Resounding Libraries

Principal Investigator: Bruno Forment

Libraries are often mistakenly seen as the mere residue of past work. The common assumption is that libraries only come into being after a creative or scholarly act—once acomposition is written, a performance is given, or an article is published. However, daily practice reveals that libraries are deeply intertwined with the entire process of musical creation and reception. They actively shape and support artistic activities: interpreting scores, playing instruments, selecting sounds, curating concert programs, etc. Furthermore, the structure of a library itself influences how users interact with it. Its organization and connections make certain choices feel more ‘natural‘ than others. Using a library is not a neutral or optional act, therefore; it plays a fundamental role in the entire process of artistic production.

Focusing on Ton Koopman’s extensively annotated collection of books and scores, Resounding Libraries explores the deep connection between music-making and libraries, and vice versa. By blending historical documents and artifacts with newly-developed tools in the digital humanities, the project designs creative resources for library use in artistic research. These range from an innovative Semantic Web application to digital-born music compositions and experimental performances. Secondly, the project conducts performative experiments with lesser-known spatio-temporal formats from the long Baroque, delving into and incorporating the era's unique knowledge maps. Through these two aims, Resounding Libraries seeks to offer fresh insights into the field of historically informed performance practice and the (digital) humanities alike.