Decoding music incipits in the Dono Delius database

This project stems from the need to allow more friendly access to the Delius Database – the core of the donation from German flutist and musicologist Nikolaus Delius (1926–2020) to the "N. Paganini" Conservatory of Genoa. The online database www.delius.it is an archive containing over 23,000 entries of bibliography focused primarily on flute literature, mostly of the Baroque and Classical repertoire; approximately 2,000 items correspond to as many scores physically present in the donation. Other sections contain essays, musical editions, study materials, and a discography.

The usability of the database was limited, however, by the fact that recognizing individual items required users to be familiar with decoding music incipits; Delius used an alphanumeric code for incipit transcription that is now decidedly outdated. Therefore, an automatic incipit decoding system into musical notation was necessary. Each item in the database refers to a piece of music, identifiable with a data string including the Delius identification number (N. Delius), author, title, ensemble, edition/s, sources, modern editions, observations, movements, and incipit(s). Decoding the incipit is essential for identifying specific titles, for example in cases where the same author corresponds to dozens of sonatas in the same key (sometimes without opus number).

The table dono_delius_database_key.csv contains the incipits database in the original form, i.e. with incipits encoded using the Delius alphanumeric code. Incipits of different movements are separated by semicolons. A project-specific Item ID (first column) was added to uniquely identify each piece of music. The Item ID should not be confused with the N. Delius, the standard identifier in the earlier database. The table dono_delius_converted.csv contains the music incipits converted into Plaine & Easie Code. The Incipit ID (first column) combines the Item ID from the first table with the movement number, using an underscore as separator (for example, the Incipit ID 10_2 refers to the incipit of the second movement of the piece of music with Item ID 10). The table also contains labels that alert the user to any errors encountered during the incipit conversion. The most common errors are related to difficulties in assigning incipits to a movement or identifying the key of the movement.