This research area combines the digital processing of manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as catalogues raisonnés of individual composers (Mahler, Fehring) and supports three of four long-term projects (Schubert, Brahms, Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online) through satellite projects.

  • Medieval Music Manuscripts in Austrian Libraries: Continuation of the development and application of AI-supported methods for automated text, music notation and layout recognition using Transkribus; continuation of the cataloguing of medieval music manuscripts from the monasteries of Kremsmünster, St. Florian and Vorau.
  • Plainchant Manuscripts From the Central Library of the Vienna Franciscan Province in Graz: This project focuses on the digital recording of the choir books of the Franciscan monastery in Graz, which is also a cooperation partner. The publication of the data is based on the work of the DHRI Text Technology & Publishing team; their archiving and dissemination is organized by ARCHE.
  • The Accounts of Aldersbach Monastery: Analysing the Social and Economic History of a Prototypical Large Enterprise Using Digital Methods
  • The ‘Penitential Psalms’ in Digital Perspective: Research includes digital image annotation for the pictorial programmes of Hans Mielich, and a digital edition of the humanist Declarationes written by Samuel Quicchelberg.
  • Images of Music for Austrian Music History: Consolidation and expansion of the research data collection (especially image corpora from the late Middle Ages and the late 19th and early 20th centuries). On the one hand, the project will support the music encyclopedia oeml online as regards artwork supply and workflow, while on the other it promises further impetus for the institute’s research focus on the Cultural Heritage and the Habsburg Monarchy around 1900.
  • Schubert Digital: As a comprehensive data repository for Franz Schubert’s autographs, the research platform catalogues both the notations as preserved in Schubert’s autographs and the physical nature of the manuscripts themselves. By merging it with the already existing repository Schubert online, digital copies of the manuscripts will be made available. They will be entered according to MEI guidelines, and sources will be successively catalogued according to groups of works.
  • Digitization, Recognition and Automatic Clustering of Watermarks in Franz Schubert's Music Manuscripts: This interdisciplinary project uses thermography, machine learning and signal processing in order to create digitized watermarks for databases as well as manuscript descriptions. Hence new methods of digitally recording, identifying and categorizing watermarks will be developed. By the end of 2024, all Schubert manuscripts from the music collections of Wienbibliothek and the Austrian National Library will be scanned and the data structured according to MEI guidelines.
  • The Schubert Collection of Anton Diabelli and Its Diffusion: A Contribution to Provenance Research: The project is dedicated to the whereabouts of Schubert autographs in the first half of the 20th century and focuses on the collection of the music publisher August Cranz, who acquired the extensive music archive of the Viennese Schubert publisher Anton Diabelli.
  • The Viennese Reception of Brahms, 1862–1902: The collected data will be presented to the public on the website Brahms online using an open access database. The focus is now on analysing the content of this data. Until 2026 the project is going to be completed.
  • Gustav Mahler – Catalogue Raisonné: While the data input is primarily carried out by the International Gustav Mahler Society (IGMG) and the University of Innsbruck, the department of Musicology is responsible for data modelling and encoding according to the MEI standard; with MerMEId the DHRI department will provide the necessary technical infrastructure. Within the next couple of years, a particular focus will be on the web application for the research platform Mahler online, which in turn will incorporate the IGMG’s digitized sources as well as the catalogue raisonné.
  • The Film Music of Johannes Fehring: The composer’s lesser-known film music is particularly interesting against the background of the commercial cinema of the Austrian economic ‘miracle years’, as patterns of avant-garde designs can be identified despite profit-orientated genre cinema. As a sub-project, an annotated catalogue raisonné will initially be compiled.
  • Research Data on Austrian Music: As a satellite to the music encyclopedia oeml online, the project makes available research data for further analysis. Work will continue on two sub-databases: on the one hand on the students of musicology at Vienna University, on the other on Guido Adler’s doctoral students.
  • Collecting Data for a History of the Institute of Musicology at Vienna University
  • Resounding Research: As in the past, selected concerts will be documented in the homonymous CD series, provided with a scientifically based booklet.