RIPM on the Internet

RIPM on the Internet. RIPM: International Index to Nineteenth-Century Music Periodicals. First edition. Baltimore: National Information Services Corporation (NISC USA), 2000. http://www.nisc.com/RIPM/ripm_electronic.htm (information); http://www.nisc.com/RIPM (access via NISC BiblioLine). [Data licensed from Répertoire international de la presse musicale; H. Robert Cohen, founder and general editor; Richard Kitson, assistant editor. Updated every six months. Annual subscription base price $1,195; for 2-5 users add 50%; 6-10 users add 125%; 11-15 users add 200%; prices for 16+ users available upon request.]

Since the appearance of the first publications of the Répertoire international de la presse musicale (RIPM), this invaluable research tool has occupied an important place among the four "Rs" of international bibliographic documentation, particularly RILM (Répertoire international de littérature musicale) and RISM (Répertoire international des sources musicales). Prior reviews (such as M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet, Journal of the American Musicological Society 43 [1990]:498-504, and Peter Ward Jones, Fontes Artis Musicae 36 [1989]:331-32) have praised RIPM for its indispensability to the research of music and culture between the late eighteenth and the early twentieth centuries. As these reviews have noted, RIPM facilitates the study of under-explored areas of reception, performance, and cultural history through a projected indexing of sixty-five key music and theater periodicals published in the musical centers of Europe, Russia, and the United States. Focusing on the nineteenth century, the generally deft organization of a large amount of detailed information on composers, performers, writers, theaters, ensembles, instruments, and other elements essential to historical study saves researchers countless labor-intensive hours by eliminating the need to comb through periodicals page by page.

RIPM print publications--which include annotated calendars, keyword/author indexes, and introductory studies of the periodicals--have increased production over the past decade, raising the count to over 120 published volumes by the time of this review. Recent additions include indexes to the important French periodicals La gazette musicale de Paris (1834-35) and La revue et gazette musicale de Paris (1835- 80); the Spanish journals La zarzuela-Madrid (1856-57) and La españa artistica-Madrid (1857-58); three Polish periodicals from various decades, including Tygodnik muzyczny (1820-21); and two Russian publications of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Muzïkal'noye obozreniye: muzïkal'naya gazeta (1885-88).

Since January 2000, RIPM has increased its usefulness through the availability of both online and CD-ROM versions, as well as microforms containing the journals' full texts. RIPM on the Internet, the focus of this review, is overseen by general editor H. Robert Cohen and produced in collaboration with NISC (National Information Services Corporation). At present, it is a cumulative index of 380,000 annotated citations from all targeted periodicals, updated every six months. Most noteworthy among the advantages offered by the electronic format is the ease and speed of obtaining both a wide range of data and very specific information from all indexed periodicals at once, as well as the extraordinary flexibility and control possible in setting and refining search parameters. Researchers can easily expand their focus beyond individual periodicals, cities, countries, or narrowly circumscribed periods, but can also pinpoint information accurately.

The RIPM online home page provides much background information: summaries of RIPM's scope and scholarly significance, a list of its editors, and updates on the status of its publications. Users' guides in thirteen different European languages are available online, or can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat documents. Although these guides are for the print versions primarily, nonetheless they include important editorial information for the online user: title formats, spelling variants, punctuation and capitalization, explanatory citations, music examples, illustrations, and the denotation of reviews or advertising. Differences between print and online versions, such as the use of a printed "bullet" versus the phase "MUSICAL EX." online to designate the inclusion of a music example, are not explained in the guides.

Of...