
material than would fit in Chapter 2. 
 
Naturally, with a work of this 
magnitude, Drone could never please 
everyone by who was included and who 
was not.  Since she covers Western 
music of many genres and many time 
periods, from Palestrina to Cher, there 
will naturally be gaps. What is not clear 
to this reader is why certain names were 
excluded.  For example, some well-
known Canadian composers are absent 
(John Beckwith, Violet Archer, David 
Foster), and some lesser-known 
Canadian composers are included 
(Henry Burr, Anna Malenfant, Louis-
Philippe Laurendeau, Hector Gratton).  
The absence of Pierre Boulez is 
noteworthy as well.  Certainly it is 
possible that the missing names have 
never been associated with a pseudonym 
or sobriquet.  To her credit, Drone 
readily acknowledges potential errors 
and omissions in the volume and 
 26
encourages readers to submit 
corrections. 
 
The entries in Chapter 2 are 
understandably brief (to maximize space 
and legibility), and Drone is to be 
applauded for her ability to reduce what 
must be mountains of fascinating 
reading material into such a quick-
reference volume.  The author includes 
occasional explanatory notes for lesser-
known individuals (e.g., under “Fortini, 
James” on p. 131 one sees “Note(s):  Do 
not confuse with his son; see following 
entry.”).  However, the brevity of the 
entries is frustrating at times.  For 
example, in the “Saint-Saëns” example 
above, the name “Sannois, Charles” is 
listed, but the reader cannot be sure 
whether this is a pseudonym or a 
sobriquet, or whether Saint-Saëns 
published under that name.  The reader 
would have to consult the source, PIPE 
(Drone’s code for Pipers Enzykopaedie 
des Musiktheaters), and not all readers 
will have easy access to this seven-
volume work.   
 
These slight reservations aside, there is 
no doubt that with Musical AKAs Drone 
has filled a big gap in music reference 
literature.  There are many reference 
books for pseudonyms and nicknames, 
but only a very few are music-specific 
and even these have limited scope.  
Pseudonyms on American Records, 
1892-1942 (Allan Sutton, Mainspring 
Press, 2001) focuses specifically on 
performers on 78-rpm era American 
record labels.  Rockspeak! (Simon 
Warner, Sterling Pub. Co., 1996) lists  
 
 
 
 
 
stage names and real names of rock 
music performers.  Berkowitz’s Popular 
Titles and Subtitles of Musical 
Compositions (Scarecrow Press, 1975) 
focuses on nicknames of compositions 
rather than people.  Musical AKAs has a 
vast scope and is very accessible, 
making it an essential addition to any 
music reference collection.  Although 
Drone modestly describes her research 
process in two scant paragraphs in the 
Introduction; in reality it is exhaustive 
and on-going.  Future volume(s) are 
planned which will deal with the 
thousands of assumed names Drone has 
identified in copyright sources.   
 
Janneka L. Guise 
University of Manitoba 
 27


English

Musical AKAs: Assumed Names and Sobriquets of Composers, Songwriters, Librettists, Lyricists, Hymnists, and Writers on Music (Book Review)

Power, Brian E.

Earth Songs (CD Review)

[s.n.], [s.n.]

Back cover

Index to CAML Review / Revue de l’ACBM, Volume 37
This index includes personal and corporate names, titles, and subjects of articles, reports and
reviews in one alphabet, plus an added title list of reviews.  Names are identified as author (a),
composer (c), editor (e), letter writer (l), performer (prf), or reviewer (r); names not so identified
are subject entries; titles of articles are contained in quotation marks; titles of reviewed works are
italicized; titles in square brackets have been supplied.  
Citations are in the form: volume/issue:pages.
The cumulated index to all volumes appears at <www.yorku.ca/caml>
Advertisers:
Alexander Street Press 37/1:back
cover
IPCI Canada 37/2:back cover 
Anhalt, Istvan 37/3:35-36
Arbuckle, Michelle “CentreStreams: The
launch of a digital audio archive at
the Canadian Music Centre” 37/1:6-
9
Berger, Michael r 37/2:38-39
bibliographical research 37/1:16-18
Books and Recordings Received 37/3:39
Boyd, Alastair r 37/1:19-20; “Opportunity
Knocks: Updating an Online Music
Catalogue” 37/3:13-17
Buley, David a 37/1:21-22
Canadian Association of Music Libraries / 
Association canadienne des
bibliothèques musicales
  Annual meetings / réunions
2009, Ottawa, with CUMS 37/1:13-
15
2010, Regina, with CUMS, IASPM,
CSTM 37/3:30-31
  Quebec chapter meeting 2009 37/2:10-11;
37/3:6-12; [photos] 37/3:back cover
  Review / Revue [index v.36] 37/1:10-12;
[survey / sondage] 37/3:29
  Section québecoise, Rencontre 2009
37/2:10-11; 37/3:6-12; [photos]
37/3:back cover
 Submission to the 2009 Copyright
Consultation / Consultation sur le
droit d’auteur 37/3:21-28
Canadian composers 37/2:33-34
“Canadian Composers Portraits: a Look
Back” 37/3:18-20 
Canadian Music Centre
digitization project 37/1:6-9
Canadian Organ Music Showcase 37/1:21-
22
Canuck Rock: a History of Canadian
Popular Music 37/3:37-38
Cassaro, James P. e 37/2:31-32
cataloguing 37/3:13-17
CDs/Books/DVDs Received 37/1:28
“CentreStreams: The launch of a digital
audio archive at the Canadian Music
Centre” 37/1:6-9
copyright 37/3:21-28 
Coral, Lenore 37/2:31-32
Cornfield, Eitan “Canadian Composers
Portraits: a Look Back” 37/3:18-20 
Cult Figures: Electroacoustic Music from
Canada 37/1:23-25 
digitization see information technology
Eagle Minds: Selected Correspondence of
Istvan Anhalt and George Rochberg
(1961-2005) 37/3:35-36
Edwardson, Ryan a 37/3:37-38
electroacoustic music 37/1:23-25
“Five Cent Music: Publication of an Early
Series of Canadian Sheet Music”
37/2:12-30
The Fool ; The Death of Enkidu 37/2:35-37
Gillmor, Alan M. e 37/3:35-36
Gonder, Jon r 37/3:35-36
Hafner, Joseph “IAML 2012 Montréal /
AIBM 2012 à Montréal” 37/2:6-9
Higham, Peter “President’s report / message 
du président” 37/1:3-6; “Five Cent
Music: Publication of an Early
Series of Canadian Sheet Music”
37/2:12-30
Hung, Eric r 37/1:26-27, r 37/2:40-41
information technology
digitization 37/1:6-9
online catalogues 37/3:13-17
41
Ings 37/2:38-39
International Association of Music Libraries
  conferences
2012 Montreal 37/2:6-9
Jurkowski, Edward r 37/1:23-25; r 37/2:35-
37 
Keillor, Elaine r 37/2:42-43
Lament in the Trampled Garden: Chamber
Music by Marjan Mozetich 37/2: 40-
41
Launch Pad 37/1:26-27
Martin, Cathy [SQACBM report] 37/3:6-12
McMorrow, Kathleen r 37/1:16-18 
Mitchell, Joni 37/3:32-34
Morawetz, Oskar c 37/2: 42-32
Mozetich, Marjan c 37/2:40-41
Music, Libraries, and the Academy: Essays
in Honor of Lenore Coral 37/2:31-
32
Music Library Association
  Meetings
2008, Newport RI
The Music of Joni Mitchell 37/3:32-34
Music research: a Handbook 37/1:16-18
“Opportunity Knocks: Updating an Online
Music Catalogue” 37/3:13-17
Palmer, David prf 37/1:21-22
Penderecki String Quartet prf 37/1:26-28
Petrowska Quilico, Christina prf 37/2:38-39
Philpott, Lisa Rae r 37/2:31-32
popular music 37/3:37-38
Rochberg, George 37/3:35-36
Ross, Gordon r 37/3:37-38
Sampsel, Laurie J. a 37/1:16-18
Scherzo: Piano Music by Oskar Morawetz
37/2:42-43
sheet music 37/2:12-30
Shelflisting music: Guidelines for use with
the Library of Congress
Classification 37/1:19-20
Smiraglia, Richard P. a 37/1:19-20
Somers, Harry c 37/2:35-37
Sonic Mosaics: Conversations with
Composers 37/2:33-34
Steenhuisen, Paul a 37/2:33-34
Stephen, J. Drew r 37/2:33-34
Van der Bliek, Rob r 37/3:32-34
Walsh, Kirsten “President’s report / message
de la présidente” 37/2:3-5; 37/3:3-5
Whitesell, Lloyd a 37/3:32-34 
Zusko, Darrett prf 37/2:42-43
Reviews
Canadian Organ Music Showcase 37/1:21-
22
Canuck Rock: a History of Canadian
Popular Music 37/3:37-38
Cult Figures: Electroacoustic Music from
Canada 37/1:23-25
Eagle Minds: Selected Correspondence of
Istvan Anhalt and George Rochberg
(1961-2005) 37/3:35-36
The Fool ; The Death of Enkidu 37/2:35-37
Ings 37/2:38-39
Lament in the Trampled Garden: Chamber
Music by Marjan Mozetich 37/2: 40-
41
Launch Pad 37/1:26-27
Music, Libraries, and the Academy: Essays
in Honor of Lenore Coral 37/2:31-
32
The Music of Joni Mitchell 37/3:32-34
Music research: a Handbook 37/1:16-18
Scherzo: Piano Music by Oskar Morawetz
37/2:42-43
Shelflisting music: Guidelines for use with
the Library of Congress
Classification 37/1:19-20
Sonic Mosaics: Conversations with
Composers 37/2:33-34
42


Index to CAML Review / Revue de l'ACBM, Volume 37

Colquhoun McGorman, Joan

 5 
 
 
Report on the IAML 2010 Congress  
 
Joan Colquhoun McGorman 
 
 
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres Congress 
Moscow, Russia 
June 27–July 2, 2010 
  
 
 
Although it has been many years since I suspended my active involvement in IAML, I have 
always remained interested in the association and its work. The last time I attended a IAML 
conference was in Ottawa in 1994.  
 
The idea of attending the IAML Congress in Moscow intrigued me. I decided to go for several 
reasons. I wanted to update and renew my knowledge of the association and all of its important 
projects in advance of the IAML conference which CAML will host in Montreal in 2012. I 
hoped to see some international friends and colleagues I had known years ago. Also, I welcomed 
the opportunity to visit Russia with the special camaraderie and supportive structure of a IAML 
conference. I was not disappointed!  
 
This was the first time that IAML has met in Russia. At first, it seemed rather intimidating to 
deal with visas and other complications of going so far away, and to a place where I had almost 
no knowledge of the language and culture. Thankfully, the organizing committee, led by Emilia 
Rassina, of the Taneyev Library of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, did an 
excellent job of smoothing the way into Russia for foreigners who do not speak the language. 
Translators were provided, most of them charming young music students at the Conservatory. 
 
The welcoming committee, including translators, was at the airport to meet each flight carrying 
IAML delegates. They helped us get some money exchanged and then provided complimentary 
transportation by car in small groups to the conference centre. It was such a relief to have that 
taken care of – the traffic was incredible!  
 
The weather was hot and sunny for the entire week. It was near the beginning of an extraordinary 
heat wave in Russia. Later in July there were news reports of severe forest fires which caused 
Moscow to be darkened by smoke and ash. However, during the IAML Congress the sky was 
always blue, even until late in the evening. Darkness lasted only a few hours with dawn breaking 
about 3 a.m. 
 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
© 2010 The author and the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres / L’auteur et 
l’Association canadienne des bibliothèques, archives et centres de documentation musicaux 
 6 
 
 
Like many of the foreign delegates I had arrived early for the Congress to allow some time to see 
the sights of Moscow. On Saturday June 26, Daniel Paradis, Joseph Hafner and I had a guided 
tour of the area near the Kremlin, after which we visited the Kremlin itself. The overwhelming 
impression was of the vastness and long history of the place. The churches are very beautiful 
with richly decorated interiors and brilliant onion-shaped domes. The next day we visited the 
Tretyakov Gallery of Russian Art and its environs. 
 
The Congress was held at the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of 
the Russian Federation (RAPA). This is a huge complex which was constructed near the end of 
the Soviet era and contains both hotels and conference facilities inside a security fence. Every 
time we returned from outside the RAPA complex we had to go through a security office and 
show a special pass which we had been given upon arrival. It is outside central Moscow, but near 
a subway station which provided convenient transportation to downtown. There is a 
MacDonald’s near the entrance to the subway, which some IAML attendees frequented for the 
free wireless internet access. 
 
Everything in Moscow is enormous! The subway stations are like underground palaces with 
elaborate decorations celebrating aspects of Moscow’s history. 
 
Six Canadians attended: Melissa Gravel (Laval), Joseph Hafner (McGill), Brian McMillan 
(McGill), Daniel Paradis (Concordia), Sheilah Roberts (Memorial University) and Joan 
Colquhoun McGorman (retired, formerly National Library of Canada). There were about 250 
delegates, including a large contingent from the Russian Library Association. Most papers and 
presentations were given in English, with a few in French, German or Russian. Since nearly half 
of the attendees were from Russia, simultaneous translation was provided for them in many of 
the sessions. When presentations were given in Russian, a translator provided the English 
equivalent sentence by sentence.  
 
The schedule followed the traditional IAML conference plan, including concerts on Tuesday and 
Thursday evenings. Unlike most IAML conference venues, RAPA was not associated with a 
library or music academy. However, we did have the opportunity to visit the National Library of 
Russia (Lenin Library) and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. On Tuesday there was 
a concert in the Pashkov Dom, the beautiful Concert Hall of the National Library of Russia. The 
setting was perfect for a performance, by Pratum Integrum Orchestra, of baroque music on 
historical instruments. On Thursday we had a guided tour of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky 
Conservatory and its library. The concert in the Small Hall of the Conservatory following the 
tour was entitled “Fifty years of Russian Avant-Garde.”  
 
The Opening Ceremony included welcoming speeches and a performance by a traditional a 
cappella ensemble, followed by a lovely reception. 
 
The Opening Session on Monday morning featured a video presentation, “Musical Libraries and 
Archives of Russia” which was produced in English especially for IAML and gave us an 
excellent introduction to our host libraries. (This can be viewed at: 
http://www.iamlcongress2010.ru/index.php?id=28)  
 7 
 
 
At the National Reports session Joseph Hafner presented CAML President Kirsten Walsh’s 
report. He also conveyed greetings to IAML from Maria Calderisi, a Past-President of IAML 
who had to cancel her plans to attend the Congress. It was interesting to hear the reports from 
other countries and know that there are many projects and concerns in common. 
 
The Plenary Session on Tuesday was a discussion of the future of IAML. Several people 
responded to position papers which had been distributed in advance for consideration. There 
seems to be a need to modernize some aspects of the association. Possibilities discussed included 
increasing outreach and changing Fontes Artis Musicae to electronic format.   
 
The week was filled with varied and interesting sessions. There was a particular emphasis on the 
libraries and music of Russia, as well as Russian music collections abroad. Here are a few 
highlights from the Congress presentations. Daniel Paradis (Concordia University) gave an 
important talk entitled “RDA and Music: An Overview of the Differences from AACR2.” The 
program “In Mozart’s Words” was about an innovative project based in Italy to provide online 
access to Mozart’s correspondence from Italy; with English, French and Italian translations of 
the letters and commentary in English. In “VOXPOP” we learned about the popular songs of 
Russia, France and Japan.  
 
Some of the papers presented will be published soon in Fontes Artis Musicae. Reports of the 
Professional Branches, Subject Commissions, Committees and Working Groups will also be 
published in Fontes Artis Musicae, as well as reports of the “R-Projects” (RILM, RISM, RIPM 
and RIDiM). The minutes of the Council Meetings, at which Brian McMillan represented 
Canada, will also be in Fontes. Other reports and minutes will be available on the IAML website. 
 
At the General Assembly and Closing Session, President Martie Severt (Hilversum, Netherlands) 
announced that the new President of IAML would be Roger Flury of the National Library of 
New Zealand. Replacing Roger Flury as Secretary-General is Pia Shekter (Gothenburg, Sweden). 
Honourary Memberships were conferred on Veslemöy Heintz of Sweden and Pamela Thompson 
of the United Kingdom.  
 
The Farewell Dinner that evening was magnificent, featuring traditional Russian food and music. 
All agreed that it was a very successful Congress.  
 
It is not just the formal meetings which are important at a IAML conference. Informal 
discussions at meals, tea breaks, and social events can lead to greater understanding of the 
importance of the work of the association and our colleagues in music libraries around the world. 
 
The sightseeing excursions on Wednesday afternoon offered a difficult choice among tours of 
two magnificent country estates as well as two walking tours of central Moscow, featuring either 
historical or musical highlights. All the excursions were enjoyed by the participants and provided 
opportunities to get better acquainted with IAML colleagues. There was also an afternoon 
excursion for accompanying persons which was a lovely boat ride through the city on the 
Moscow (Moskva) River. 
 
 8 
 
 
It has been traditional for IAML conferences to offer optional post-conference tours. These 
provide an excellent opportunity for delegates to see more of the host region, as well as to spend 
more time with other delegates. Some chose the tour on July 3 to the Tchaikovsky House State 
Museum in Klin, northwest of Moscow. The House, which has been preserved as it was when 
Tchaikovsky died, is adjacent to the new Museum which has manuscripts, music, letters, 
photographs and other artifacts from Tchaikovsky and his family. The tour culminated with a 
recital given on a piano which had been played by Tchaikovsky. 
 
I chose the two-day tour to St. Petersburg. We left immediately after the Farewell Dinner to 
travel by night train to St. Petersburg. In addition to all the important tourist sights of the city the 
IAML delegates were treated to excellent tours of the National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, 
at the end of the first day and the State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire on the last evening. At 
both libraries we were amazed by the facilities and collections, which included manuscripts of 
Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, as well as Russian masters. 
 
Several of the IAML participants had planned to spend a little more time in St. Petersburg. Along 
with two delegates from New Zealand and one from the United States I attended the ballet, 
Spartacus, by Khachaturian at the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly Kirov) and on my last night in 
Russia I saw the Tchaikovsky opera, Eugene Onegin at the Mussorgsky Theatre. 
 
I encourage CAML Review readers to look for further detail about the Moscow IAML Congress 
in Fontes Artis Musicae and online. I think that it is important for Canada to increase its 
participation in IAML next year in preparation for hosting the IAML Conference in Montreal in 
2012. Individual membership in IAML is well worth the modest fee and can be processed easily 
along with CAML membership by Kyla Jemison, CAML Membership Secretary.  
 
Next year IAML will meet in Dublin, July 24–29, 2011 at Trinity College. For more information 
see: http://www.iaml.info/iaml-uk-irl/dublin_2011/index.html. Start planning now! 
 


Report on the IAML 2010 Congress

Jurkowski, Edward

5 x 3 (CD Review)

Leibel, Jane

Chura-Churum; The Merman of Orford (CD Review)

Ross, Gordon

Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music (Book Review)

Boyd, Alastair

13 
 
Opportunity Knocks: Updating an Online Music Catalogue 
Alastair Boyd (University of Toronto) 
A number of academic and large public libraries have started drifting away from the web 
catalogues supplied by the vendors of their integrated library systems. Frustrated catalogue users 
were showing signs of bypassing these ILS catalogues in favour of search engines they 
considered to be faster and simpler, like Google or amazon.com; and frustrated cataloguers were 
seeing much of their carefully structured data languishing unused, its potential unexploited. The 
efforts of competing ILS vendors to create useful web-based catalogues have been cautious and 
uncoordinated. The resulting clumsy hybrids have lost much of the “analogue” functionality of 
the old card catalogues, while managing to gain little of the speed and simplicity of the “digital” 
Age of Amazon. So an ever-growing number of librarians have had a radical thought: what 
would happen if we married the flexibility of popular online search sites with the mountains of 
rigorously controlled bibliographic data stored in library databases? 
ILS vendors might justly protest that until we could all agree on what we wanted, they could 
hardly justify spending money on experiments. However, it now seems that a pivotal moment has 
arrived. A consensus is forming, inspired partly by IFLA’s Functional Requirements for Biblio-
graphic Records (FRBR), and in part by 10 years’ experience in coping with the shortcomings of 
off-the-rack web interfaces. The tools of online commerce are available for our “not-for-profit” 
world of scholarship, and a growing list of libraries has started to use them.  
We’ve Only Just Begun 
On that list is the University of Toronto Library. It has been almost two years since a Selection 
Committee chose the Endeca platform, with which to build a new “discovery layer” on top of the 
current Sirsi database. U of T was not the first library to choose Endeca, so we were able to profit 
from the experience of predecessors like North Carolina State and (closer to home) McMaster 
University. I use the word “build” deliberately. Endeca is best regarded as a toolkit, with which 
you can create whatever interfaces and indexes you like, limited only by the quality of your 
existing data (more on this below), and your supply of time and money for programming. After 
about eight months of work, the first version of the new catalogue was offered as an option in 
September 2008, and it became the default in January 2009.   
However, we’re not finished yet—or so I hope. Much of the effort so far has been devoted to 
“under the hood” work refining the indexes, fixing problems with exotic diacritics, and adjusting 
the timing of data loads from Sirsi into Endeca. And also, as I hinted a moment ago, we have 
spent a great deal of time cleaning up errors in some of the bibliographic records to make the 
system work better. A made-to-measure catalogue provides the opportunity to make effective use 
of all sorts of data that has been lying fallow in bibliographic MARC records almost since we 
began to use MARC. But a side-effect of building precise filters and indexes on previously 
ignored MARC data is that long-dormant errors are suddenly bathed in a glaring spotlight. A 
shared database like U of T’s, with some records more than 25 years old, and with more than 30 
contributing libraries, is bound to contain inconsistencies. 
For example, our new catalogue makes extensive use of certain MARC control field codes in 
order to allow precise filtering of search results according to format: e.g. books, scores, or 
recordings (the last further divided into LPs, cassette tapes, or CDs). This is terrific, or would be 
© 2009 The author and the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres / 
L’auteur et l’Association canadienne des bibliothèques, archives et centres de documentation musicaux. 
14 
 
if all our records for scores were coded as such, and all cataloguing for sound recordings had the 
necessary precise format codes. Unfortunately, our database contains thousands of ancient 
records dating from the dawn of U of T’s MARC database. Because these were transcribed from 
catalogue cards using a single book template for all formats, the oldest records for music scores 
showed up as books in the new catalogue. Consequently when catalogue users tried to whittle 
down hitlists to scores only, a great many useful results were left behind. Happily there are ways 
to identify and correct many such deficiencies through automated batch processes; thanks to the 
shrewd oversight of our Metadata Librarian, U of T has made great inroads in this kind of  “data 
cleansing” (to use Endeca’s own clinical terminology). 
Evolution or Revolution? 
We now have an opportunity to demonstrate that our existing bibliographic records contain great 
potential for improved online discovery of music resources. Quite a lot is at stake here, because a 
chorus of critics has been suggesting that the problem with web catalogues is old-fashioned 
cataloguing rules (AACR2) and data formats (MARC 21). Cast off these shackles, it is said, and 
all will be well. Indeed, for some of these critics even RDA, the proposed successor to AACR2, 
is insufficiently radical because of its intended compatibility with existing records. It is certain 
that if we consider cataloguing principles and data structures only in the light of online keyword 
searching we arrive at something different from RDA, and from the principles and structures 
currently used. But an uncompromising insistence on such a position, however logical and 
ideologically pure, reminds me of Bernard Shaw’s crusade to reform English spelling, or the 
Music Notation Project’s proposals to abolish accidentals in favour of a brand new chromatic 
musical staff. It is unrealistic to ignore the past, whether we’re talking about several centuries’ 
worth of book and music publishing, or 145 million existing MARC records. Updated methods 
that build on and supplement the status quo will be less elegant and efficient, but can still 
improve resource discovery while incorporating, rather than discarding or rebuilding, our existing 
databases. 
For pragmatists who see tools like Endeca as a way out of this bind, a crucial moment has 
arrived. Now is our chance to show how these new “discovery layers” that sit on top of existing 
databases can do the work of reinterpreting old data structures to work in new ways. A perfect 
example of this is the old-fashioned uniform title, as prescribed in AACR2. In a music card 
catalogue, uniform titles gathered entries for various editions, arrangements, excerpts, and 
translations of works in an alphabetical sub-arrangement under the heading for the composer, by 
using a standardized title for any given work. In an online catalogue incorporating the principles 
of FRBR, uniform titles as coded in MARC 21 records provide a ready-made method for 
identifying Works and Expressions, and in establishing FRBR whole/part, equivalent, and 
derivative relationships—that is, as long as we bear in mind that uniform titles are only one half 
of a name-title heading. Such headings contain all the necessary information and tagging, thanks 
to subfield codes that identify Work elements (composer plus a standardized title), Expression 
elements (e.g. format terms such as “vocal score”, or the language(s) of translations), and 
whole/part elements such as the titles of component parts of a work (for example, arias within an 
opera, or single movements from a suite).  
Manipulation of these elements as they are fed into Endeca (or “ingested”, to use the company 
jargon) allows us to create flexible ways of displaying and sorting search results which contain 
multiple instances of the same Work and Expression, but different Manifestations (editions). In 
the illustration below, eight hits from a search for the title Moonlight sonata have been combined 
in the initial FRBR-based display of results, which represent records for different editions of this  
15 
 
single work. Clicking on this “rolled up” hitlist entry will create an expanded list showing brief 
entries for all eight of these different editions. 
It Must Be There Somewhere… 
There is room for further improvement here, however. The display has been based on the 
composer plus uniform title, which is the heading currently available to represent the Work. But 
does this cumbersome heading have to be what we display in the hitlist? This is where the 
concept of “authority records” residing in an “authority file” can be put to new uses.  
A quick digression on authority records: these provide an efficient mechanism for establishing an 
agreed-upon standard form of a heading, such as a composer’s name, or a name plus uniform 
title, combined in a single record with variant forms of the name and/or title. When such records 
in MARC format are linked to MARC bibliographic records, cross-references don’t need to be 
inserted into every catalogue record that employs a given heading; they can be stored, and 
updated, in a single place. If these authority records are then fed into a system such as Endeca, 
the resulting index can assist catalogue users by directly associating the variants in name or title 
headings with bibliographic records containing the authorized heading. In the card catalogue, or 
in previous online catalogues incorporating an authority file, anyone searching “Skriabin”, for 
example, would be directed to search instead for “Scriabin”; now, in our new catalogue, the 
single search “Skriabin” will immediately return the same results as “Scriabin”, since the former 
spelling is a variant in the authority record.  
In the same way, using the same mechanism, anyone searching the terms “Beethoven” and 
“Moonlight sonata” can now retrieve the same results as if they had searched by the uniform title 
displayed in the sample hitlist shown above. Better yet, given the relational database structure of 
bibliographic and authority record databases, it would be perfectly feasible to create a more 
elegant heading to represent this particular work. AACR2 prescribes the uniform title “Sonatas, 
piano, no. 14, op. 27, no. 2, C#  minor” because it was designed to create a browseable 
alphabetical subarrangement in the card catalogue under the main entry for Beethoven. Having 
inherited headings like these, automated validation in many MARC databases also currently 
depends on literal matching of these cumbersome alphanumeric strings between bibliographic 
and authority records. But there is no need to duplicate the actual text of the heading in both 
places; the bibliographic record need only carry a link (inserted at the point of cataloguing) to the 
name-title authority record. And taking this a step further, if the authority record contains enough 
16 
 
information for cataloguers to correctly identify the work, then the work heading as displayed in 
the catalogue could be something more user-friendly than the long string shown in the previous 
example. Perhaps “Piano sonata no. 14, op. 27, no. 2, C♯ minor, by Ludwig van Beethoven 
(1770-1827)”. This kind of permutation of the existing heading could be achieved program-
matically, thanks to its subfield coding and punctuation. Ultimately, the best solution would be to 
update the cataloguing rules to recognize the post-card-catalogue reality that the work heading 
itself doesn’t necessarily have to contain all the data, as long as sufficient information can be 
found in the authority record. For catalogue users’ benefit, I think we should display headings 
that are as short as possible without becoming ambiguous. The current version of RDA threatens 
to go in the opposite direction, however. Where AACR2 prescribes a uniform title like 
“Variations, piano, woodwinds, op. 6” RDA proposes “Variations, piano, bassoon, clarinet, 
flute, oboe, op. 6”. Simply by adding a preferred work display title to the authority record 
(“Variations, op. 6” might be enough), we could let our systems show something more concise. 
Another benefit of controlling the display of headings from the authority records involves the 
perennial problem of titles translated from other languages. For books or music with text, it is 
difficult to see any real alternative to AACR2’s directive to use the original title, rather than the 
most commonly used title in the language of the catalogue. Otherwise, when creating headings 
for translations, one winds up with paradoxical headings like “Magic flute” to represent scores or 
recordings in German, and “Magic flute. English” to represent a translation. But for works 
without words, we could choose to be more flexible. The current use of “Vesna sviashchennaia” 
instead of “Rite of spring” or “Sacre du printemps” as the established uniform title tends to 
puzzle all catalogue users except those who know the Library of Congress romanization of Весна 
священная. Again, by marking a title in the authority record as the one preferred for display, we 
can show whatever we like in the catalogue without having to update all the bibliographic 
records. (And we can instantly flip the display to something else, if we have second thoughts.) 
What Else Do They Have? 
What I have described so far has mostly to do with so-called “known item” searches. There are 
also intriguing possibilities for helping users find music scores when they don’t have a title in 
mind. For example, the Library of Congress Classification for music provides a systematic way 
to discover what is available based on the medium of performance. Catalogue users could start 
17 
 
from an overview; then by clicking any of these top-level links, they could expand subsets of 
numbers and quickly navigate to a call number browse of holdings for a specific medium.  
The ability to build our own indexes and search interface could also enable searching by 
instrumentation, based on the precise catalogue record instrument codes rather than subject 
headings. The example shown here (based on the Canadian Music Centre’s catalogue search 
interface) illustrates a search for precise instrumentation. In most catalogues, that type of search 
is impossible, since LC subject 
headings for vocal music do not 
include the names of 
accompanying ensemble 
instruments, and the 
classification scheme lumps 
together at a single number all 
songs for voice accompanied 
by two or more instruments. 
Reality Check 
It is not difficult to imagine 
designs for web catalogues that  
utilize existing bibliographic and authority data more effectively, as well as incorporating new 
ways of linking to other online objects and services. (Audio clips? Thematic catalogues?) The 
real constraints, unsurprisingly, are time and money. It can be difficult to persuade programmers 
to devote time to building catalogue features of special interest to music libraries, given the 
competing demands on IT resources, and the prevailing concept of a standard catalogue interface. 
The obvious question arises: can a really useful music catalogue interface cohabit happily with a 
general catalogue designed for use by all and sundry? This is not a problem for specialized 
institutions like the Canadian Music Centre, which can tailor the interface and features for their 
particular clientele. But in a general academic library catalogue, it might be strategically sensible 
to argue for a customized interface for use within the Music Library. Then there could be no 
objections to including search and display options of interest only to musicians. That still leaves 
the problem of getting enough of the programmers’ attention. Perhaps some of us should take up 
Java programming in our spare time! 
(This article is loosely based on a presentation by Alastair Boyd and Suzanne Meyers Sawa at 
the 2009 CAML Conference in Ottawa). 


Opportunity Knocks: Updating an Online Music Catalogue

Walsh, Kirsten

      3 
 
President’s Report / Message de la présidente 
 
 
Welcome to Fall! 
 
This fall has been busy with meetings. 
The Québec Chapter of CAML met on 
October 29th at the Maison de Radio-
Canada, where they were hosted by La 
Société Radio-Canada. It is good to see 
the chapter flourish; the meeting was 
attended by 55 people from a wide 
cross-section of libraries. The annual 
meeting of the New York State/Ontario 
Chapter of the Music Library 
Association was held on October 29-30 
at the University of Toronto. 
 
The CAML Board met briefly on June 
6th in Regina, after the Annual General 
Meeting, and welcomed new Board 
members Kyla Jemison, Membership 
Secretary, and Stacy Allison-Cassin, 
Communications Officer. The Board 
met again by teleconference on Sunday 
October 31st.  
 
The 2010 IAML conference took place 
in Moscow on June 27-July 2, with 
several CAML members participating. 
Joseph Hafner delivered the Canadian 
national branch’s report to IAML on 
my behalf. 
 
CAML will meet jointly with CUMS 
(Canadian University Music Society) 
on June 2-5, 2011, where we will be 
hosted by the Music Department of 
Mount Allison University.  CUMS has 
also arranged for the participation of 
the Atlantic Region of the Canadian 
Music Centre, which is located in the 
same building as the Music 
Department. Peter Higham is working 
on local arrangements for CAML, and 
Suzanne Meyers-Sawa is planning our 
  
Déjà l’automne! 
 
L’automne a été chargé en réunions. La Section 
québécoise de l’ACBM a tenu son assemblée 
annuelle le 29 octobre à la Maison de Radio-
Canada, où elle a été accueillie par la Société 
Radio-Canada. Il est bien de voir que la Section 
prend de l’ampleur; 55 personnes provenant d’un 
large éventail de bibliothèques ont participé à 
l’assemblée. Quant à elle, l’assemblée annuelle 
de la New York State/Ontario Chapter de la 
Music Library Association (MLA) a eu lieu les 
29 et 30 octobre à l’Université de Toronto. 
 
Le conseil d’administration de l’ACBM a tenu 
une brève rencontre le 6 juin à Regina, après 
l’assemblée générale annuelle des membres et a 
souhaité la bienvenue aux nouveaux membres du 
conseil d’administration : Kyla Jemison, 
secrétaire aux adhésions et Stacy Allison-Cassin, 
directrice des communications. Le conseil 
d’administration s’est à nouveau réuni par 
téléconférence le dimanche 31 octobre. 
 
Le congrès de l’Association internationale des 
bibliothèques, archives et centres de 
documentation musicaux (AIBM) s’est tenu à 
Moscou du 27 juin au 2 juillet et bon nombre de 
membres de l’ACBM y ont participé. Joseph 
Hafner a communiqué, en mon nom, le message 
de la délégation canadienne à l’AIBM. 
 
Un congrès mixte de l’ACBM et de la Société de 
musique des universités canadiennes (SMUC) se 
tiendra du 2 au 5 juin 2011 et le département de 
musique de l’Université Mount Allison en sera 
l’hôte. La SMUC a également lancé l’invitation 
à la région de l’Atlantique du Centre de musique 
canadienne (CMC), laquelle a ses locaux dans le 
même bâtiment que celui du département de 
musique. Au nom de l’ACBM, Peter Higham est 
responsable de la logistique et Suzanne Meyers-
Sawa élabore le programme. Je vous encourage à 
      4 
 
program. I encourage you to think 
about presentations for this meeting, 
and watch for the Call for Papers which 
will come out soon. 
 
This issue of the CAML Review will be 
the last paper issue. You may recall that 
we decided at the Annual General 
Meeting in Regina this summer to 
move to an online-only format with the 
first issue of Volume 39 in 2011. At the 
AGM we also decided to accept 
EBSCO’s offer to have the CAML 
Review licensed in their databases. The 
licensing agreement has been signed, 
and our content should be added to 
their products starting next year. 
 
Cathy Martin, the Editor of CAML 
Review, will join the Board as 
Communications Officer in January 
2011, as Stacy Allison-Cassin will be 
taking maternity leave. Stacy will 
continue her work as webmaster for 
CAML.  
 
As always, you are reminded that the 
CAML membership year runs from 
January to December, and memberships 
are due by December 31st. Please make 
sure that you renew before the New 
Year. The membership form can be 
found on the CAML website at: 
http://www.yorku.ca/caml/drupal/?q=e
n/membership 
 
I hope that you have a good winter and 
an enjoyable holiday season. 
 
 
Kirsten Walsh 
University of British Columbia 
kirsten.walsh@ubc.ca 
penser à des sujets de présentations pour ce 
congrès et soyez attentifs à l’appel de 
propositions des communications qui paraîtra 
bientôt. 
 
Le présent numéro de la Revue de l’ACBM 
représente le dernier numéro en version 
imprimée. Lors de l’assemblée générale annuelle 
des membres qui s’est tenue à Regina cet été, 
vous vous souviendrez que les membres de 
l’ACBM ont opté pour une version électronique 
uniquement à compter du premier numéro du 
Volume 39 en 2011. De plus, les membres ont 
accepté l’offre d’EBSCO d’émettre à l’ACBM 
une autorisation sous forme de licence de la 
Revue de l’ACBM versée dans leurs bases de 
données. L’entente de délivrance de permis a été 
signée et le contenu de la Revue sera versé dans 
leurs produits au début de l’an prochain. 
 
Cathy Martin, l’éditrice de la Revue de l’ACBM, 
fera partie du conseil d’administration à titre de 
directrice des communications en janvier 2011, 
puisque Stacy Allison-Cassin sera en congé de 
maternité. Stacy poursuivra tout de même ses 
tâches à titre de webmestre de l’ACBM. 
 
Comme toujours, la secrétaire aux adhésions 
vous rappelle que la cotisation annuelle de 
l’ACBM est en vigueur de janvier à décembre et 
que les cotisations doivent être acquittées d’ici le 
31 décembre. Assurez-vous de la renouveler 
avant le Nouvel An. On peut obtenir le 
formulaire de cotisation sur le site Web de 
l’ACBM à l’adresse suivante :  
http://www.yorku.ca/caml/drupal/?q=fr/member
ship 
 
En terminant, je vous souhaite un très bel hiver 
et une agréable période des Fêtes. 
 
 
Traduction française : Pauline Prince, term. a. 
 
 


President's Report / Message de la présidente

Not a member yet