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Musical Iconography Collection

Agnes Sjöbrandt
tel. 08/5195 54 97
email: agnes.sjobrandt@muslib.se

The Musical Iconography Collection at the Music Library of Sweden documents all kinds of visual materials relating to music in Swedish museums, archives, libraries, and other institutions. The work is part of the international project RIdIM, Répertoire international d´iconographie musicale. So far, cataloguing is on cards, with many different access points, and there is a corresponding file of photographic reproductions.

The Library's own visual materials are in the Rare Collections (for instance, an index to Swedish composers' musical calligraphy ) and in various other collections (in Swedish only)
Images of musical notation are not part of the Musical Iconography Collection. For these see the electronic collection.

Visual art that contains information about musical conditions is an important source of knowledge about music and musical life from times when other sources are scant or absent. Correctly interpreted, such pictures can tell us what instruments were in use, how they looked and what allegorical significance they might have. They can also contribute to our understanding of performance practice: the make-up of ensembles, their sizes, social roles and conditions, and the occasions for music in different walks of life.

In the 1970s, the American musicologist Barry S. Brook initiated the RIdIM project, Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale/International Inventory of Musical Iconography, a parallel to the previously existing RILM and RISM. The goal is to inventory and catalogue musical iconography, i.e. any visual material relating to music or music-making, on an international basis. An international centre was established, and national committees were formed, among them the Swedish RIdIM Committee.

Its work is now carried out at the Archives and Documentation Department of the Music Library of Sweden.

So far, cataloguing is on cards, which allow access by artist, repository, and subjects such as instruments, social milieus, topics, time period etc. Each card contains a small photographic reproduction, and there is a separate collection of glossy prints and slides. The main emphasis is on art from medieval times up to the end of the 19th century, and covers many different topics: from angel musicians, music-making animals and demons in medieval church murals and stained-glass windows, to depictions of instruments and ensembles in different settings on canvases and etchings from the 17th and 18th centuries, stage settings and role portraits, folk music-making scenes, wall hangings from the 18th and 19th centuries with sacred or secular motifs, as well as portraits of musicians and composers. There is also an extensive collection of organ-case designs.

International RIdIM publishes catalogues, studies, a RIdIM/RCMI newsletter (1975-1997), the RIdIM/RCMI inventory of music iconography series, and sponsors a scholarly yearbook, Imago musicae (published by Duke University Press and Bärenreiter-Verlag). The RIdIM/RCMI (Research Center for Musical Iconography) is located at the City University of New York.

Updated 5 October 2009