IAML International Association of Music Libraries

The Sub-commission on Unimarc met twice during the Göteborg Conference. Full minutes are available in French. These working sessions made progress on different points :

• The Sub-commission has adopted the proposal to include the codes sent during this year in lists of fields 128 (Form of musical work) and 145 (Medium of performance). A definition has been written, to give a precise guide to the items allowed in the list 128.

Field 128 (Form of musical work)

Definition

Each code indicates the musical genre or form of the catalogued work. This list includes codes by musical form and genre, which may be defined according to a more or less complex plan of construction (fugue, dances), or by medium of expression - voice or instruments - (cantata, sonata), and/or the number of parts (quartet), by purpose (wedding march, military music), or by function (overture), by compositional technique (canon), by performance place (chamber opera), and by type of text and/or language (lied). This list does not include codes corresponding to the medium of performance (other than musical genres such as terzet, trio, quartet, etc.) nor those corresponding to the titles of vocal works (other than those of the ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, etc.)

New codes accepted

elm electroacoustic music

Covers tape music, electronic music and computer music

elx electroacoustic mixed music

Covers electroacoustic devices mixed with acoustic instruments live

iex instrumental excerpts of an operatic or choreographic work

Most often for sound recordings : e.g. for compilations of excerpts of operas or ballets (doesn’t include ballet suites)

lit liturgy

When any more specific code can’t be used

mut musical theatre

qav quartet (vocal)

qiv quintet (vocal)

ram radio music

uuu unknown form

 

Field 145 (Medium of performance)

New codes accepted

tsi sitar

Large, fretted long-necked lute

tkt koto

A Japanese long zither

tsh shamisen

A Japanese three-string fretless plucked lute

tpi pipa

Pear-shaped plucked lute of China and KoreaPear-shaped plucked lute of China and Korea

wdi didjeridu

Wooden drone pipe-australian aboriginal

• Fields 125 $a (Sound recordings and music, Format of music) and 145 (Medium of performance): the drafting of several rules and comments has been reviewed and detailed because the French translation of these fields had revealed some imprecision and inconsistencies.
• The decision to write a proposal for field 145 (Medium of performance) in the Authorities Format for Uniform Titles, has been taken (the proposal will be sent for the next update).
• The Sub-commission on Unimarc is currently working on a search tool for the lists of specific codes for Music, corresponding to the fields 128 and 145. In fact, the maintenance of these lists has been delegated to IAML by the PUC (Permanent Unimarc Committee). This search tool will be soon available on the IAML website (Sub-Commission on Unimarc). It will allow the search of codes, main terms and variants of terms into the lists. A form for proposal of addition of new codes or for change will be proposed, to allow the librarians who use these lists to make suggestions for additions. The updates of the lists will be announced regularly on the pages of the Sub-commission on Unimarc.