Liepājas Sv. Trīsvienības katedrāles senās nošu kolekcijas pirmreizēja inventarizācija un kataloģizācija

Duration of the project

28.07.2011. - 30.09.2011.

Countries and institutions involved in the project

flag-LV
Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
flag-DE
University of Leipzig

Description of the project

The project was focused on the research of a unique and ancient collection of notes of the            St. Trinity Cathedral in Liepāja (Latvia) with the aim to systematize knowledge about this depositary and for the first time to make it more available to the public, thus, provoking a more substantial artistic and scientific interest.

The library of the former Libauer Cantorat is now a precious cultural heritage, considered as a small branch of the Saxon church music in the Baltics.

The collection of St. Trinity Cathedral in Liepāja comprises about 170 manuscripts of notes and rare printed music material, the majority of them dating back to the second half of the 18th century. The largest collection of manuscripts are the cantatas of the Saxon composers Gottfried August Homilius (1714–1785) und Johann Friedrich Doles (1715–1797). Both are students of Johann Sebastian Bach. In the category of ancient printed material we can highlight a number of compositions of the 18th century. Of particular interest are rare publications in Leipzig by Haydn, Mozart and Pergolesi under the historic edition of Johann Adam Hiller.

 

According to the purposes of the project (see above) the main activities were coupled with the archival working methods.

The Project was effected in two stages:

1) The collections inventory and cataloguing in the St. Trinity Cathedral in Liepāja (6 days);

2) The seminar with final discussion in the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, concerning the project results and their public availability (1 day).

The Project involved several institutions of education, culture and science, among them, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Latvian National Library, the Renovation Foundation of the St. Trinity Cathedral in Liepāja, the Institute of Musicology by the University of Leipzig and the Bach-Archive Leipzig.

The participants were also specialists of the 18th century music as well as music students     for whom participation in the project meant acquiring skills of scientific research. Among the scientists the experts from the Latvian National Library and the Academic Library by the Latvian University who have a good knowledges of restoring ancient manuscripts. It is important, because many samples of the collection were made known to public from anew. The expert from the Bach-Archiv Leipzig guaranteed a correct execution of the scientific principles of cataloging work.                                                               

The results of the project – the data input in an international on-line catalog – are therefore made available to a wide circle of the public. Accordingly, the new database confirms the Latvian entry into the high-level dictionary of ancient musical sources.