A: Paper by André Jurres (Amsterdam)Author(s): Hans ZehnterSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 11, No. 1, SIXIEME CONGRES INTERNATIONAL DESBIBLIOTHEQUES MUSICALES STOCKHOLM-UPPSALA (1964 JANUAR-APRIL), pp. 60-62Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23504423 .

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60 SECOND SYMPOSIUM: THE TRAINING OF THE MUISIC LIBRARIAN

science who believe that the basic library training course will equip a student for any branch

of library work but I do not believe that many music librarians would agree with this view

point. If we had a choice to make, I believe that most of us would choose music training as

the prime necessity.

Before closing, I should like to add my belief that most of us here have not come to the

field of music librarianship through orthodox channels. We have come to the field through a

variety of paths and many of us have become librarians partly through accident. But we all

have two things in common. This is a love for music in all its forms and a love for archival

documents whether in manuscript, printed scores, books or sound recordings. We also have a

strong urge to serve many people with our materials. But I fear that these characteristics so

essential to library work can never be taught in a school. To this extent, the librarian must

be born to the profession.

Third Symposium: International Aspects (Chairman: Hans Zehnter, Basel)

A: Paper by André Jurres (Amsterdam) As you may know the Donemus Foundation in Amsterdam, of which I am the general

manager, is a combination of a music publishing house, a music library and a music infor

mation centre, which means that the music library is only one single aspect of a rather

complicated organization. If the library department of Donemus were entirely dependent on

my own capacities it would in no time become a horrible mess, and very wisely the Board of

Directors have appointed a professionally trained librarian to take charge of the library

department of Donemus. My not being a librarian myself, however, has some distinct advan

tages and one of these is, that I can easily part with the contents of my library, that I do not

feel too strongly personally engaged in my library. Of course it is selfevident, even to me,

that for instance manuscripts should be handled with the greatest care and properly preserved

against loss or damage. But since nowadays microfilming and photographic reproduction can

bring any manuscript so easily to the attention of people all over the world and at any time's

notice, I also do feel that exaggerated pride at being the owner of such a manuscript is a

little bit out of place and out of date. For this reason I have sometimes difficulties in finding

the right words and the right expression when a particularly proud librarian shows me —at

a distance or behind glass —one of his treasures, be it a manuscript or a first edition. I then

feel like the unlucky man who in the Folies Bergère Theatre in Paris is invited to come up to

the stage to kiss one of the lovely nude dancers : all the time, you know, he has to hold both

his hands behind his back. Now, personally, I prefer very much to be able to touch and handle

a copy of such a manuscript or first print, and to make my possible annotations on it. Now

it is precisely this unlibrarian attitude, however reprehensible in the opinion of many of

you, which makes me a very likely person for the international exchange of music, which is

illustrated by two international meetings I organized in Amsterdam with the support of the

International Music Council. These meetings, held in 1958 and 1960 brought together some

10 to 12 organizations, which like Donemus, try to promote contemporary music. These

organizations, which named themselves Music Information Centres (M. I. C.) came together: 1. to compare their respective working methods and thereby improve their own systems. 2. to start an international exchange of contemporary compositions.

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THIRD SYMPOSIUM: INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS 61

To this end the MIC, in their last meeting, took the following concrete decisions:

a) that each country should send a small, but carefully selected collection of contemporary works to all the other participating countries,

b) that these collections should comprise not only just the scores, but also the parts, neces

sary for the performance, if possible biographies of the composers and analyses of the works, and—most important of all —

recordings of these compositions,

c) that each country should promote the performance of at least two compositions of the total amount of the works sent in by the other participating countries.

Though the MIC do not form—or rather do not yet form—an international commission within the framework of the International Association of Music Libraries, we feel it as an honour to have our third international meeting coinciding with the sixth international con

gress of the IAML.

Music Information Centres of twelve countries are meeting this time, including: the three

Scandinavian countries and Finland, Germany, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Austria,

Czechoslovakia, Canada and the Netherlands. We hope to achieve a still more effective inter

national exchange by studying and discussing how to make still better selections than we did

before; better in the sense of yet more representative for the individual countries and at the

same time recognisable as representative by the other countries. This is far more difficult than would appear at first sight, because of the fact that, even though music of today coming from various countries may sound identical to the untrained ear, the distinctions of one

country to another often are a real handicap for appreciation even by initiated and receptive listeners. Therefore, one of the main difficulties in international exchange is exactly the

fundamentally distinctive character of compositions coming from different countries, even

if these compositions are written in the same technique. To embark upon international

exchange on the presumption that music is an international language can only add to the

confusion and leads nowhere. It would indeed be wonderful if at least music could really and

truly be considered an international language, but this conception of music simply is not real

nor true.

It is selfevident, that I have so far only dealt with a very specific kind of international

exchange, namely: the exchange of contemporary music in the form of scores and parts, bio

graphies and analyses, tapes and discs. Mutatis mutandis: what is my opinion on the inter national exchange between all types of music libraries and the exchange of all kinds of

library contents? I beg you to believe that I am indeed earnest when I recommend emphati

cally the utmost willingness on the part of everybody to share and exchange every form of

spiritual values, consequently also of library contents, including music or information on

music. I am not wholly convinced that the fear of becoming impoverished by sharing or

exchanging library contents is entirely exterminated among librarians. And this reminds

me of a statement of the Netherlands composer Willem Pijper, when he writes: "When

somebody dies the survivors often say that the deceased leaves an emptiness or a gap, as if

the world were a kind of Swiss Gruyère cheese and as if the living were constantly eating holes into that cheese. On the contrary, says Willem Pijper, it is my honest conviction, that

during our lives we add something to this world of ours, and that after our death we leave

a fullness instead of an emptiness." This now is exactly my creed as far as international

exchange is concerned. I am earnestly convinced, that in sharing the spiritual values confided

to us—and where more persons or organizations are sharing these values international

exchange automatically arises—we do enrich ourselves instead of the opposite. And

moreover, don't let us ever forget that spiritual values—be it works of art or science—have

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62 THIRD SYMPOSIUM: INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS

been written down by their authors for the benefit of the whole of mankind and certainly not

for the benefit of just one single library or librarian.

I realize that this paper sounds more like a manifesto than like a decent working pro

gram, but there it is. I can only sincerely hope, that others, better qualified than I am for

the specific library problems, may be inspired by this paper to formulate the working pro

gram you certainly need for your practical discusisons.

B: Paper by Mrs. Maria Prokopowicz (Warsaw) Du point de vue des besoins de notre pays il nous semble que l'échange international des

musiques qui embrassent la musique imprimée, les microfilms ou photocopies des manuscrits,

ainsi que les publications et périodiques consacrés à la musique — devrait se développer dans

deux directions. La première directive indiquerait l'obtention des collections étrangères —

l'ensemble, si c'était possible, des sources concernant l'histoire de la musique polonaise du

début jusqu' à nos jours. Pour notre pays, dont la majeur partie des collections les plus pré

cieuses a été détruite au cours de la dernière guerre mondiale les polonica se trouvant dans

les bibliothèques étrangères ont une valeur immense, souvent ce sont les seuls documents

pour tel ou autre problème. Un exemple frappant représentent deux tabulatures d'orgue du

XVIe siècle, dont les originaux n'existent pas à présent; il n'y a que leurs microfilms faits

avant la dernière guerre mondiale qui sont conservés dans les collections de Isham Memorial

Library aux Etats-Unis. Dans les différentes bibliothèques européennes il y a aussi les origi

naux des œuvres de compositeurs polonais du XVIIIe et du XIXe siècle. A notre avis

l'échange des microfilms de tels matériaux serait raisonnable et son application deviendrait

possible à réaliser.

La Bibliothèque Nationale à Varsovie qui s'occupe de microfilmer les sources musicales

à l'échelle nationale et en publie les catalogues, prévoit des échanges éventuels avec les

bibliothèques étrangères qui penseraient à participer à un tel échange.

La deuxième directive porterait sur l'échange de la musique contemporaine. Il serait

désirable que les bibliothèques intéressées puissent signer un accord mutuel pour préciser le

genre du matériel à acquérir ou présenter une liste des doubles. Par exemple, après la Con

férence Internationale d'Echange qui a eu lieu à Budapest en 1960 la Bibliothèque Nationale

à Varsovie et celle de Budapest ont précisé l'échange des musiques à l'échelle de leurs tâches.

D'après cet accord ces deux bibliothèques procèdent à l'échange de leurs collections des

œuvres suivantes:

1. ouvrages des compositeurs hongrois publiés en Pologne et les ouvrages des compositeurs

polonais publiés en Hongrie;

2. les recueils contenant la musique hongroise en échange de celles contenant la musique

polonaise;

3. collections de chansons populaires d'une valeur scientifique;

4. œuvres des compositeurs contemporains.

Un pareil accord, s'il est sévèrement observé par les deux bibliothèques intéressées, pourrait

donner un résultat positif, dont nous avons la preuve vivante dans la collaboration polono

hongroise.

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