Early Guitars and Vihuela

A network for historic guitars and vihuelas

OK, I guess I will start a new discussion and post a few screenshots, as my previous message did not get much attention...

So, once again: I am thinking of rewriting the software for the CD "Libros de música para vihuela" issued in 2003. It is still available from several websites, for example: http://www.sociedaddelavihuela.com/store/#!/~/product/category=3150...

The electronic catalog provided on the CD is still useful, but unfortunately the software is quite old, and the facsimile images for most of the seven books are now available in better quality. I am not aware of any similar projects out there, so, if you do - please let me know, that will save me some time.

The core of the work has been already done, I only need to replace the rest of the pages (I have done it for Luys Milan for a test), and make sure that that the catalog entries are correct. The new software will run on both Windows and Mac.

And the questions are:

- Are people here actually interested in this kind of electronic catalog for the vihuela music?

- I, probably, cannot just put the catalog and the images on the web for download because of the legal issues (even though the images are available from the libraries for free), but I could contact the original publisher and discuss the options. Actually, a publicly accessible website with a catalog would be even nicer than a separate program, and it is also relatively easy to set up. Does anyone know who I might talk to about all these things?

I will probably make a demo with a small part of the catalog, but for now - a couple of screenshots which demonstrate the general view and the search results.

Any questions or requests are appreciated.

Views: 377

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

A definite 'Yes' to the question whether people would be interested in an electronic catalogue. I bought the CDRom when it came out and as I work on a Mac I have never been able to take advantage of the software used to put it together. I think your proposal to revamp the program and pictures should meet with a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe you should contact Carlos Gonzalez directly to find out about copyright protection, etc.

Best

Matthew

Thank you Matthew, I will try to contact Carlos Gonzalez. If I understand correctly, he was the editor of the original CD, and the publisher was "Opera tres".

I suspect, there will be no easy solution for the copyright issues, but in the worst case I could just make the new software available as it is, without any content, and provide instructions how to make it work with the original CD. It will probably require some effort, but at least people who really want to use the CD on Mac will be able to do so. Unfortunately, the quality of the images on the CD is often really bad, and the PDFs from the Biblioteca Nacional de España, though they are of much better quality, often have pages in the wrong order or even some pages missing (as in Mudarra, for example). The best solution would be to merge the information from both sources (that's what I am doing now), but first let's see what Carlos and the publisher will say...  

Hello Dmitry

In principle I think this is a good idea, but please make sure you are not violating any copyrights, and do contact the original publisher about that!

Jelma

I sent emails to Carlos Gonzalez (gonzalez at luthier.org - is this the correct address? ) and to "Opera Tres Ediciones Musicales" but haven't got any reply from them yet. Does anybody know if "Opera Tres" is still in business? Their last publication seems to be 3 years old. 

Just a quick update: I actually got a response from Carlos Gonzalez last February, and he said that although he himself had no objections to providing free access to the whole catalog, the publisher of the original CD - Opera Tres - disagreed... Currently, the official website of Opera Tres appears to be down: http://www.operatres.com/ so, I don't see any way to contact them directly.

Still, I decided to make a web-based version of the catalog instead of the standalone Java application. It is ready, the design is kind of minimalistic, but it works. I have also replaced all the images and fixed a couple of minor errors in the catalog. Here is a screenshot of the main page:

You can download separate pages as images, and you can also compile all the pages of the selected music piece into a PDF.

The website currently runs on my PC, and I cannot publish it yet for the reasons mentioned above. It is fully functional, and I think I will not put any more effort into it until Opera Tres changes its attitude (or goes out of business).

After all, I decided to make a few more changes to the website and to create an online demo:

http://ec2-54-69-54-58.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:8080/vihuela

It is for demo purposes only, and I will probably take it down soon, but it is fully functional. Your comments are appreciated, etc., etc...

RSS

© 2024   Created by Jelma van Amersfoort.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service