Encoded Spanish Music Heritage through Verovio: The Online Platforms Fondo de Música Tradicional IMF–CSIC and Books of Hispanic Polyphony IMF–CSIC

Abstract

This paper presents the recent implementation of encoded music notation in two open access platforms of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) devoted to traditional music and polyphony, respectively: Fondo de Música Tradicional IMF-CSIC (FMT)1 and Books of Hispanic Polyphony IMF-CSIC (BHP)2. Even though, at first, both repertories seem unconnected, they have many textual/literary and musical points in common – such as the presence/survival of old 15th–17th century texts and/or melodies of polyphonic romances (ballads) in the 20th century oral tradition –; future technological developments will facilitate further connections beyond the ones already found through search by text incipits and numeric melodic incipit connecting both platforms. The presentation will have two parts devoted to FMT (with more than 20.000 images of melodies in open access, it is the largest online archive of folklore in the Hispanic world; it is used also for OMR research) and BHP (a reference online catalogue for polyphonic choir books in Spain and books with Hispanic polyphony elsewhere). After a brief explanation about the origin and scope of the repertories covered in each platform, a few examples of encoded transcriptions of a melody, of an incipit in mensural notation, and of a polyphonic work (in MusicXML, **mens, and **kern; MEI can be used, too) rendered through Verovio will illustrate the potential development of FMT and BHP. Both websites constitute leading educational and musicological resources of the very rich Spanish music heritage, inviting national and international collaboration (crowdsourcing) to expand the contents of both platforms and to develop their digital technology.