Conference Agenda

In the military facilities of Hellenic Army Band of Athens (HABA) there is a music archive, which includes works: for philharmonic orchestra, for small wind ensembles, and for various music ensembles. Also contains vinyl records/CDs, concert programs, posters, and books about music theory or methods for learning instruments.

Until 2020 the structure of the archive did not follow International Cataloguing Principles (ICP), but was organized into categories in alphabetical order. The archive officer did not necessarily have knowledge of archival - librarianship or musicology.

During the pandemic period, when music activities were minimized, an appropriate opportunity was given to appoint an officer with a master's degree in musicology as archivist.

Due to the large volume of the archive, it was deemed necessary to appoint a second associate, who is a graduate of the Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies (University of West Attica).

The attempt was made to organize the archive according to the cataloging rules derived from the science of Archival - Librarianship, taking into account musicological criteria, which are necessary due to the specificity of the archive.

In the present announcement we will present for the first time the way in which the music archive of the Hellenic Army Band of Athens (HABA) is organized and operated, with the aim of demonstrating its specificity, which results from the dual (musical and military) nature of its documents.

Abstract:

The ‘Spyros Motsenigos’ Historical Archive of Neo-Hellenic Music, housed at the National Library of Greece (NLG) since 1971, is a landmark resource for the study of Neo-Hellenic music. This joint presentation outlines an ongoing project to establish physical and intellectual control over the collection following its transfer to the Special Collections Department in 2022. The first part aims to highlight the collection in its entirety, along with the work undertaken for its appraisal and updated arrangement. In accordance with their provenance and original order, materials had been organised into two series and six subseries or thematic categories; through indicative examples from each section, an attempt is made to present each thematic category along with finding tools and indexes created to access these diverse types of material. The second part transitions to the specialized documentation of the musical scores—a phase currently in progress—involving the systematic cataloguing of approximately 1,800 works by Greek and international composers, primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries. This phase also includes the creation of detailed metadata following international archival and musicological standards, authority control for composers and works, and preparation for future digitization to enhance accessibility.

Résumé :

Les Archives Historiques de Musique Néo-Hellénique « Spyros Motsenigos », conservées à la Bibliothèque Nationale de Grèce (BNG) depuis 1971, constituent une ressource emblématique pour l'étude de la musique néo-hellénique. Cette présentation conjointe expose un projet en cours visant à établir le contrôle physique et intellectuel de la collection, suite à son transfert au Département des Collections Spéciales en 2022. La première partie vise à mettre en valeur la collection dans son intégralité, ainsi que les travaux entrepris pour son évaluation et son classement mis à jour. Conformément à leur provenance et à leur ordre original, les documents avaient été organisés en deux séries et six sous-séries ou catégories thématiques ; à travers des exemples indicatifs de chaque section, nous tentons de présenter chaque catégorie thématique ainsi que les outils de recherche et les index créés pour accéder à ces divers types de documents. La deuxième partie aborde la documentation spécialisée des partitions musicales — une phase en cours — impliquant le catalogage systématique d'environ 1 800 œuvres de compositeurs grecs et internationaux, datant principalement des XIXe et XXe siècles. Cette phase comprend également la création de métadonnées détaillées selon les normes archivistiques et musicologiques internationales, le contrôle d'autorité pour les compositeurs et les œuvres, ainsi que la préparation d'une numérisation future afin de renforcer l'accessibilité.

Mots-clés : Archive Spyros Motsenigos, Archive historique de musique Νéo-Ηellénique « Spyros Motsenigos », Bibliothèque Νationale de Grèce, normes musicologiques, traitement archivistique.

The curation and presentation of musical archives in Performance Centers/Concert Halls, constitutes a rapidly evolving field at the intersection of museology, musicology, performativity and digital humanities. Music Halls/ Performance Centers today are not merely places of music performance and repositories of material cultural heritage (libraries, musical instruments), but increasingly function as multisensory sites of experience, where sound—and music in particular—plays a central role in shaping narratives and identities (Binter, 2022; Macdonald, 2006) through exhibition performance. The diffusion of the musical data and the transformation of static archives into dynamic experiential narratives and exhibitional performances, accessible through technologically mediated forms of engagement is a new challenge.

The field of digital museology emphasizes on a conceptual shift from what is exhibited to how it is experienced (Parry, 2007). Within this framework, the archive becomes a kind of performance, a living entity, embedded within dialogic forms of storytelling that combine sound, image, language, and motion, producing multimodal knowledge—meaning, knowledge not limited to visual cognition (Cameron & Kenderdine, 2007). Musical archives, when presented audiovisually in a Music Hall, activate the cultural, and emotional memory of the visitor (Bijsterveld, 2013).

Case study the exhibition of the Institute of Greek Music Heritage (IEMK) at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (2026) “Musicians of the 20^th century in Thessaloniki”. This project represents a model case of the convergence between music archives and (digital) exhibition performance.

In this context, the archives are performed and re-context-ualized, embodying the very essence of public humanities and digital cultural heritage scholarship.