Caution
Genres Included
The Eight Indexes
How do the Links Work?
How to Use this Index
Starting with a Source
Starting with Text
Starting with Music
Circular Searching
Instrumentation
Large Files
Printing
Using the Search Engine
Using Page Search
What This Is
This is a series of indexes derived from a data base of textual and musical information compiled from primary
sources covering the 250 years of the initial exploration and settlement of the United States. It
consists of over 75,000 entries that are sorted in various ways. Most of the entries include a
representation of the music in a numerical code so that you can tell how the tune begins. By
sorting these codes in different ways, similar tunes are brought together and concordances can be
located. You can also look up a tune whose name you do not know simply by translating it into
a musical code.
When you find something of interest, copy down the Short Title and the Page number. Then you can look up the Title in the Source Index to see where it is. With the page number you can go right to the item you want or order a copy of the page(s) from the holding library. Instrumentation is included with every entry, so you can select the exact version of the music that fits your needs.
Caution
In using all the indexes, remember that you can only see the first three measures of the piece. To
verify that any concordance is a true one, you MUST find a copy of the original piece and
compare the whole piece to be sure. These indexes only make your search easier; they are not
proof of matches. A music or title match is not necessarily proof that the tune is the same
throughout.Genres Included
American Imprints (AI) 270 sources, 11,310 items
American Manuscripts (AM) 145 sources, 11,192 items
British Musical Theater
Ballad operas, all available sources (BA) 175 sources, 4,302 items
Theater works (TW) 63 sources, 1,482 items
British, French, German, and Spanish Social Dance
Dance Collections: Most major collections from 1708 to 1816, (DA) 114 sources, 10,956 items
The (English) Dancing Master, all editions, (Playford and others, 1651–1728 (PL) 25 sources, 6,283 items
British and European Instrumental Music (IC) 277 sources, 14,607 items:
Manuscripts
American manuscripts are in AM above.
Canadian, French, Scottish, English, Irish, German, and Mexican manuscripts (MS) 46 sources, 6,059 items
Songs
American song collections and sheet music are in AI above.
British Song Books, (SC) 43 sources, 5,560 items
British sheet music, (SS) 12 sources, 5,344 items
The Eight Indexes
Source Index
Bibliography of all the sources included in the data base. Arranged alphabetically by short title
Genre Index
Bibliography of all the sources sorted by genre. Shows the sources that were indexed in each specific genre of music.
AI—American Imprints
AM—American Manuscripts
BA—British Ballad Operas
DA—British and European Social Dance sources
IC—British and European Instrumental Music
MS—British and European Manuscripts
PL—The Dancing Master, 1651-1728 (Playford and others)
SC—British Song Collections
SS—British Song Sheets
TW—British Theater Works
Name Index (16,046 entries)
Compilation of all names listed in the bibliography and in items within sources.
Theater Work Index (8,334 entries)
Index to all theater and multi-movement works mentioned. This includes stand-alone scores and pieces within collections that are attributed to larger compositions.
Text Index (101,609 entries)
Entries have the following abbreviations:
Music Indexes
Incipit Index
All musical incipits (first three measures; 6 measures in 3/4 or 3/8 time) represented by scale degrees made of the numbers 1 through 7, representing Do through Ti in a major scale. The sorting order is numerical and ignores the additional symbols.
+ indicates a position above the central octave.
- indicates a position below the central octave.
// indicates measure bars.
/ indicates mid-measure points.
Stress Note Index
All musical incipits represented by the first beat of each measure and point(s) of rhythmic stress within each measure. Octave displacement is disregarded; sorting is numerical.
Interval Index
All musical incipits represented by intervals between successive differing pitches. A minus sign indicates a downward interval. All other numbers represent upward intervals. There is no indication of type of interval (i.e., major, minor, diminished, &c.) Repeated notes are not indicated. In this index, -15 comes before -14, -14 comes before -13, -2 comes before 2, and 2 before 3.
How Do the Links Work?
This describes, in general terms, the structure of the database and how to maneuver within the various indexes and lists.
The database consists of three types of files. These are:
- Source Data (i.e., data recorded from the source, such as lyrics, songs and tunes)
- Bibliographic Data (i.e., data recorded about the source, such as Author, Publisher, current Location of the Source)
- Indexes to help the user to navigate within the database.
- Links from the Short Title field will go to the Bibliographic Page for that Source.
- Links from the Text field will go to the Source Page (with all the data recorded for that particular Tune, Song or Dance)
- Links from the Page field will go to the Table of Contents Page for the source.
How to use the Indexes
Starting with a Source
To find out if a particular Source is included in the Index, search for the title, composer, author, or compiler, or publisher in the Source List. This list is organized by Short Title.
Starting with Text
Go to the Text Index. Select the first three or four letters of the first word. Once in the right section, scroll down or select Edit/Find to search for your first word.
Starting with Music
There are three ways to think of a tune.
By Incipit, or the actual notes: "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti."
By Stress Notes, or the notes you would march on: left, right, left, right.
By Intervals, or the distance from one note to the next, up or down.
Yankee Doodle
Incipit: //11/23//13/27-//11/23//
Stress Notes: 121212
Interval Sequence: 2,2,-3,3,-2,-3,2,2,2
Step 1. Make an Incipit string.
If the tune is written out on paper, find the key from the key signature.
If the tune is minor, select the relative major which is the key signature.
If the tune is in your head, sing it in "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti."
Minor tunes often end on "la".
Step 2. The key, or "Do" is 1 in a three-octave scale:
1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+ 7+.
From "Do" as 1, figure out the rest of the numbers for the first three measures (6 measures if in 3/4 or 3/8 time) and write them down. Ignore grace notes.
If your tune was "Yankee Doodle," the string is: 1 1 2 3 1 3 2 7- 1 1 2 3
Step 3. Put measure marks "//" where they should be in your string of numbers.
Then put in half-measure marks "/"
Tunes in 3/4 will not have half-measure marks.
Tunes in 9/8 will have two "half-measure" marks.
"Yankee Doodle" is now: 11/23//13/27-//11/23//
Step 4. Pickup notes:
If there are no pickup notes, put "//" at the beginning of the string.
If the pickup notes are a full half-measure, put a "/" in front of them.
If the pickup notes are more than a full half-measure, put a "/" in the appropriate spot and drop off the notes before it.
"Yankee Doodle" would now be: //11/23//13/27-//11/23//
You now have your tune as an Incipit string.
You can now go to the Incipit Index and look it up. Use Edit, Find in Frame for quick access to your string.
In the Incipit Index, only the numbers are indexed. + and - are ignored but they help you "hear" a tune.
Step 5. Make a Stress Note string.
Look at your string, and copy out each note that follows a /.
"Yankee Doodle" would now be: 121212
You now have your tune in Stress Notes.
You can now go to the Stress Note Index and look it up. Use Edit, Find in Frame for quick access to your string. The Stress Note string eliminates many of the notes that vary between versions of a tune. It will be your most fruitful index for many common tunes.
Step 6. Make an Interval string
Look at your Incipit string and decide what the intervals are.
The Interval list begins with a two-octave interval down, or -15
Thus a second up would be 2, a second down would be -2.
Thus:
//11/23//13/27-//11/23// becomes 2,2,-3,3,-2,-3,2,2,2
| Notes | Direction | Interval |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | None | |
| 12 | up a 2nd | 2 |
| 23 | up a 2nd | 2 |
| 31 | down a 3rd | -3 |
| 13 | up a 3rd | 3 |
| 32 | down a 2nd | -2 |
| 27- | down a 3rd | -3 |
| 7-1 | up a 2nd | 2 |
| 11 | None | |
| 12 | up a 2nd | 2 |
| 23 | up a 2nd | 2 |
Note in scale degree strings, the minus or plus follows the number. In interval strings the minus precedes the number: i.e., -3 = "down a third".
You now have your tune in Intervals.
You can now go to the Interval Index and look it up. Use Edit, Find in Frame for quick access to your string. In this index, -15 comes before -14, -14 comes before -13, -2 comes before 2, and 2 before 3.
For a modal tune like "Green Sleeves", the Interval Index is very important. It will add a number of new items to your catch. By searching all three music indexes and the text index you should have quite a collection of texts associated with the tune of "Green Sleeves" in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here are the text entries associated with the tune in this index.
|
At Rome there is a terrible rout Basket of Oysters Blacksmith Bold Impudent Fuller Invented Come Listen Good people Country Bumpkin that trees did For our Poultry and flocks Green Sleeves & Mutton Pies Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies Green Sleeves and Yellow Lace Green Sleeves with variations Green Sleves Green slives Here's Nick the Poor Tinker In the Devil's country there lately Lawyer tells you, cheat none Let's Wet the Whistle of the Muse Manche Verte |
New Song O! Mother, O! Mother, no longer Of all the Trades that ever I see Once more to these arms Plain Proof Ruin'd Poets Lyrical Address Political Club Praise of Hull Ale Sad and Lamentable Account Sexton's Song Since Laws were made for ev'ry degree That all men are beggars Tyburn Tree Were crimes to be punish'd Which no body can deny Whilst favour'd Bishops new sleeves Ye Watchful guardians of the fair |
"Cornhill Assembly" and "Miss Murray's Rant" begin the same, but after two measures they are different.
Circular Searching
The most productive searches will be those in which you look up the tune in one place, pick up all the
variant tune strings and titles and texts, then look up the variants in other indexes. Pick up more
titles and go back to the title index for their concordances. Then look them up in the Stress and
Incipit index. Do this several times. For a tune like "Washington's March," this is quite
important, because there are many marches named for Washington, and most have
several other titles, as well. For "Washington's Reel," there are fewer, but what is there is interesting.
To find all the entries for "Washington's Reel," first try the Text Index.
Collect all the music strings associated with the title. There seem to be two distinct tunes with this title.
| //131/131//2123/4321//351+/351+5// | 11 entries |
| //1+53/135//424/345//642/531// | 3 entries |
Now, look in the Incipit Index for the strings you have found. See if you find any new versions of the tune or additional concordances with different titles. In this case a new title for the same tune showed under the first string. It has several different spellings:
| Widow Dixon |
| Widow Dickson |
| Widow Dixson |
| The Federal Dance |
| Mr. Depart Cotillon |
Create Stress Note strings and Interval strings from the tunes you have found.
| Stress Notes | Intervals |
| 112433 | 3,-3,3,-3,2,-2,2,2,2,-2,-2,3,3,4,-6,3,4,-4 |
| 114365 | -4,-3,-3,3,3,-2,-3,3,-2,2,2,2,-3,-3,4,-3,-3 |
Look each of these up in the Stress Note Index and the Interval Sequence Index. Collect all the new concordances and begin again! Look around your target string to see what other tunes are shaped like the one you are looking for. This may reveal other members of the tune family.
There were no new titles under the first stress note string, but both "Washington's Reel" and "Widow Dixon" in its various spellings were there together. 9 entries
There were no new titles under the second stress note string.
Now go back to the Text Index and look up the new titles you have located to see if other versions of the tune can be found.
| Widow Dixon |
| Widow Dickson |
| Widow Dixson |
No new versions of the tune appeared, but a number of new citations appear under this title that have no music. That increases the number of citations for this tune. One more version of the title appeared, "Widow Dickens"! There are 14 citations under this generic title, so it appears that this was the tune's most common name, "Washington's Reel" being a less common title.
Under the title "The Federal Dance" another tune by the same name appeared, but no concordances.
Under the title "Mr. Depart Cotillon" there were no concordances.
If it looks promising, continue to search under new versions of the tune in the music indexes. Use this technique in all your searches.
Instrumentation
With every entry in all the indexes, the instrumentation of the piece is given in the right hand
column. This will help you find a specific instrumentation, such as tunes with bass lines, or
multiple parts, or fife or fiddle tunes.
Large Files
This data base is very large and extremely complex. Some index sections take more time to
appear on your screen. Please be patient. If a file doesn't open, try using another browser to
access it, or clear out your cache before attempting to open the file.
Printing
Because the data base has such large files, printing may be a problem. Use File, Print Preview to
select pages you wish to print from any index. Some index sections are extremely large (1 meg or
more) and it will be tedious to page through the preview to find your data. As an alternative,
select the data you want to print. Click on Edit, Copy, and Paste it into a word processor.Using the Search Engine
Click on the Search link in the top frame, and enter the words you want to find. The search engine will return a
list of items from the Source data which you can link to from that page.Using Page Search
Select Edit/Find in Frame to search in the current page or file.