On 12 Feb 2006 at 15:14, John Howell wrote: > At 8:47 PM +0100 2/12/06, Johannes Gebauer wrote: > >On 12.02.2006 Johan Vercruysse wrote: > >>Let me first introduce myself. > >>I'm a music teacher in Belgium. > >>We would like to set up a small musical library in our school. > >> > >>Anybody have some tips how to organize it. > >>Anybody knows about simple software or database for such a score > >>library. > > > >Very good question. I don't have the answer, but I am interested > >myself, and would like to keep this on-list. > > When this question comes up on other lists (ChoraList, > OrchestraList), a few proprietary software items are usually > mentioned, but a large consensus seems to feel that any of the > generic databases that can be set up flexibly is a better choice > because they can reflect your own needs of the moment and they can > also be changed if those needs change in the future. The disadvantage > is that someone who is computer-literate must set it up in the first > place. . . .
The music library is a complicated structure and rather difficult to design. Have you ever noticed how all the online music sources are so bad handling classical music? They are designed for one performer/one song/one composer. The problem is that classical music has sub-units and complex genres that aren't accounted for in the online music dbs, that are mostly designed for pop music. Consider the problem of a volume of 3 string quartets, a composer's Op. 5, to make up an example. Do you create one entry in your catalog, for Op. 5, or do you create 3 entries, one for each string quartet? If you do the latter, you run the risk of mis-typing something in the individual records, which should really be indentical except for the work title. The proper way to do it is to have a Publications table and a Works table, with the Publications having one record per physical book/score, and as many records in Works associated with it as there are works in the publication. That's not going to be obvious to anyone who doesn't already have experience working with databases of this kind of data. > . . . Our music department uses Filemaker Pro, which may be Mac only > (as is out Department), for our databases, and it's set up so that our > secretaries have no problems accessing and using them. Filemaker is cross-platform, and has been for several years now. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
