Annotations on musical scores by performing musicians: Collaborative models, interactive methods, and music digital library tool development

Abstract

Although there have been a number of fairly recent studies in which researchers have explored the information-seeking and management behaviors of people interacting with musical retrieval systems, there have been very few published studies of the interaction and use behaviors of musicians interacting with their primary information object, the musical score. The ethnographic research reported here seeks to correct this deficiency in the literature. In addition to observing rehearsals and conducting 22 in-depth musician interviews, this research provides in-depth analysis of 25,000 annotations representing 250 parts from 13 complete musical works, made by musicians of all skill levels and performance modes. In addition to producing specific and practical recommendations for digital-library development, this research also provides an augmented annotation framework that will enable more specific study of human-information interaction, both with musical scores, and with more general notational/instructional information objects.