Transcription of Music Manuscripts
Transcription of Music Manuscripts
Durham University
Project Overview
Project owner: Dr. James Weeks, Department of Music, Durham University
Funding requested: 850GBP
Project Details
Research as a composer consists of composing original music, rather than the more usual writing books and articles. My work is typically focused on choral pieces for small ensembles, exploring pared-down, ‘primary’ musical syntaxes and systems, with particular emphasis on modality, microtonality, modularity, and indeterminacy.
My manuscripts are written by hand, and I would like to hire a Research Assistant to transcribe various pieces using a music typesetting software such as MuseScore, Dorico, or Sibelius. The manuscripts have some notational quirks, so the RA would need to be comfortable with not only the relevant software but also in working closely with the composer to ensure the music is represented correctly.
The works that need transcription are:
| “Wie soll ich meine Seele halten” | Voice and piano | 15 pages |
| “Noë” | Choir | 15 pages |
| “A Tear” | Choir and organ | 5 pages |
| “Ave maris stella” | Choir and organ | 4 pages |
| “Two Songs, after Gibbons” | SSAATTBB soloists or choir | 11 pages |
| “hwitland” | Violin and piano | 10 pages |
It is anticipated that each page will take about 1 hour to transcribe.
Having typeset versions of the manuscripts will increase ease of access to these pieces and align them with the industry standard. This will allow them to be performed more widely than they currently are, as well as the practicability and likelihood of future recordings.
850GBP would fund an RA with experience in music transcription to work for 60 hours at the Real Living Wage.