The purpose of this presentation is to collect and classify all the professional databases relevant to the field of bass research and scholarship. These resources are designed to serve both as an inspiration to students, scholars and enthusiasts in pursuit of desired materials for their curricular or career advancement, and as a tool to facilitate general interest in profession. The terminology used here should be familiar to all collegiate users, yet for better understanding of the page interface, the following two idioms should be of interest.
OPAC – Since you will find here a variety of links to different databases, in order to avoid possible confusion and make your search efficient, only the actual online catalogs are marked with OPAC designator. The other database links are usually the introductory pages for particular systems. The OPAC stands for Online Public Access Catalog and simply denotes a Library Catalog that is used online.
National Union Catalog – In straightforward terms, this is a colossal catalog which combines all catalogs from all individual libraries within a single country in one unified database. A brief overview on how this catalog type emerged follows. In the beginning the Library Catalogs were just the simple lists of various items written in books. Later, these lists have been transferred to cards, that we still witness in some card-catalogs within the libraries today. Yet, even prior to the age of computers it has become apparent that a cumulative printed edition of library cards from all libraries within a single country would present an extraordinary asset for research, and thus the unified catalogs – or Union Catalogs – have been created. On the other side, with an advancement of computers these physical card catalogs have also begun to migrate into computer systems of individual libraries, universities and other institutions. Lastly, by following the pattern of card catalog integration in printed Union Catalogs, the final step in electronic integration was to connect all individual electronic catalogs in one single catalog on the level of the entire country – and thus produce the electronic National Union Catalog of a type that we present here. From the perspective of bass scholarship this is of importance, since now all the individual scores, books, autographs from all over the world can be accessed through these comprehensive portals. This capability, which simply was not possible even within the most advanced research libraries some two decades ago, is now available basically to any scholar from the comfort of their computer.
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• WorldCat
• Austria
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Poland
• USA
• Australia
• RISM
• Autograph & Manuscript Collections in Libraries
• Europe
• Czech Republic
• France
• Italy
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World Union Catalogs
WorldCat
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WorldCat OPAC – Advanced Search
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WorldCat is the world’s biggest online database ever created in human history. It is based in the US, and has started as a computer cataloging project by the consortium of Ohio libraries in 1967. The initial acronym for this catalog – OCLC as standing for Ohio College Library Center has remained to this day although it was later reworded to mean Online Computer Library Center. The WorldCat is simply a name for the public user interface of the OCLC.
Since its inception in the 60ties this electronic catalog has grown further to incorporate holdings from all US libraries, thus in fact becoming the US online Union Catalog as well. It has in addition grown to incorporate the majority of world’s Union catalogs too, thus literally becoming the world’s first general union catalog. As of May 2014 it has passed the mark of 2 billion (2.000.000.000.) cataloged items. The following two links will show the list of all National Union catalogs incorporated in OCLC, as well as the current number of holdings in the entire system.
National Union Catalogs represented in WorldCat
Current number of holdings in WorldCat
The music part of the WorldCat is likewise the most comprehensive music database on the planet, yet due to the overlap of variety of records and various classification criteria that each national catalog has brought along, it can also present few challenges in pursuit of bass related information. In general, if the records come from Anglo Saxon libraries that use the Library of Congress subject heading system, the search will prove itself quite efficient. Yet for many European holdings you will need to pay attention for local classification and language designations to get the right information. In addition, following this entry you will find the links for major European Union catalogs that should offer a better targeting for your searches related to those particular countries and their respective bass traditions.
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Interface Options:
• English Language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search Options:
Simple search: “Double Bass” | 165969 items – January 9, 2015
Advanced Search – Subject: “Double Bass” | 113490 items – January 9, 2015
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Should you wish to explore the WorldCat by the Library of Congress subject classification system please go to Library of Congress Authorities page. Select “Search Authorities” option, input “Double Bass” and activate search. Listed will be some 167 subject headings starting with “Double Bass”, and followed by “Double Basses” and “Double Bassists”. Each of these headings can be used in the WorldCat’s Advanced Search to recover items from appropriate subject areas. To implement such a search, simply copy (Ctrl C) the subject heading form the Authorities site and paste it (Ctrl V) in the “Subject” search field of WorldCat’s Advanced Search menu. Each Library of Congress subject heading should yield at least one result in WoldCat under subject heading search.
References:
National Union Catalogs
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The purpose and origin of National Union catalogs as the biggest collective library database of each country has already been covered in the introduction remarks. Here we will describe the differences and similarities in user protocol for National Catalog from the perspective of bass research and heritage. The listings will also indicate the basic amount of entries at the search time, and the procedure to access them in order for you to get a basic overview of how much material may be found in these collections and how to continue further exploration of content on your own.
The user interface for any of these catalogs may change periodically, yet in principle once you have located something in these mega collections, you should be able to locate it again by replicating the search. Unfortunately, and as you will note, there will be a good amount of difference in design of those systems so you will have to adapt to each. Likewise, some knowledge of particular language will certainly be a plus in your searches. With many of these databases the individual records will offer direct links, yet in some cases that may still not be possible. Thus the way to preserve the record would be either to copy the record on your computer, or preserve the entire search stream for your future use.
Austria
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The Austrian Union Catalog can be accessed through the Österreichische Bibliothekenverbund (The Austrian Library Network and Services) home page. The Verbundkataloge link will lead you to the catalogue options and among them is the Suchmaschine (Search Machine) of the Austrian Library Network, which can access an outstanding selection of bass related materials that reside in Austrian Libraries.
Österreichische Bibliothekenverbundkatalog
[Home Page]
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[Union Catalogs Listing Page]
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Interface Options:
• German Language only
• Direct Link to Record
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Suchmaschine des Österreichischen Bibliothekenverbundes – OBV – OPAC
[Search Machine of the Austrian Library Network]
This is a very comfortable interface to work with, since in each search category it offers a number of useful subdivisions that can quickly focus your search through the subcategories of media, dates, languages, authors, libraries etc. Within the Simple Search you will find the following three subdivisions of particular use.
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Simple Search – Fachliteratur / Gesamtbestand: “Kontrabaß” | 2925 citations – June 2, 2014.
[Literature / Complete Holdings]
Hochschulschriften search: “Kontrabaß” | 48 citations – June 2, 2014.
[Theses – Academic works]
Nachlässe & Handschriften search: “Kontrabaß” | 1054 citations – June 2, 2014.
[Estates & Manuscripts]
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Czech Republic
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The Czech Union Catalog has a tendency to redirect you to the “Catalogues and Databases of the National Library of the Czech Republic” listing in certain modes. If you find yourself there, simply choose NKC and you will be returned to the search window. Otherwise, with English interface this catalog is as easy to use as any typical college catalog, yet with understanding that all entries are written in Czech language.
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The Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic
[Home Page & Guide]
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The Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic – CASLIN – OPAC
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options – Advanced Search:
All Fields search: “Kontrabas” | 551 citations – January 1, 2015.
Subject search: “Kontrabas” | 258 citations – January 1, 2015.
France
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There are two National Union Catalogs in France, yet the most rewarding source for bass materials has proven to be the very Bibliothèque Nationale de France, thus all three of them are listed here.
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Bibliothèque Nationale de France – BNF – OPAC
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Interface options:
• Only French Language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options – Advanced Search:
Subject search: “Contrebasse” | 923 items – June 2, 2014
All Words search: “Contrebasse” | 27321 items – June 2, 2014
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BNF – The List of all Specialty Catalogs
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Catalogue collectif de France – CCFR – OPAC
The Union Catalog of research, public, and special libraries in France, as well as the National Library of France. Maintained by the Bibliothèque National de France.
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Interface options:
• Only French Language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search Options:
Several subcategories. In some only Title and Author search allowed in others Subject and additional criteria allowed. Not a very user friendly setup although it offers an option to cover many libraries at once. A direct search over Bibliotheque National de France General catalog (above) is likely more efficient way to find French related bass items.
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Système Universitaire de Documentation – SUDOC – OPAC
A collective cataloge created by Higher Educational and Research libraries resource centers, that contains nearly 10 million bibliographic records. However, not as rewarding as the two cited above.
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Interface options:
• English language option
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
Subject search: Contrebasse | 112 items – June 7, 2014
All Words search: Contrebasse | 356 items – June 7, 2014
Germany
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Deutsche National Bibliothek [German National Library] is the central archival library and national bibliographic center for the Federal Republic of Germany. Its purpose and service closely resemble that of the Library of Congress in the US. The general information in English you will find under DNB heading bellow and the actual online catalogs follow under DNB – OPAC designations.
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Deutsche National Bibliothek
[Home page – English]
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Interface options:
• English language only for introduction – all searches in German only
• Direct Link to Record
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Search Options:
Typical search options are available with exception of Subject heading that for some reason is not integrated in this system?
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Deutsche National Bibliothek – General Search – OPAC
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Search Options:
Erweiterte Suche – Alle Begriffe search: “Kontrabass” | 3507 items – January 7, 2015.
Erweiterte Suche – Alle Begriffe search: “Kontrabaß” | 3507 items – January 7, 2015.
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Deutsche National Bibliothek – German Music Archive – OPAC
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Search Options:
Erweiterte Suche – Alle Begriffe search: “Kontrabass” | 3295 items – January 7, 2015.
Erweiterte Suche – Alle Begriffe search: “Kontrabaß” | 3183 items – January 7, 2015.
Italy
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The Italian Union catalog offers access to the music content in two ways: through the SBN – OPAC which has a standard interface, and through the detailed SBN – OPAC – Music which has a wide and sophisticated listing of search entries. Both described below.
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The Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information – ICCU
[Home page with an introduction]
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National Library Service – SBN
[The National Library Service (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale – SBN)]
This page offers a thorough description of the scope and use of this sophisticated Italian database.
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–National Library Service – SBN – OPAC
This is your source catalog to search any material from the vast Italian bass heritage. Should you be looking for an obscure Italian edition or a methods book, a good chance is that you will find it here.
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Interface options:
• English language option
• No Direct Link to Record. However every record cites individual Library records, some of which may have a Direct Link option.
• No Subject heading search
• No keyword search
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Simple Search: “Contrabbasso” | 2859 items – January 7, 2015
Simple Search: “Contrabasso” | 720 items – January 7, 2015
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National Library Service – SBN – Music – OPAC
SBN – OPAC features a special Music subdivision of its catalog (also on the left menu of SBN – OPAC) with its own special interface that is even more elaborate than the general SBN-OPAC (!). The Music catalog does allow a keyword search while the general catalog does not.
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Interface options:
• English language option
• No Direct Link to Record. However every record cites individual Library records, some of which may have a Direct Link option.
• No Subject heading search
• Keyword search
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Search Options:
Keywords search: “Contrabbasso” | 3165 items – January 9, 2015
Keywords search: “Contrabbasso” and “Concerto” | 179 items – January 9, 2015
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Please note that Italian language recognizes two terms for Double bass: “Contrabasso” with one letter “b” and “Contrabbasso” with two letters “b”. If you wish to make a thorough search in SBN-OPAC please search by both variants.
Poland
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Poland offers two distinct union catalogs, the KaRo and the NUKAT.
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Taken directly from site’s “Introduction” menu: “KaRo is a distributed search tool collecting information from many Polish bibliographical catalogues. It should be considered as a complementary tool to the Polish Union catalogue NUKAT.” The catalog offers a universal access to all listed library catalogs (some 224 of them), yet requires a laborious checking (selection) of each library catalog to be included in the search. Once the clicking is done however, the search routine is fairly straightforward.
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Interface options:
• English language
• No Direct Link to Record.
• On a plus side, every record offers a good selection of added Subject designations where each leads to new records, thus you may pursue many additional lines of search once you find an interesting record
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Search options:
Subject Search: “Kontrabas” | 955 items from 29 libraries- January 8, 2015
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NUKAT – The Union Catalog of Polish Research Library Collections – OPAC
NUCAT incorporates shared directories of some 130 university and academic libraries from Poland. In operation since July 2002 it contains over 2 million items.
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Interface options:
• English language
• No Direct Link to Record. However every record cites individual Library records, some of which may have a Direct Link option.
• The advanced search functions with standard division to author, title, subject, keyword and similar queries.
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Search options:
Any Field Search: “Kontrabas” | 349 items – January 8, 2015
Subject Search: “Kontrabas” | 58 items – January 8, 2015
USA
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The WorldCat – See “WorldCat” at the top of the page under “World Union Catalogs”
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Australia
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Australian union catalog operates under the auspices of Australian National Library, and can be explored through the Trove OPAC interface.
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Trove OPAC – National Library of Australia
From the site’s introduction: “Trove helps you find and use resources relating to Australia. It’s more than a search engine. Trove brings together content from libraries, museums, archives and other research organizations and gives you tools to explore and build. Trove is many things: a community, a set of services, an aggregation of metadata, and a growing repository of fulltext digital resources – Trove Help Center
Trove displays many similarities to the WorldCat and will thus contain many items found worldwide. Yet, it also offers an “Australian Content” limiter check box, (within the Advanced Search) that should help narrow your search to specific Australian items.
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record.
• The Advanced Search offers a standard division to author, title, subject, and keyword queries.
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Search Options:
Keyword Search: “Double Bass” | tens of thousands of records represented in all media types – November 16, 2015
Subject Search: “Double Bass” | 255 Books ; 39 Pictures & Photos ; 80 Journals & Articles ; 8464 Music, Sound & Video items – November 16, 2015
Autographs & Manuscripts
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RISM
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Répertoire International des Sources Musicales – RISM presents the world’s largest online database of music autographs & manuscripts within its division “Serie A/II” – which covers all the sources since the year 1600. For a long time this database was accessible only through the library subscriptions or CD ROMs, yet since the June of 2010 it has also become public over internet. The RISM catalog is growing every day yet in spite of its scope, it also presents some limitations of which users should be aware. Unfortunately, not all of the libraries that house music manuscript materials are covered by the current RISM catalog, and moreover some of the libraries presented offer only a limited part of their collections. In addition, since RISM depends on the local library staff for its cataloging, the quality of its records can vary and depend on the level and skill of individual librarians. This information should be relevant to anyone interested in exploring Classical, Baroque and earlier “basso” legacies, since in many cases only the professional studies can address the exact type of an instrument or instrumentation pertinent to certain pieces. The cataloging is usually limited only to a physical description and an informative conclusion about the type of basso instrument in early music. The exception to this rule is, if the very name of instrument is written on the autograph score or the part, in which case it is precisely noted. Otherwise, in technical terms this is a very comfortable catalog to use and one can easily spend hours exploring the collections presented here.
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
All Fields search: “Contrabajo” | 41 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabasso” | 697 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabbasso” | 14 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrebasse” | 47 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Double bass” | 115 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Kontrabaß” | 82 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Kontrabass” | 82 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Violone” | 14583 items – January 8, 2015 (including violon – violin in French)
Scoring search: “cb” | 755 items – January 8, 2015 (“cb” is RSIM shorthand for Contrabasso)
Scoring search: “vlne” | 755 items – January 8, 2015 (“vlne” is RSIM shorthand for Violone)
Scoring search: ”b” | 64134 items – January 8, 2015 (“b” is RSIM shorthand for undefined instrumental bass – a term that may imply the use of double bass or its predecessors such as violone under certain conditions)
Autograph & Manuscript Collections in Libraries
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In addition to RISM, a number of large libraries worldwide also house the individual collections of Autographs and Manuscripts. Each of these collections that contain a distinctive bass material will be listed here.
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New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts
New York Public library is one of the biggest and most prestigious American libraries. In addition to storing large holdings of general materials, its own “Archives and Manuscripts” division offers a wealth of bass related archival materials too.
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New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts – OPAC
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
Simple search: “Double Bass” | located in 464 collections
N.B. Some New York Public Library collections contain more than one “Double Bass” item, yielding to a much larger number of total bass citations.
Simple search: “Contrabass” | located in 13 collections – January 11, 2015
Simple search: “Contrabasso” | located in 3 collections – January 11, 2015
Simple search: “Kontrabass” | located in 3 collections – January 11, 2015
National Compositions’ Catalogs
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These databases specialize on the coverage of composers and compositions from a particular country. Here you may find the works and composers that are not so well represented in the National Union catalogs. These collections may be particularly useful in finding the contemporary works for bass.
Austria
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Music Austria – Music Information Center Austria – OPAC
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
Simple search: “Kontrabass” | 3890 items – January 8, 2015
[includes all references to word “Kontrabass”]
Czech Republic
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Musicbase.cz
Cited on the page: “MUSICBASE – search engine for database of compositions and composers of classical music of Czech cultural area since the mid-20th century up to the present.”
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
Enables search by “double bass” and any combination of instruments with double bass. Limited to Czech composers of the 20th century.
Instruments – Instrument search: “Double Bass” | 3846 items – January 10, 2015
[includes all references to word “Double bass”]
Instruments – Instrument search: “Double Bass” – Count: “1” – “Solo” | 27 items – January 10, 2015
National Digitalization Portals
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With the trend of digitalization becoming ever more widespread, the amount of scanned items is expected to grow exponentially. This heading presents all the major national portals that offer digitized research materials of relevance to bass scholarship. Given that the field of digitalization improves by month, chances are that the services and the number of featured holdings will vary accordingly. Also, please be aware that the listings of featured data in your searches may remain relevant only for few months, since the number of new entries and the organization of services that classify them, tend to evolve regularly.
Europe
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Europeana – a universal multi-lingual online collection featuring millions of digitized items from a wide selection of European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections. There is a good chance that some of the items found here may also overlap with those in the other Digitalization & Iconography databases featured here.
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record
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Search options:
All Fields search: “Contrabaix” | 24 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabaixo” | 35 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabajo” | 163 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabasso” | 43 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrabbasso” | 131 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Contrebasse” | 753 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Double bass” | 745 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Kontrabas” | 102 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Kontrabaß” | 106 items – January 8, 2015
All Fields search: “Kontrabass” | 344 items – January 8, 2015
Czech Republic
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Manuscriptorium – National Library of the Czech Republic. The collection features digitized music scores and books from the National Library of the Czech Republic. The word search is simple and efficient to use, yet the interface offers several additional menus, one of which is a document-online-view tab that offers individual page scans. Pending on the speed of your connection, the reach and browsing of those individual pages may take some time. Otherwise the data supplied with each record are quite comprehensive.
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Interface options:
• English Language
• Direct Link to Record
• Online View – yet without an option to download the entire document
Search Options:
Word search – “BassGeige” 91 items – October 28. 2016
Word search – “Contrabass” | 41 items – October 28, 2016
Word search – “Contrabasso” | 5 items – October 28, 2016
Word search – “Kontrabass” | 8 items – October 28, 2016
Word search – “Violone” | 106 Items – October 28, 2016
France
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Gallica Bibliothèque Numérique
The Gallica Bibliothèque Numérique digital library was established in 1997, and from 2012 is also available on the net. It is an integral part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France yet with a modern interface intended for easy access to digitized collections. In music realm it offers a direct access to scores (partitions), sound recordings (fonds-sonores) and images.
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Gallica – Simple Search – OPAC
[also a Home Page]
Gallica – Advanced Search – OPAC
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Interface options:
• English language
• Direct Link to Record. The digitized items offer a full online view with option to download in pdf format too.
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Search options:
Simple Search – All Gallica: “Contrebasse” | 2279 items – January 10, 2015
Advanced Search – Subject Search: “Contrebasse” | 54 items – January 10, 2015
Italy
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Internet Culturale
Internet Culturale provides access to the cataloged heritage in digitized and non digitized formats held by Italian libraries and other institutions of culture. It is integrated with SBN-OPAC (see above) and has ability to search all media and digitalized items. In general the system presents plenty of choices and sub-choices, thus a little patience in familiarizing with all the options may offer advantage in searches of Italian digitized materials such as bass methods, Bottesini’s letters and similar artifacts.
Internet Culturale – Introduction
Internet Culturale – Simple Search – OPAC
[also a Home Page]
Internet Culturale – Advanced Search – OPAC
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Interface options:
• No English language option (work in process as “En” exists as a future link)
• No Direct Link to Record. However, every record cites individual Library records, some of which may have a Direct Link option. Digitized items also offer a full online view, including a pdf download feature. To retrieve some of those, start with Advanced search, select “Ricerca avanzata nella Biblioteca digitale” and follow the search query below.
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Search options:
Digital Library Search: “Contrabbasso” | 108 items – January 10, 2015
Advanced Search options page offers a preliminary choice of three catalogs: Catalog Search, Digital Library (the choice for all digitized items) and Web site search.
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Created by Igor Pecevski
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Last Update: May 9, 2024
Posted: January 13, 2015
Academic Bass Portal 