In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), we proudly present a short documentary film. Narrated by Executive Director Tina Frühauf and Executive Editor Zdravko Blažeković, and featuring several current and former RILM staff members, it explores RILM’s history, mission, and evolving role in music scholarship and cultural preservation.
As the film recounts RILM’s evolution from an ambitious vision to an international organization that occupies a unique place within the humanities, it explores ideas that have shaped RILM over six decades: a commitment to documenting the world’s musical and scholarly traditions in all their diversity, and an eagerness to embrace technological innovation, from the computer to generative artificial intelligence. Recent developments, including RILM’s recognition as a UNESCO-accredited NGO, also suggest directions for the organization’s future.
RILM serves a global music research community through an expansive range of bibliographic resources. This film offers a glimpse of the people and ideas that lie behind this endeavor. We hope you enjoy it.
To learn more about RILM and its resources, please visit www.rilm.org.
The four R projects emerged from the efforts of scholars, archivists, librarians, and musicians to create research tools that provide access to key sources of musical heritage and culture. These sources include musical works preserved in manuscripts and printed editions, historical and contemporary writings on music, and visual representations of music and musical performance. Recognizing that a vast body of music-related literature and iconography remained largely unexplored, the International Musicological Society (IMS) and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) jointly sponsored the development of the R-projects. The purpose was to create bibliographic research tools that identify, document, and facilitate access to this extensive collection of primary sources.
Below are short descriptions of the four R projects:
The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), or International Inventory of Musical Sources, is dedicated to identifying, documenting, and providing access to musical sources worldwide. Through a network of independent national working groups, RISM catalogs printed music published before 1800, music manuscripts dating from after 1600, as well as libretti, theoretical treatises, and other music-related documents. These records are consolidated and standardized by the RISM Zentralredaktion (Central Editorial Office) in Germany, before being prepared for publication.
The Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM), or International Inventory of Musical Iconography, based in Switzerland, is dedicated to documenting and studying visual materials related to music, dance, theatre, and opera. To support research in musical iconography, RIdIM publishes catalogues, scholarly studies, and a newsletter and sponsors the annual scholarly yearbook Imago musicae, published in collaboration with Libreria Musicale Italiana.
The most recent of the four R-projects is the Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale (RIPM), or Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (1800–1950). Established in 1980, RIPM was created to provide comprehensive access to historical music periodicals and to promote research based on this rich but often overlooked body of documentary evidence. By indexing and making available music-related journals and newspapers, RIPM has become an essential resource for scholars investigating the musical, cultural, and intellectual history of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) publishes a range of digital resources that support the global music research community. Its flagship publication, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, is a comprehensive bibliography of scholarly and professional writings on music. Other resources, such as the RILM Index to Scores and Collected Editions (RISE), provide digital tools for locating specific musical works within collected editions, anthologies, and series. RILM also offers specialized reference and archival resources. The RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines (RAPMM) is an extensive and continually expanding digital collection of independently published popular music magazines and fanzines, spanning the late 1960s to the present. RILM Music Encyclopedias brings together a growing collection of full-text music reference works, while DEUMM Online provides access to the most comprehensive modern music dictionary in the Italian language. In addition, RILM hosts MGG Online on its platform, offering authoritative and up-to-date information on a wide range of music-related topics, including musicians, genres, historical periods, and scholarly concepts. RILM also now owns the Hofmeister XIX database.
Since its launch in October 2009, Bibliolore has become a vibrant platform with over 1,870 posts exploring global music studies. The blog features a diverse range of topics, from Western music to global traditional and popular sounds, often inspired by significant dates, contemporary issues, and the celebration of both renowned and lesser-known musical figures. Interestingly, the blog has also showcased a number of unique outliers over the years highlighting the diversity of topics covered in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, including animals, insects, and even food. Below are a four examples.
Music for cats (14 November 2012)—Features the compositions of David Teie, who creates music specifically tailored to engage domestic cats. His unique style draws inspiration from feline vocalizations and environmental sounds that capture a cat’s interest, incorporating genres such as kitty ditties, feline airs, and cat ballads.
Bug music (9 June 2014)–Explores David Rothenburg’s book, which analyzes how the sounds made by insects—such as cicadas and other humming, clicking, or thrumming creatures—may have influenced human rhythm and dance. The post highlights the intriguing connection between these natural sounds and the development of musical rhythm and synchronization in human culture.
The Elvis sandwich (19 October 2015)–Celebrates Elvis Presley‘s fondness for the pan-fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, a dish that became almost as iconic as his music. This post chronicles the sandwich’s history in “Southern po’ folks cuisine”, highlighting its cultural significance and connection to Elvis’s legacy.
Corn chip music (4 August 2014)–Examines the innovative creation of a musical passage by George Eapen of Frisco, Texas that mirrors the tasting experience of corn chips’ flavor notes. This unique composition is designed to be played while tasting the snack, allowing for a combined sensory experience that enhances both the enjoyment of the music and the food.
In the late 1990s, RILM began the development of a new editorial database system designed to modernize its bibliographic indexing operations. This project eventually became iBis–the Internet Bibliographic Indexing System–a web-based platform that fundamentally changed how RILM manages, edits, and shares its data. Developed by SoftWhite, Inc., a New York–based software company, iBis was designed by lead programmers Rick White and Will Limratana using a SQL Server database and a web-based interface built in ASP/VB. The system replaced existing workflows with a centralized, more efficient platform capable of supporting RILM’s expanding international network.
Development experienced significant challenges and delays due in part to the events of 11 September 2001. SoftWhite’s offices were located adjacent to the World Trade Center, preventing the development team from accessing their workplace for an extended period following the attacks. As a result, the anticipated launch schedule was pushed back considerably. Despite these setbacks, the vision for the new system remained clear. The International Center anticipated significant gains in productivity through IBis features such as automatic defaulting from authority lists, the ability to view abstracts while indexing records, and advanced filtering tools that would allow editors to focus on records within their areas of expertise. The system was also designed to support direct participation from national committees, enabling them to enter records into the database over the Internet while accessing RILM’s authority files and editorial tools in real time. This promised to improve data consistency, reduce duplication of effort, and eliminate the need for rekeying records at the International Center.
Screen shot of a form for accessing abstracts in the first iteration of iBis.
After several years of development, iBis entered beta testing in 2003. Editors at the International Center spent several weeks working simultaneously in both the old and new systems to ensure that the platform functioned as intended. The successful testing period paved the way for a full transition to iBis in August 2003. The move brought immediate benefits. One of the most important advances was the ability to output data in Unicode, allowing the accurate display of diacritical characters from languages around the world. While not all RILM’s publishing and distribution partners were prepared to support Unicode at the time, the transition represented a major step toward more accurate representation of international scholarship.
Furthermore, expanded access for national committees through iBis meant that committees would be able not only to create new records but also to modify existing ones directly within the database. Development of this committee access level was scheduled to follow shortly after the system’s launch, with testing planned in the months ahead. The final phase of development focused on creating tools that would support the export of data for RILM’s printed volumes.
Early iBis logo.
The launch of iBis at the International Center represented a milestone in RILM’s technological evolution. Although some components–specifically a new print production module–remained under development, the core system quickly showed its value. Twelve national committees adopted the new editorial database system during its initial rollout, joining the editorial staff in using iBis for their daily work. RILM envisioned expanding participation so that many national committees could work directly within the platform. To achieve this goal, ongoing refinements were planned to make the interface as efficient and user-friendly as possible. The successful implementation of iBis was aided by the contributions of numerous collaborators, including Lenore Coral and Julie Schnepel, who tested the system on behalf of the national committees and provided valuable feedback that helped shape its development. By storing data in Unicode and providing web-based access to editorial tools, authority files, and bibliographic records, iBis established a foundation for a more connected and efficient RILM.
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The Hofmeister XIX database provides searchable access to more than 330,000 bibliographic records from the Hofmeister Monatsberichte, published between 1829 and 1900. As a major primary source for the study of 19th century music publishing, repertoire, and musical taste, the database includes records of music scores, music-related books, periodicals, portraits, and other ephemera, with a primary focus on Germany and Austria. A digital version of Friedrich Hofmeister’sMusikalisch-literarischer Monatsbericht, the database allows users to search by composer, title, publisher, and year. This enables researchers to trace publication histories and examine trends in 19th century musical repertoire and publishing practices.
The Hofmeister XIX database was developed by Royal Holloway, University of London and King’s College London Department of Digital Humanities under the leadership of musicologists Nicholas Cook and Liz Robinson, with support from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. Since 2007, the project has provided open-access resources for music librarians, scholars, and researchers worldwide. Ownership of the database has since been transferred to RILM, which is committed to maintaining its long-term accessibility, preserving the database’s scholarly integrity, and continuing to recognize the contributions of the founding institutions while upholding the high standards associated with Hofmeister XIX.
With the development of Egret, RILM expanded its role to become a comprehensive service provider in music research and publishing. Egret serves as RILM’s advanced platform for hosting, editing, and distributing full-text music reference works, offering a range of innovative tools designed to improve accessibility and usability for researchers worldwide. Among its key features is a bilingual English and German interface, along with integrated Google Translate functionality that enables instant translation into more than 100 languages. The platform also includes visual search capabilities, such as the MGG Online Timeline, helping users explore content in an intuitive and interactive way.
Egret also enhances the research experience through traceable browsing history, allowing users to quickly revisit previously viewed material, as well as sortable works lists, bibliographies, discographies, and related reference data. Users can seamlessly switch between original and updated content, ensuring transparency and scholarly accuracy. Additionally, the platform offers extensive cross-referencing tools that connect related material across Egret products, including RILM Music Encyclopedias, DEUMM Online, and the RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines, and provides direct links to relevant resources in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and other databases. Designed for modern accessibility, Egret is fully compatible with mobile and tablet devices and supports sophisticated XML-based data editing and tagging, making it a powerful and flexible environment for digital music scholarship.
The mid-1990s marked a pivotal period of growth and technological transformation for RILM. As the organization continued to expand its coverage of global music scholarship, it also undertook significant efforts to modernize the systems that supported its work. In 1996, with more than 4,700 records already entered into RILM’s database that year, thousands of additional records submitted by national and regional committees were waiting to be processed. Faced with this growing volume of bibliographic data, RILM set an ambitious goal: to produce volume 30 within just ten months while simultaneously transitioning to a new database infrastructure.
Central to this transformation was the development of a new in-house database system based on Paradox 8 for Windows 95, a powerful relational database management platform that allowed users to construct, manage, and query complex datasets with relative ease. Designed to streamline the management of bibliographic records, the new platform promised substantial improvements in processing, editing, and indexing workflows. The system represented a major step forward from previous methods, enabling staff to handle increasing numbers of records with greater efficiency and accuracy. The project was led by RILM’s database designer, Paul D. Petersen, who had developed a basic version of the system that was ready for beta testing as work on volume 30 began. The volume would become the first to be produced using the new database, serving as both a milestone and a proof of concept for the upgraded technology.
An acoustic modem, which transmits and receives data by converting digital signals into sound waves and vice versa, was at one time regularly used in the RILM office.
Volume 31, published in 2000, became the first RILM volume produced entirely in the organization’s new office using a newly implemented Paradox 9 database system running over CUNY’s new NT network. Despite delays, the accomplishment demonstrated not only the success of the technological transition but also RILM’s commitment to adapting its operations to the evolving demands of scholarly communication. The adoption of the Paradox-based system showed how technological innovation played a crucial role in supporting RILM’s mission. By investing in more effective tools for managing bibliographic information, the organization strengthened its ability to document and disseminate music research from around the world.
RILM’S founder Barry S. Brook (in glasses, red shirt, dark jacket) visits with the editorial team in 1992.
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From its inception in the mid-1960s, it was clear that a sophisticated set of computer programs would be essential to achieve the goals of the newly established RILM project. Automation was the buzzword of the day, with the American Council of Learned Societies collaborating with New York University’s Institute for Computer Research in the Humanities to integrate it across various sectors. However, when RILM’s founder, Barry S. Brook, presented his programming specifications to the Director of the Institute detailing the need for various fonts, accents, indexing, and features like random inputting and automatic numbering of abstracts, the response was far from optimistic. Despite RILM being set to launch in just six months, Brook was told that developing such a program would take approximately three years.
Core memory array of an IBM S/360 with transistor driver boards. (Image courtesy of Ken Shirriff’s blog)
At the time, Brook was also collaborating on a digital musical analysis program at Queen’s College with Richard Golden, a computer science student whom Brook described as “one of those whiz kids who seemed to have been born inside an IBM 360”. After hearing Brook’s specifications for the RILM platform, Golden spent three days pondering the challenge before presenting Brook with a solution in the form of scribbled diagrams and notes. Although Golden could not finish all the software before the publication of the first RILM issue, he successfully completed the programming for the crucial author and subject indexes. Soon after, a fully functional set of programs was up and running, including a custom-built, oversized keyboard that featured four different fonts, all possible accents, compound letters, foreign symbols, and even musical notation. Given that most keyboards at the time only supported capital letters and a single font, the creation of this keyboard was a remarkable feat. It also allowed for editing to be done directly on the computer screen, eliminating the need to sift through complex codes.
The RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines (RAPMM) is a digital collection of independently published popular music magazines and fanzines, bringing together over 125 titles from multiple countries—including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and spanning a variety of languages. Each issue is scanned in full to preserve the original content digitally, including interviews with both renowned and emerging artists, band profiles, album and live show reviews, histories of record labels, and extracted images such as advertisements, cartoons, drawings, and photographs.
The collection highlights a wide range of popular music genres, particularly the expansive world of punk and its many subgenres, alongside rock, indie, hip hop, and country, while documenting the intersections of musical movements with politics, society, culture, underground scenes, stylistic shifts, and feminism. Users should note that some content is explicit; this material remains unredacted to preserve historical accuracy, reflecting the social context, attitudes, and opinions of the time.
RAPMM offers robust tools for exploration, including an image viewer for page-flipping and zooming, a supplemental HTML view for plain-text reading and extracted images, issue-level navigation via a collapsible table of contents, a browseable publication timeline with cover images, featured content, and detailed publication metadata. Its powerful search functionality allows users to query individual issues, entire publications, or the full archive, facilitating in-depth research and discovery of historical trends in popular music.
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RILM Music Encyclopedias is a full-text collection of reference works, offering comprehensive and continually expanding coverage of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. Designed to support teaching, learning, and research, it serves the needs of the international music community. The collection currently includes over 60 influential titles, spanning publications from 1775 to the present, and enables powerful, federated searches across its content. Covering multiple languages and countries–including Italian, German, Slovak, Spanish, and Albanian–RILM Music Encyclopedias features essential national and subject-specific works such as the Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Music, International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, and Das Gothic- und Dark Wave-Lexikon.
As a comprehensive, cross-searchable resource, RILM Music Encyclopedias provides the international music community with a virtual library of essential reference works. It covers a wide range of disciplines, fields, and subject areas, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, pop and rock, opera, instruments, blues, gospel, recorded sound, and women composers. Key general music publications featured in the collection include Algemene muziekencyclopedie, Biographical dictionary of musicians, Dictionnaire de la musique, The Garland encyclopedia of world music, and Handwörterbuch musikalischer Terminologie. Seminal historical works, such as Fétis’ Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, Eitner’s Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon, and Riemann’s Musik-Lexikon (11th edition), are also included, providing unparalleled depth and historical context.
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