Edito

Following the restructuring of its website in 2007, the Cdmc considered the need for keeping a database of composer biographies. There are of course many online resources to be found on the websites of music publishers, composers, Radio France, and there is Ircam’s very valuable Brahms database. Setting up and maintaining a documentary database is a sizeable task and redoing what already exists well enough elsewhere is against our principles!

It was after close study of the situation, notably by our management committee, that we decided to set to work. The main features of the new database are the following:

- An entry point bringing together information scattered about the internet, with links to these resources, offering original contents only when the information is not already available.

- A succinct biography for each composer. A long biography and a work catalogue are either provided by a link to an up-to-date resource, or prepared by us when they are found nowhere else.

- Documents from the Cdmc’s archives and activities are made available: works deposited in the catalogue, audio extracts (accessible thanks to the technological support of the French Gateway to Contemporary Music), recordings of composers’ contributions to the Cdmc’s encounters.

- English translations of the biographies in order to further knowledge of the composers and reach non-francophone users.

The principles for establishing the database of biographies and the criteria for the order of treatment have been established with the assistance of a scientific committee. The main objectives are to highlight the composers who have a considerable part of their catalogue at the Cdmc, those who are currently being programmed, and to give meaningful space to younger composers so they may become better known.

The constitution of the biographies is based on rigourous documentary work requiring a step-by-step approach. The biographies presented at the launch of this service were established by our documentalists Marie-Dominique Bonnet and Estelle Schwaller, and the whole Cdmc team has been involved in the editing and proof-reading of the texts. The database started with some 175 biographies; they will be added to on a regular basis.

We trust that this new database will interest surfers and will be useful to all music-lovers; we shall be attentive to your comments and suggestions.

Laure Marcel-Berlioz
Director of the Cdmc