As I have been using IMSLP. I have considered how I could best contribute, because I do not have many resources, but some good ideas. I have noticed that IMSLP does not have any 19th century hymnbooks. Several hymnbooks are in the public domain, some are available through Google Books, but IMSLP does not seem to have a place for them.
I own a few hymnbooks, one in the public domain -- "Songs for the Sanctuary: Hymns and Tunes for Christian Worship" collected by Charles S. Robinson, ed. 1867. An edition similar to this is available on Google books, but I want to know how we can get these great collections of hymns and songs on IMSLP.
Some suggestions and ideas:
IMSLP could have a specific genre category for hymnbooks
The indices of the hymnbooks could be somehow searchable for specific titles, tunenames, meters, authors, composers, etc.
The books already digitized on Google could be somehow posted or linked on IMSLP
Greater initiative could be taken to collect hymns and hymnbooks in the public domain
If anyone has any advice about this topic that would be great. I am sure that there are already other organizations dedicated to hymnbooks and perhaps I should be directed to them, but considering that are still public domain collections of music, that do belong on IMSLP. I strongly believe that hymns are the songs of the people, performed on a weekly basis all around the world and that they should be made readily available for researchers, students, historians, and church musicians alike.
Where Do Hymnbooks Belong on IMSLP?
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pml
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Re: Where Do Hymnbooks Belong on IMSLP?
Since the IMSLP title usually specifies a composer for a hymn book this would be placed under the generic "Various" category, which does already contain several hymnals. The category walker should be employed on this page, but since this is an unusual category it currently lacks it – and someone has also erroneously applied a chronological category (early 20th century).
Speaking of particular hymnals, one that would be worthwhile obtaining would be the 1906 English Hymnal edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, though there might be some hymns (music or lyrics) by composers who managed to live post 1960 (given that RVW lasted until 1958!). More recent hymnals are even more of a challenge given that there are very likely a large number of "authors" to be checked, and the IMSLP must obey the rule of "last author plus 50 years".
Re-compiling the hymn indices is a colossal amount of work. Who would do it? The submitter?
PML
EDITED TO ADD: I noticed archive.org have the very hymnal I cited – Dearmer & RVW’s 1906 first edition of the English hymnal, which as Wikipedia puts it, "[t]he standard of the arrangements and original compositions made it one of the most influential hymnals of the 20th century", and "[t]he high quality of the music is due largely to the work of Vaughan Williams as musical editor." So I’ll do a little investigation to see if it can be uploaded to IMSLP, as well as designing some tabular layouts for the indices – which fortunately have already been transcribed in text format.
EDITED AGAIN: The English Hymnal is now up – minus numerous omissions owing to the original scan by Toronto Uni being hit-and-miss. Also, an initial table of first lines alone takes 36 kb (on the Talk page), so a full set of indices for composers, authors, hymn tune names and metres would be very long indeed. Also, should any of the portions which include original compositions (e.g. RVW's famous hymn settings: Down Ampney, Sine Nomine, Salve Festa Dies, etc.) be represented on the composers' works pages?
Speaking of particular hymnals, one that would be worthwhile obtaining would be the 1906 English Hymnal edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, though there might be some hymns (music or lyrics) by composers who managed to live post 1960 (given that RVW lasted until 1958!). More recent hymnals are even more of a challenge given that there are very likely a large number of "authors" to be checked, and the IMSLP must obey the rule of "last author plus 50 years".
Re-compiling the hymn indices is a colossal amount of work. Who would do it? The submitter?
PML
EDITED TO ADD: I noticed archive.org have the very hymnal I cited – Dearmer & RVW’s 1906 first edition of the English hymnal, which as Wikipedia puts it, "[t]he standard of the arrangements and original compositions made it one of the most influential hymnals of the 20th century", and "[t]he high quality of the music is due largely to the work of Vaughan Williams as musical editor." So I’ll do a little investigation to see if it can be uploaded to IMSLP, as well as designing some tabular layouts for the indices – which fortunately have already been transcribed in text format.
EDITED AGAIN: The English Hymnal is now up – minus numerous omissions owing to the original scan by Toronto Uni being hit-and-miss. Also, an initial table of first lines alone takes 36 kb (on the Talk page), so a full set of indices for composers, authors, hymn tune names and metres would be very long indeed. Also, should any of the portions which include original compositions (e.g. RVW's famous hymn settings: Down Ampney, Sine Nomine, Salve Festa Dies, etc.) be represented on the composers' works pages?
Re: Where Do Hymnbooks Belong on IMSLP?
Wow. Thank you for the advice.
I imagine that multiple websites (like archive.com and maybe Choral Public Domain Library) have uploaded hymnals. I wouldn't know where to start if someone wanted to tackle Google books public domain titles. I browsed some and already found at least ten pre-1900 hymnals. If anything, the these Google books could be linked so that people searching IMSLP could get a hold of them.
The layout for the "English Hymal" looks really great as well. And considering that most hymnals have a built-in indices in the back, perhaps those pages could be submitted in a separate box to equip users to search them to find specific information.
I imagine that multiple websites (like archive.com and maybe Choral Public Domain Library) have uploaded hymnals. I wouldn't know where to start if someone wanted to tackle Google books public domain titles. I browsed some and already found at least ten pre-1900 hymnals. If anything, the these Google books could be linked so that people searching IMSLP could get a hold of them.
The layout for the "English Hymal" looks really great as well. And considering that most hymnals have a built-in indices in the back, perhaps those pages could be submitted in a separate box to equip users to search them to find specific information.
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pml
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Re: Where Do Hymnbooks Belong on IMSLP?
IMSLP doesn't link to external resources – all scores should be loaded directly onto the IMSLP website.
CPDL doesn't have hymnals as "complete" publications – individual hymns are gradually being typeset and uploaded there, piecemeal.
As for indexing and cataloguing the works (which given that we're talking about hymns, are not intrinsically very interesting anyway). The PDFs of the English Hymnal have been "tagged" with searchable text laid out that can be copied and pasted, but unfortunately it's typical of OCR output – colossal numbers of spelling mistakes, so if transferred into the IMSLP wiki it would take a lot of effort to correct. Also the layout (particularly in the indices) is usually multiple columns to a page, but it isn't possible to select the contents of only one column. This adds up to a vast amount of work to replicate information which is already in the PDF, even if not in a particularly useful form.
Multiply that by ten hymnals and that adds up to the labours of Sisyphus: most uploaders don't bother cataloguing the contents of the files they upload to the extent you're anticipating, which was why I asked whom you would imagine would be inclined to bother.
Regards, PML
CPDL doesn't have hymnals as "complete" publications – individual hymns are gradually being typeset and uploaded there, piecemeal.
As for indexing and cataloguing the works (which given that we're talking about hymns, are not intrinsically very interesting anyway). The PDFs of the English Hymnal have been "tagged" with searchable text laid out that can be copied and pasted, but unfortunately it's typical of OCR output – colossal numbers of spelling mistakes, so if transferred into the IMSLP wiki it would take a lot of effort to correct. Also the layout (particularly in the indices) is usually multiple columns to a page, but it isn't possible to select the contents of only one column. This adds up to a vast amount of work to replicate information which is already in the PDF, even if not in a particularly useful form.
Multiply that by ten hymnals and that adds up to the labours of Sisyphus: most uploaders don't bother cataloguing the contents of the files they upload to the extent you're anticipating, which was why I asked whom you would imagine would be inclined to bother.
Regards, PML