Mon, 27 Feb 2006
Music Database Launched
Members of the choir Caarjyn Cooidjagh enjoying some refreshment after performing at the launch of the new Manx Music Database in Peel this week.
A superb addition to the Heritage Foundation's website was launched in Peel this week. The Manx Music Database, compiled by Cinzia Curtis, the Foundation's Manx Music Resource Coordinator, lists nearly 20,000 Manx musical items and has a sophisticated search engine to allow users to look for any type of Manx music.
All categories are covered including traditional, church, music hall, ballads, choral and instrumental. Titles are listed as well as arrangers, composers, publishers, and where the music is held. Details of the individual pieces such as the range, the key and the type of arrangement are also displayed. In some cases, actual printed versions and audio files of the music can be downloaded. This is a feature that will be expanded over the coming year so that people around the world will be able to access and download the biggest database of Manx music on line.
The database also has a list of performers (both instrumentalists and dancers), a bibliography and a discography, as well as a calendar of Manx cultural events for the forthcoming year.
It is the most comprehensive database of Manx material ever produced on the web and will be expanded in the months to come.
At the launch, which was held in Peel's Centenary Centre, the Chairman of the Foundation, Tony Brown SHK, said it was a remarkable addition to the information about the Isle of Man available on the web.
'We might be a small Island' he said, 'but we do things well and it would be hard to find anywhere else in the world which has such a comprehensive and well-organised listing of its national music. It will be of huge interest to people all around the world who want to know more about the Island and its culture. It will also mean that Manx people can have instant access to an important part of Manx life – its musical heritage'.
It can be accessed from this site by clicking on 'Music' and then 'Music Database' or by going straight to: