Music theatre preservation: Intersections between musicology and archival science

Abstract

Disciplinary background A. Musicology focused on the documentation of music theatre works to facilitate their study and preservation. The traditional methods of musicology are not enough for the preservation of music theatre, as such works are interdisciplinary in themselves involving different artistic expressions such as music, theatre and dance, also including diverse media such as electronic components. Disciplinary background B. Archival science centered on the description of events involving performance using archival standards. Archiving performative practices as music theatre remains problematic for archives, to accomplish this task, archivists must know these works and understand their collaborations, idiosyncratic language and notation, as well as their performative features. Abstract The presevation of music theatre works in archival contexts requires: to examine the in/external relationships and the mutual interactions incorporated into the works in agreement with the context of their creation/production; to provide the means and tools for facilitating the recreation of music theatre works in more historically informed approaches.; to focus on relevant theoretical writings analysing the social contexts in which music theatre works were created and study the documentation, gathering, mapping, documenting and safeguarding the collaborative practices, describing interactions, interventions and interpretations of creators, performers and other contributors involved in performances; to broaden discussions about issues relating to the preservation of creations in the field of the performing arts in (digital) archives, in which artists build their own archives.