Musicians can now access 500 year old music

A partnership between Royal Holloway, University of London, the British Library and JISC has resulted in the digitisation of more than 9000 individual compositions dating back up to 500 years. The fragile documents were previously unavailable to researchers and musicians due to their delicate nature, but now they are fully accessible on the Early Music Online website.

Paola Marchionni, programme manager at JISC, said: "The value of this new resource isn't just in putting the music online - it's allowing researchers to find the music at their convenience from different access points, such as the project's website, library catalogues and music databases. The project has also put great effort in opening up the background information, or metadata, behind the individual pieces of music, thus ensuring that researchers can more easily discover these internationally significant compositions."

Included among the collection is church music by English musicians Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, the Flemish composer Josquin des Prez, drinking songs from Nuremberg and love songs from Lyon, lute music from Venice and organ music from Leipzig.

The collection is a fantastic resource for musicians and researchers alike, as it offers a unique insight into how the compositions were originally sung and played.

Click here to access the music online.

Published: Monday, 3rd October 2011 by Ellen Haggan