RESEARCH Quickstart 2.0 The purpose of this Quickstart is to guide you quickly through the several steps of your research for your master paper. It gives an answer to the following questions: How can I find information about a topic? Which sources do I need? Where can I find those sources? Other useful documents and links: in general: consult the page AP_C_KC_RMP: Research / Masterpaper on Blackboard; for information regarding academic use of language, references (bibliography), structure, form: consult the Schrijfwijzer [in Dutch only; English version is due at the end of 2015]; regarding frequently asked questions about Research and the Masterpaper: consult the FAQ over Research en de Masterpaper [English version available]; for a more elaborate version of this text: consult the document Research by Stephan Weytjens; on the web page of the conservatoire library you will find a more complete list with links to catalogues, databases and other online sources (www.libraryconservatoryantwerp.be). Remember that you can consult the online databases also at home (see e-campus on start.ap.be). 1
A Sources Every research starts with this question: which sources do I need to perform my research? In general, there are two kinds of sources: primary and secondary. A.1 Primary sources Definition: originals ( first handed ) Scores: manuscripts (autographs or not); early editions (first edition or not). Literature: treatises on music theory; historical (music) encyclopaedias; letters and (auto)biographies of composers, musicians; preface to scores (in some cases with table of ornaments). A.2 Secondary sources Definition: sources based on primary and/or older secondary sources. Sources: (more) recent editions, Urtext, with critical comments; (more) recent editions, in which the editor adds suggestions for interpretation. Literature: (more) recent articles & books on primary and/or older secondary sources; (more) recent (music) encyclopaedias; biographies, monographies; histories of music; theses and dissertations; electronical sources (databases, repertory, catalogues, websites with online research items from individual researches, research groups, societies). 2
B Step-by-step guide Regarding your topic: you can find both general and specific information. The steps as they are described below are not necessarily to be dealt with in the given order. Sometimes you will have to redo some steps. As a rule you start from general publications; next, you go to more specialised studies and finally to bibliographies and journals etc. Also useful can be the snowball method, in which you collect references from one source to another, from article to article, from book to book. Walking around in the library looking at the bookshelves can lead to unexpected discoveries. B.1 General context: gathering information Purpose: to gather general information about your topic and to collect all existing sources. a) Encyclopaedias A good point of departure are articles in music encyclopaedias. Highly recommended are: Grove Music Online; Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG) (reading room library). Look for articles relevant to your research (by composer, genre, instrument, style, country, etc.) and go through the bibliography of each article in order to acquire more specific sources regarding a certain topic. In Grove Music Online related articles are mentioned separately. Next: there exist mostly also online numerous national, biographical and terminological encyclopaedias. Quite often these sources contain more elaborate information. Check out the availability of these kind of sources for your topic. Examples: biographies and list of works of Belgian composers at websites of Matrix, CeBeDem, Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse muziek; for composers of the 20th/21st century the BRAHMS database at the IRCAM (international). b) Music histories There exist several varieties of music histories: general, by period, by country, by genre, etc. Good general basic works available in the library are: Taruskin, Richard. The Oxford History of Western Music, 9 volumes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; Dahlhaus, Carl (ed.). Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, 13 volumes, Wiesbaden-Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1980-1995. 3
c) Composer biographies Some of these biographies are availiable in the library and can be found in the library section assigned to the composer in question. d) Monographies Monographies are studies about one specific topic. These includes publications about musical genres and styles, works about music analyses, dissertations, theses. A good example of a solid series on musical genres is: Mauser, Siegfried (ed.). Handbuch der musikalischen Gattungen, 20 volumes, Laaber: Laaber Verlag, since 1993. e) General search strategy by means of internet sources Thanks to the world wide web you can perform a lot of preparatory work. This includes: the use of search engines like Google; more specific search engines like Google Scholar with scientific references and links (remark: include patents and include citations (visible on the left, after your first search instruction) should be turned off). Some search tips: perform searches in several languages; combine several search terms to find the exact information as quickly as possible and to avoid irrelevant links; in addition, make use of the small arrow at the right of the search window; in some cases, e.g. in Google Scholar, you will find additional filters at the left of the search results (Google does not have these filters); add to your search term words like edu, pdf, diss, thesis, research guide etc.; it will help you to reach the most relevant sites quickly; look for an exact word combination by using double quotes: e.g. Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel ; by adding the minus sign ( - ) you can omit a part of the search results; these function however is not generally supported in search engines; e.g. gamba -animal; use advanced search ; Wikipedia: consult the articles in several languages; especially notes and links are useful; be critical with regard to the quality of the content; general start pages for musicians and musicologists with elaborate links to electronical sources: library conservatory Antwerp; Golden pages for musicologists (goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk); Electronic Resources Musicology links on the page of American Musicological Society (AMS) (www.ams-net.org/www-musicology.php). 4
f) Journals and databases Scientific journals often present the most innovative research results, they keep track of the most recent developments within a specific domain. To an increasing extent, they are electronically available. You should certainly use databases to find them: RILM: look for relevant articles, books, recordings etc. related to your topic (composer, genre, instrument, style, country, author, etc.); JSTOR: digitalised articles from journals; generally: library conservatory Antwerp: databases online. Always use combined search terms. g) Others Search the following: websites dedicated to composers (in most cases, links can found by using Google or by looking at the links mentioned in Wikipedia-articles); scientific research groups; documentation centres; national institutions for musical heritage; musicologists societies; societies like Matrix, Logos, IRCAM. Check out if a Research Guide on your topic is available (see also B.1e, search tips); this is a publication in which the most important aspects of your topic are compiled; you will always find an elaborate and systematically sorted bibliography. Also: check out if there exist dissertations or theses on your topic (e.g. by consulting the Archive of Dissertation Abstracts in Music on the Golden Pages or the Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology database of the AMS, links cf. supra). h) Bibliographies After having read the sources you encountered first, always check out the entire bibliography (if available) of each source, because it can lead to new sources. i) Foot- and endnotes While reading your sources, be careful to always read foot- and endnotes, not only because they might contain valuable information, but also because they might lead to new sources. 5
B.2 How to find sources Once your bibliography of sources to consult is made, you should also be able to find them. Sources are available in two ways: physical (in the conservatory library or elsewhere) and digital. a) Primary sources Here you can consult repertories and databases (multiple links to be found on general start pages, cf. supra). Some examples: RISM (repertories of music manuscripts); IMSLP (scores, editions, also manuscripts); Bachdigital; Digital collection Duke University; Gallica (scores, editions, also manuscripts). b) Secondary sources See www.libraryconservatoryantwerp.be for the links regarding the sources mentioned below. Belgisch: online-catalogi of libraries: the conservatories of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent; the Royal Library Albert I; universities (KULeuven, Ugent); documentation centras of societies or institutions like Matrix, MiM, La Monnaie, Koor&Stem etc.; Unicat. International: online databases of national libraries (Berlin, Paris, London, Washington); universities; Digital Nanki Auditorium; Worldcat. 6
B.3 Processing information a) General To process information in order to make a status quaestionis is a first, necessary and useful step: you collect all available written information about your topic and present it in a synthesis. This can be very enlightning, when you dedicate a chapter to the historical context of the composition your research is dealing with. A second and absolutely necessary step from the perspective of research in arts deals with the connection between research and performance practice. How different each kind of GMP may be, that connection is primordial for your research. Roughly, we can divide the several kinds of GMP into two categories: GMP HD, KM, EP/REC, GMP MT (practical harmony): processing information should always result in a surplus regarding the performance practice (GMP HD, REC & KM): to which extent is the acquired knowledge relevant to performance practice and does it generate new insights in the mind of the performer? The actual artistic performance has to be considered the final objective of your research. GMP MT (analysis) / GMP Composition; processing information should always result in a more profound understanding of a composition (genre, style etc.). b) Practical suggestions Below you will find more or less in a linear sequence some suggestions related to processing information. Keep in mind that not every suggestion is mandatory ; this will depend on the nature of your topic: avoid doing work that is not necessary; if a (part of a) topic is already documented by a good synthesis or a detailed research, limit yourself to a reference to the content; from the beginning: line up your research questions and decide which methods you will use during your research; during your research: it is not unusual that you will investigate some aspects of your topic more thoroughly than planned, and that some aspects which looked important at first sight will be cut out; the focus and elaboration of your topic is subject to (small) changes; always discuss this with your promotor; build a (first draft of a) table of content and use it as a point of reference; during your research you will come to grouping your information in chapters; in your introduction you will present (amongst others) a status quaestionis to inform your reader about which information is already present, what is lacking and which aspects you will present in your research, which results in your personal approach; while you are processing your sources you can, step by step, group this information; you are likely to be confronted with a enormous amount of information to be processed; hence: limit your research to reading articles and books specifically related to your topic; 7
during writing your text, focus on what is essential; do not start reading and summarizing everything (to read a biography on a composer is necessary, but you don t have to make a resume of the entire book); focus on what is important to the research related to your topic, to what can help you to make progress; use a work document in order to group all useful and necessary information, to make a synthesis, to confront different point of views etc.; writing is an organic process; hence: start writing immediately; your text will grow and take shape in the course of your research, as you consult more sources; always mention in a footnote the source you are using for every piece of information and at once write it down according the correct system of reference (so there will be no need, later on, to look this up once more); during your research you can discover useful information, but which you cannot immediately put in the right chapter; therefore always write down something (e.g. by means of tags) that allows you to trace this information; this could be e.g. author, year, page (e.g.: Peters, 2012, 489.), or e.g. timing of an audio fragment, etc.; systematically write down your bibliography, from the first source consulted; don t wait until the end to write everything down; make a schedule for your research; keep in mind to trace down in time sources which are not immediately available but nevertheless crucial to your research; you might consider the use of a diary : you can make a list of items which gave you interesting ideas, or of which you are sure you will need them later on in one way or another; consult this diary later on; it might lead you to optimize parts of your already written text. 8