E-LAUTE: Electronic Linked, Annotated, and Unified Tablature Editions. The Lute in the German-Speaking Area 1450-1550

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Irene Holzer; Professorin Dr. Cordula Kropik
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 499741530

The main aim of the project is to create an open-access comprehensive and interactive edition of the lute tablature corpus of the German-speaking area in its first historical period (1450–1550). A primary evaluation of these tablatures as an entire source corpus does not exist yet. Moreover, we will create an innovative music edition, as an 'open knowledge platform' in which musicology, music practice, music informatics, and literary studies intertwine and transform the ‘classic’ edition into a space of interdisciplinary and discipline-specific work. Our objectives are: i) a complete scholarly digital edition, including all textual and graphic components and all usable tablature formats (in transcriptions and editions). We do encoding, linking, optical music recognition and automatic transcription in parallel and together with ii) a musicological manual transcription and iii) lute recordings. The lute recordings are an indispensable part of the editorial process and tools. iv) All components will be underlined with music-historical and performance-practical information. All elements of the edition will be interlinked. v) We incorporate ‘interactive annotations’ and allow the recipient to participate in the editing process, i.e. it will be possible to add comments, insights and interpretations. vi) We research interdisciplinarily in five pilot studies: Variance and Retextualisation in the Music and Text of the Love Song (I), On the Origin of German Lute Tablature (II), Tablature Notation as Reflective Images of 16th-Century Culture (III), Dialogues About Music (‘interactive annotations’) (IV) and Hybrid Editions (V).For the first time, an open, i.e. versatile, and explicitly interdisciplinary edition will be developed that unites scientific and practical components. Joint international editorial strategies will be established. Lute tablatures from the German-speaking area (1450–1550) will be made available in the MEI format, and the results will be made usable for science and practice providing them with professional sound and with editing alternatives to automatic transcription. Our edition will be hosted by the Austrian National Library and integrated into RISM. The first hybrid edition will be created within the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich.Methodically, we use the lute tablatures that have been digitized by libraries and provided with Open Public Licenses. In addition to the classical analytical methods, we apply cross-source model work and the concept of metadata on all text and music levels. Due to the specifics of digital editions we use new philology methods.The project is planned as a long-term project whose first phase is applied for in this application. As a stand-alone project it does not depend on other parts. The core team consists of Prof Dr Martin Kirnbauer and Prof Dr Marc Lewon (Switzerland), Prof Dr Cordula Kropik and Prof Dr Irene Holzer (Germany), Dr Kateryna Schöning, Dr David Weigl and Dr Reinier de Valk (Austria)

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Martin Kirnbauer; Professor Dr. Marc Lewon; Dr. Kateryna Schöning