Music Collections

Processing of sheet music

Cataloguing of printed and manuscript sheet music in the collection in accordance with international standards, including the development of cataloguing methodology. Printed sheet music is catalogued and recatalogued in the Music Department in accordance with valid international (national) standards (title and subject description). Music manuscripts are primarily catalogued in the international database RISM in Muscat (title and subject descriptions including music incipits).
The department is a methodological and consultative workplace for the title and subject cataloguing of music and participates in the working group's activities for cataloguing special documents. In collaboration with the Special Documents Department and the National Subject Authority Division, it is involved in building a database of author/title authorities for the field of music.

Acquisition of documents

Makes purchases for the music collections in cooperation with the Domestic and International Acquisitions Departments. The department acquires and preserves printed sheet music to the maximum extent possible, mainly through legal deposit copies. It strives to acquire mainly bohemical materials and internationally important music publications of foreign origin, primarily through targeted purchases, interlibrary exchange, and donations.
The additions of manuscripts and historical printed sheet music are increasing thanks to donations and purchases of the estates of composers, scholars, personalities associated with music, and entire collections of music collectors, both individually and through purchases at domestic and foreign auctions and in antique bookshops.
The departmental reference library contains the current general production in the field. Acquisitions of domestic and foreign literature take the form of purchases and exchanges.

Lecture, exhibition, and outreach activities

Presentation of activities and collections through exhibitions, lectures, and excursions. The Music Department organises exhibitions thematically related to its collections and activities. It also organises lectures and excursions for students and experts from research and memorial institutions. 

National and international cooperation

The Music Department participates in several international activities (IAML, RISM, RILM, ISECS). The Music Department is a Czech centre for international research in music librarianship and documentation. It is the secretariat of the Czech National Group of the international non-governmental organisation IAML (International Association of Music Libraries - founded in 1951 under the patronage of UNESCO), which deals with the activities of music libraries, archives, and documentation centres that preserve music-related documents. It focuses, in particular, on their cataloguing and accessibility. The Music Department is the headquarters of the Czech national editorial office of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), one of the “R-projects” of IAML, and also collaborates on the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) project, dedicated to relevant scholarly literature on music (in terms of inventory, bibliography, and full electronic access) worldwide. The department is an active member of the Czech Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Czech branch of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS).

Research and publication activities

Maintains records of music historical collections in the Czech Republic, researches the history of music publishers and influential personalities of Czech music culture. The main area of investigative interest of the department - records and research of music historical collections in the Czech Republic - has been coordinated by the Music Department since the 1950s. In 1965, work began on the Union Catalogue of Music (UCM). The resulting catalogues (location, author, genre, content, copyists, publishers, music incipit, and text incipit) are available in printed form in the Music Department. The UCM Music Incipit Catalogue, available in scanned form, provides information on the musical content of historical musical sources from the 17th to the 20th century preserved in the Czech Republic.
Recording and research of Czech historical collections are now being developed and implemented within the framework of the international inventory of musical sources—the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales *RISM* project. RISM represents the most extensive documentation of written music sources worldwide. The database of music manuscripts written after 1600 (Series A/II) is currently the only RISM catalogue available in electronic form.
The long-term cooperation with RISM is the basis for the research on filigree in musical sources recorded in the NLCR's Union Catalogue of Music, which was launched in 2014: specifically, the Database of Filigree in Musical Sources Recorded in the Union Catalogue of Music of the NLCR.
Research on historical music publishers, also related to the cataloguing of historical music collections in the RISM, has resulted in the creation of the Online Catalogue of Printed Sheet Music by Marco Berra (1811-1855).
The publication series Catalogus artis musice in Bohemia et Moravia cultae (thirteen titles to date) presents selected Czech historical music collections in the form of a thematic catalogue with an expert study devoted to the historical background of the collection and its repertoire composition. The Music Department also publishes the “Varia de musica” and “Fontes musicae” series, as well as scholarly studies and other publications. Since 2020, it has conducted research on documents related to the activities of influential composers and musicians.