Today, numerous research projects in the fields of performing arts and musical heritage employ digital tools for data collection, organization, interrogation, and analysis. A wealth of data is thus made available to the community. However, it is clear that the weak dissemination of widespread standards in the field of Musicology directly results in limited data sharing, and in the sparse presence of musical resources in the semantic web. The dialogue between research projects at the European and international levels is currently limited, precisely because of the diversity of languages and standards these projects make use of.

Therefore, this conference aims to appraise the growing importance of controlled languages for musicology and the performing arts. It is indeed useful to set up tools for the organization of knowledge (KOS, Knowledge Organization System), in order to ensure effective and wide-ranging information retrieval. This requires a reflection on suitable tools to retrieve and make use of this massive amount of data and compels thought on relevant issues concerning the applicable languages and the interoperability of formats for the FAIR management of musical data. The importance of controlled languages in Musicology also lies in the role they play in defining the domain-specific semantics, which conceptual models (ontologies) enhance with the goal of enabling inference by software agents.

The objective of this conference is to establish the state of the research around controlled languages in Documentation and Musicology, i.e., documentary languages based on tools such as lemmatizers, controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, thesauri, classifications, etc. By presenting ongoing or completed research in the field of digital musicology, its aim is to bring to light both best practices and problematic aspects, in order to identify effective and shareable working methodologies.

The following themes will be explored (non-exhaustive list):

• Experiences in the design of thesauri and controlled languages: What terminology was set as a starting point? What considerations were made regarding usage, user types, and development languages?
• Terminological issues in the construction of thesauri and controlled languages, both synchronically and diachronically: What are the peculiarities of describing documents, resources or musicological data from the past compared to contemporary musicology? Is a diachronic perspective useful for tracing the fundamental stages of the semantic evolution of a specific musicological domain?
• Principles of indexing and use of controlled languages: How are prepared controlled languages used? With what level of detail? To index what?
• How does a musicologist approach the choice of words to label musicological data or describe the content of musicological documents? Was any training necessary? How can musicologists collaborate with documentation specialists or automated systems that implement controlled languages to index data?
• The choice and use of specific software for the construction of controlled languages: What are the most effective and/or suitable software tools?
• The reuse and sharing of thesauri and controlled languages: Are all relevant terms truly unique/specific, or is it possible to borrow/derive them from other projects? Are there examples of sharing and reuse, of integration between generalist and specialized tools, or of pooling of specific terminologies between ongoing or completed projects?
• Exploitation of controlled languages by machines and artificial intelligence: How do controlled languages support semantic interoperability between projects sharing data on the web?

The conference will be organized as follows:

● The first day will be open to public presentations: speakers will be invited to present their projects within the framework of the questions mentioned above.

● The second day will take the form of a workshop. Speakers will be invited to discuss the working documents provided to them, to emphasize common points and suggestions, and to prepare questions for a more in-depth conversation on technical aspects and tools. Working documents will be sent out two weeks in advance to allow participants enough time to prepare and to facilitate a substantial exchange.

Conference languages: Italian, French, English.

 

Timeline

• March 10, 2024: Deadline for submitting proposals to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Expected format of proposals:
  • Summary of up to 1500 characters including spaces,
  • CV of up to 500 characters including spaces, for each participant, o Email addresses of all presenters,
  • Indication of the necessary equipment for the presentation.
• March 30, 2024: Notification of acceptance by the scientific committee.
• April 28, 2024: Submission of working documents.
• May 19, 2024: Distribution of working documents among selected participants.

Contributions presented at the conference will be published.

 

Scientific Committee

Luca Aversano, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Michela Berti, Conservatorio Statale di Musica "L. Refice" di Frosinone

Thomas Bottini, IReMus — Institut de Recherche en Musicologie

Stefano Campagnolo, Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma

Paola Castellucci, Sapienza Università di Roma

Achille Davy-Rigaux, CNRS Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Joann Elart, Université de Rouen Normandie

Anne-Madeleine Goulet, CESR - Tours (UMR 7323 du CNRS)

Manuela Grillo, Sapienza Università di Roma

Anna Lucarelli, Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze

Francesca Tomasi, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna

Philippe Vendrix, CESR - Tours (UMR 7323 du CNRS)

 

Organizing Committee

Michela Berti, Conservatorio Statale di Musica "L. Refice" di Frosinone

Thomas Bottini, IReMus — Institut de Recherche en Musicologie

Achille Davy-Rigaux, CNRS Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Angelina De Salvo, Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma

Joann Elart, Université de Rouen Normandie

Manuela Grillo, Sapienza Università di Roma

Elda Merenda, Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma

 

Institutions and Research Projects

Consortium en musicolologie numérique Musica2, Hum-Num CNRS

Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma

École française de Rome

Ass.I.Term. Associazione Italiana per la Terminologia

Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze

CESR-Ricercar-Lab

ERC PerformArt

Institut de recherche en Musicologie (UMR 8223, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, BnF, Ministère de la Culture)

SISBB Società Italiana di Scienze Bibliografiche e Biblioteconomiche

Société Française de musicologie

SIdM Società Italiana di Musicologia