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Belgium, report 2000

August 2000

Since 1998, the National Bibliography of Belgium for the period 1931-72 and from 1975 on has been available on CD-ROM. It will be extended to contain the Bibliography from 1875 on. The 1999 issue describes about 3000 Belgian music scores.

A new project, a shared database for the description of scores and sound recordings, using the Internet for cataloguing as well as for searching, has begun. This database will be developed in conformity with international standards but will also provide a detailed and retrievable description of instrumentation. The idea began among the Flemish amateur music libraries, but it is the aim that other music libraries will join this project. Subsidy has been given by the Flemish Government.

The project for web cataloguing of music announced last year will not be realized for lack of money and other reasons. On the other hand, several new initiatives for research on Belgian music and musical life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have started. The most important ones are:the Muziekcentrum van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, an information centre for Flemish music; the Studiecentrum Vlaamse Muziek, a research centre specializing in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century music; the Foundation Paul Gilson (Belgian composer, 1865-1942), and finally a scientific project started in the library of the former Belgian broadcasting orchestra. The most important event of the year was the opening of the MIM, the museum of music instruments of Brussels. Its huge and important collection is now easily accessible in good circumstances.

Johan Eeckeloo