1. Definition and organization.
BARRY S. BROOK
A thematic catalogue is an index to a group of musical compositions that incorporates citations of their opening notes (incipits), or principal melodic features (themes), or both. These citations may be given in various forms, such as conventional notes, neumes, tablatures, syllables, numbers, letters or computer codes. In practice, defying etymology, most thematic catalogues are concerned with incipits rather than with themes.
The semantic confusion arose in the late 18th century, when the terms ‘theme’ and ‘thematic catalogue’ were first regularly used. Because compositions almost always began with their main theme, the words ‘theme’ or ‘themata’ were treated as synonymous with what has only recently come to be called ‘incipit’. In the 18th century, they were used interchangeably with ‘initia’, ‘beginnings’, ‘commencements’, ‘Anfänge’, ‘subjects’ or ‘first few bars’. The combined term ‘thematic catalogue’ was first used in print by J.J. Hummel in 1768 for what was really an incipit index (but not the earliest: see §2(i) and (iii) below). In the 20th century, in the relatively few instances where true themes rather than incipits are catalogued, the adjective ‘thematic’ is avoided in the title (e.g. H. Barlow and S. Morgenstern: Dictionary of Musical Themes, New York, 1948, 2/1975, H. Schiegl and E. Schwarzmaier: Themensammlung musikalischer Meisterwerke, Frankfurt, 1959– and D. Parsons: The Dictionary of Tunes and Musical Themes, Cambridge, 1975).
The thematic catalogue is superior to the non-thematic one as a research aid since its incipits provide identification in a minimum of space and symbols. For most music an incipit of about a dozen pitches suffices. When rhythmic values accompany the pitches, the incipit is almost inevitably unique. While the non-thematic list may identify a work by its composer, title, opus number, key, instrumentation, movement headings, first line of text, date, publisher, dedicatee, plate number etc., no one of these, indeed no combination of these, can normally provide as certain an identification as an incipit. Even transposed works can be readily identified in properly organized incipit files. In dealing with works that are anonymous or of disputed authorship, incipits become indispensable.
The organization of a thematic catalogue will vary in accordance with what it covers. Ideally it should include (as suggested by A. Hyatt King) the following elements: (a) title, opus or other identification numbers, references to standard and complete editions, author or other source of text, date and place of composition; (b) incipits of each movement, noting the number of bars in each movement where applicable and indicating variants among sources; (c) full description, location and shelf-mark of autographs; (d) description of significant copies, their shelf-marks, dates and important differences or special markings; (e) bibliographical description of first editions, including date, imprint, price and plate number, and of all subsequent editions or arrangements published in the composer’s lifetime or reflecting changes made or sanctioned by him; (f) references to contemporary diaries, memoirs and newspapers, thematic and non-thematic catalogues; and (g) references to significant citations in scholarly studies. With the burgeoning of musical source studies since King’s article, in many situations (e.g. voluminous major composers or surveys of large repertories) this ideal cannot result in traditional publication.
While the few notes of an incipit may be sufficient for the recognition of a particular work, their presentation must take into account the requirements of the genre from which they are quoted. Two incipits for a single piece may often be required, for example, a vocal entry after an orchestral ritornello, or the beginning of an aria following a recitative. Furthermore, the practice of quoting only the uppermost voice may be misleading in polyphonic works when that voice is not the first to enter. In such cases, it may be useful to quote the opening of the piece in short score, with indication of vocal disposition or instrumentation. The original clefs, tempo, expression, phrasing and dynamic indications should normally be included, following the chosen (and specified) source. In certain repertories, reproduction of the original notation may be advantageous.
The history of thematic catalogues may best be outlined in terms of their functions, eleven of which may be specified.
(iii) Guide to a composer’s output.
(iv) Inventory of a library’s holdings.
(v) Copying firm advertisement.
(vi) Publishing firm advertisement.
(ix) Musicological documentation.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
This type of thematic catalogue helps the performer recall the beginnings of well-known tunes or melodic formulae. Some tonaries of the 10th and 11th centuries (e.g. those by Odo of Cluny, d 942, or Guido of Arezzo, d after 1033) belong to this type and can be considered the earliest examples of thematic catalogues. These treatises contain musical incipits to guide the reader in choosing the proper tone or formula to connect the end of the psalm verse with the antiphon. Interestingly enough, the first printed thematic catalogue had a similar function. In 1645 William Barton published The Book of Psalms in Metre, a 304-page collection of psalm texts, which contains an incipit index of ‘The beginnings of [22] G[eneral] and P[articular] tunes now used in London’. Most of the book’s psalm texts are marked with one, two or three asterisks so they can be sung to one or more of the popular ‘common tunes’ represented by similarly marked incipits. This practice survives in the handwritten incipit lists used by some song leaders and in the ‘fake books’ of café pianists, and is related to metrical indexes in hymnals.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
This is an incipit index appearing in a printed or manuscript volume of musical pieces as a guide to its use. The first known thematic index of this type was prepared by Heinrich Lübeck in 1598 for King Christian of Denmark as the index to a volume containing 202 trumpet sonatas and fanfares (DK-Kk, Gl.kgl.S.1874.4). Thematic tables of contents are common in 19th- and 20th-century editions, such as the piano music of Beethoven or Chopin.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
The earliest catalogues of this type were compiled by composers themselves as a means of organizing their works or protecting their authorship against counterfeiters before copyright laws were established. In 1686 J.K. Kerll published a set of Magnificat versets for organ, Modulatio organica super Magnificat, to which he attached a ten-page thematic index entitled ‘Subnecto initia aliarum compositionum’. It contained 32 incipits for 22 of his other keyboard works (not included in the Modulatio) which, he said, he had seen ‘in more than one place … ascribed to someone else’; with this catalogue Kerll was asserting his authorship and publicizing his wares at the same time. It was not until almost a century later that similar catalogues by other composers began to appear (e.g. J.G. Schürer, Catalogo della musica di chiesa, c1765, D-Dlb; Haydn, the ‘Entwurf Katalog’, c1765–c1805, D-Bsb mus.607; and Mozart, Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke vom Monath Febraio 1784 bis [15 Nov 1791]). After 1800 the increasing tendency to use chronologically ordered opus numbers (Beethoven being the first great composer to do so systematically) reduced the need for composers to prepare their own thematic catalogues. During the 19th century the compilation of such catalogues was taken over largely by publishers and scholars (see (vi) and (ix)), the latter led by a famous collector of musical manuscripts, Aloys Fuchs (1799–1853). From around 1830 to shortly before his death Fuchs prepared over 20 thematic catalogues of the works of 17th- and 18th-century composers, from Albrechtsberger to Vivaldi (now in D-Bs). His work on Mozart, for example, served as an important starting-point for Köchel. Some of his catalogues have not been superseded (for illustrations see Haydn, Joseph, fig.3 and Mozart, fig.11).
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
In the 18th century the contents of many large church, court and private music collections were catalogued thematically for the purpose of facilitating the location and identification of works. Such catalogues could be arranged by date of acquisition, by composer’s name, or by storage shelf. The earliest known example of a thematic library catalogue (Des Herren General Major Frey Herrn von Sons’ Feldt musicalisches Cathallogium, c1728–60, in Schloss Herdringen, Germany, Fü 3720a) was compiled for the Prussian general Friedrich Otto von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld. Other manuscript catalogues include those of the Rheda library (Catalogi musici, D-MÜu), the library of Maria Anna of Bavaria (Catalogo de libri di musica, c1750–90, D-Mbs mus.1648), the abbey of Herzogenburg (Catalogus selectiorum musicalium, 1751–?, A-H), and the library of the Italian flautist Filippo Ruge (Catalogue de la collection symphonique, c1757, US-SFsc). When such catalogues list works that have since been lost, as they often do, they may prove useful in the identification of anonymous works or those of disputed authorship and in tracing patterns of music dissemination.
Among the earliest printed thematic library catalogues are those by Coussemaker of the anonymous masses in Cambrai (in Notice sur les collections musicales de la Bibliothèque de Cambrai, 1843), by Haberl of sacred works in the Cappella Sistina at the Vatican Library (in Bibliographischer und thematischer Musikkatalog des päpstlichen Kapellarchives zu Rom, 1888), and by Kade of the collections in Schwerin (Die Musikalien-Sammlung des grossherzoglich Mecklenburg-Schweriner Fürstenhauses aus den letzten zwei Jahrhunderten, 1893–9). The considerable growth, in recent years, in thematic cataloguing of library holdings, including that for RISM, represents a major advance for musicological research. Especially noteworthy is the series Kataloge Bayerische Musiksammlungen, an ongoing project begun in 1958 under the direction of Robert Münster.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
Such catalogues display incipits of the works, manuscript or printed, that the establishment has on hand; copies of these works were made on demand at so much per page. There is evidence of the existence of only three such catalogues: the famous Breitkopf Catalogo, published between 1762 and 1787, with 888 pages and over 14,000 incipits; Ringmacher’s Catalogo, published in 1773, 628 incipits; and the lost Der grosse thematische Catalogus of Christian Gottfried Thomas, issued in Leipzig in manuscript copies from 1778 onwards. Despite their rarity, the significance of such catalogues is great. The Breitkopf catalogue, by virtue of its size, breadth of coverage and sociological import, may well be the most useful single bibliographic aid to 18th-century research, for despite its inaccuracies it remains indispensable for dating and attribution. Catalogues such as Breitkopf’s, containing incipits mainly of manuscripts, often cite rare and even unique works, and the incipits may be the only evidence of a composition’s existence or the sole means of identifying anonymous and doubtful works (for illustration see Breitkopf & Härtel).
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
These catalogues present incipits of a firm’s own publications. They may be devoted to one or several composers and may be issued either as part of a musical edition (e.g. a single leaf added to a violin part) or in a self-contained volume. The earliest example of such a catalogue appears to be that of J.J. and B. Hummel: Catalogue thématique ou Commencement de touttes les oeuvres de musique (Amsterdam, 1768–74: this is the first time the term ‘thematic catalogue’ appears in print). Others were subsequently published by Corri in Edinburgh (A Select Collection, c1779), Bland in London (Catalogues of Subjects or Beginnings of the Several Works, 1790–?1793), Bossler in Speyer (1790–94), Imbault in Paris (Catalogue thématique, c1792) and Artaria in Vienna (Catalogue thématique, 1798). The earliest publishers’ catalogues of the works of individual composers include Forster’s ‘Catalogue of the works of Giuseppe Haydn’ in his edition of op.50 (London, ?1785) and Artaria’s Catalogue thématique of Pleyel’s chamber works (Vienna, 1789).
During 19th century there was a flowering of catalogues of this type, such as those of Mozart (published by Monzani, c1805), Mauro Giuliani (Steiner, 1815), Beethoven (Hofmeister, 1819), Gelinek (André, ?1820), Czerny (Diabelli, ?1827), Mendelssohn (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1843), Schubert (Diabelli, 1852), Schumann (Schuberth, 1850s), Chopin (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1855) and Schumann (Dörffel, 1860). In some instances the catalogues were prepared or corrected by the composers themselves, like those of Moscheles (published by Probst, 1825) and Liszt (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1855). The high season of publishers’ sales catalogues was reached in the mid-19th century, but similar ones continue to be produced, mainly in France.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
Contracts, bills of sale, inventaires après decès and similar documents have made use of incipits for positive identification. Two such by Haydn are known, one of which includes 20 incipits and declares: ‘I acknowledge to have received seventy pounds [from William Forster, London publisher] for 20 symphonies, sonatas … composed by me’ (1786, GB-Lbl Eg.2380, f.12). There are five such documents by Boccherini, including his Catalogo della opere da me … cedute in tutta proprieta al Sigr Ignazio Pleyel (1796). Similar documents exist concerning Michael Haydn (1808, A-Wn 2103) and Mayseder (1819, A-Wst MH 9171/c). A famous example of an estate inventory containing incipits is the Verzeichniss des musicalischen Nachlasses des vestorbenen Capellmeisters C.P.E. Bach (1790).
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
Such catalogues will usually quote complete themes or leitmotifs (as distinct from incipits) and may serve (a) for analysis of musical works (E. Tanzberger: Jean Sibelius: eine Monographie mit einem Werkverzeichnis, Wiesbaden, 1962); (b) as guides for the music lover (E.M. Terry: ‘Leading Motives of the Operas’, A Richard Wagner Dictionary, New York, 1939; R. Burrows and B.C. Redmond: Symphony Themes, New York, 1942); and (c) as pedagogical tools (D.J. Echelhard: A Thematic Dictionary and Planning Guide of Selected Solo Literature for Trumpet, diss., U. of Montana, 1969, which contains solo trumpet passages ‘grouped into various levels of metric, rhythmic, ornamental, and miscellaneous problems’).
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
Thematic catalogues prepared with scholarly thoroughness and accuracy represent a new direction in cataloguing that began about 1850. Such catalogues may be related in function to some of those previously mentioned, but primarily they serve as the essential, initial step in the answering of historical, analytical and musico-sociological questions. These catalogues may be based on a genre, form, period, country, region, publishing house, library, a specific monumental or complete works edition, or an individual composer or group of composers. They may either be buried in the supplement to an unpublished dissertation or represent the efforts of many scholars working collectively on a substantial union-cataloguing project such as RISM.
The model for this scientific approach was Ludwig Ritter von Köchel’s Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis of Mozart’s works. He began research in the early 1850s and published it with Breitkopf & Härtel in 1862. Köchel went far beyond the mere listing of a work’s title, date, instrumentation and opening bars by providing such additional information as location of autographs, lists of early editions, references to literature about the work, and multiple-staff incipits for all movements.
This new direction in cataloguing coincided with the 19th-century development of musicology as a discipline and the publication of complete editions, especially in Germany. Many of the catalogues that appeared during the second half of the century were prepared in conjunction with such editions. These rarely approached the Köchel catalogue in scholarship, and remained closer in purpose and coverage to publishers’ sales catalogues (F.W. Jähns’s detailed work on Weber is a notable exception).
After a lapse following World War I, publication gained momentum primarily with the work of Alfred Einstein on the third edition of the Köchel catalogue, published in 1937. Catalogues also appeared for Reger, Kreisler, Volkmann and Domenico Scarlatti, as well as a number of facsimiles of 18th-century manuscript catalogues (especially Larsen’s invaluable Drei Haydn Kataloge in Facsimile, Copenhagen, 1941). It was not until the 1950s and the postwar resurgence of musicological activity that the full impact of Köchel’s innovations began to be felt. At last there appeared definitive, scholarly thematic catalogues of the works of Bach (W. Schmieder: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke, Leipzig, 1950, enlarged 2/1990), Beethoven (G. Kinsky: Das Werk Beethovens: thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen, Munich, 1955), Couperin (M. Cauchie: Thematic Index of the Works, Monaco, 1949), Schubert (O.E. Deutsch and D.R. Wakeling: Schubert: Thematic Catalogue of All his Works in Chronological Order, London, 1951), Haydn (A. van Hoboken: Joseph Haydn: thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, Mainz, 1957–78), Boccherini (Y. Gérard: Thematic, Bibliographical and Critical Catalogue of the Works, London, 1969), Handel (B. Baselt: Thematische-systematisches Verzeichnis, Leipzig and Kassel, 1978–86), Chopin (K. Kobylańska: Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, Munich, 1979; J.M. Chomiński and T.D. Turło: Katalog dzieł Fryderyka Chopina/A Catalogue of the Works of Frederick Chopin, Kraków, 1990), Lully (H. Schneider: Choronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Werke, Tutzing, 1981), Telemann (W. Menke: Thematisches Verzeichnis der Vokalwerke, Frankfurt, 1982–3, 2/1988), Wagner (J. Deathridge, M. Geck and E. Voss: Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke, Mainz, 1985), Vivaldi (P. Ryom: Répertoire des oeuvres d’Antonio Vivaldi: les compositions instrumentales, Copenhagen, 1986), Berlioz (D.K. Holoman: Catalogue of the Works, Kassel, 1987), C.P.E. Bach (Thematic Catalogue of the Works, New Haven, CT, 1989), and others.
During the 1980s and 90s it became increasingly apparent that Einstein’s third edition of Köchel’s catalogue of Mozart’s works, long a model of musicological excellence, was no longer adequate. Not only had Einstein included many works of dubious authenticity and provided excessive information for genuine compositions, but a vast quantity of significant new research had taken place (Alan Tyson’s paper studies, Wolfgang Plath's studies of Mozart’s handwriting, Gertraut Haberkamp on first editions). A new and completely revised Köchel appeared inevitable. This new revision has commenced under the editorship of Neal Zaslaw, Ulrich Konrad and Cliff Eisen; it will also reflect the new discoveries reported in the many conferences and periodicals of the Mozart year, 1991.
A dramatic example of how Einstein’s edition of Köchel could be misleading occurred in 1982 in Odense, with the discovery of a set of manuscript parts bearing Mozart’s name and matching the incipit listed as k16a/Anh.220 in the Köchel catalogue. Amid great publicity the work was published and performed, and a conference held with the participation of leading Mozart experts (Die Sinfonie KV16a ‘del Sigr. Mozart’: Odense 1984). The majority opinion was that this work could not have been composed by Mozart. There was no valid physical evidence linking the work to him, and those who studied it were convinced it was by someone else. Einstein had included the incipit from a list he had found in a publisher’s archive; the parts had been distributed by an unscrupulous manuscript dealer. The work was paraded throughout the world in print, concert and recording as a ‘newly discovered’ work by Mozart.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
A further development, growing out of the need to navigate through a large repertory, is the locator or finder catalogue. Such a catalogue will usually list incipits in some logical order, e.g. chronologically or by genre, and in some findable order, e.g. by number, letters, intervals, codes or patterns. One of the earliest and best known examples of a locator catalogue is the Barlow and Morgenstern Dictionary of Musical Themes, which lists 10,000 (instrumental) themes by composer and genre and provides an alphabetical finding index of themes transposed to C major or C minor. Locator catalogues exist for Bach (M.D. Payne: Melodic Index to the Works of Johann Sebastian Bach, New York, 1938, enlarged 2/1962), Mozart (G.R. Hill and M. Gould: A Thematic Locator for Mozart’s Works, Hackensack, NJ, 1970) and Haydn (S.C. Bryant and G.W. Chapman: Melodic Index to Haydn’s Instrumental Music, New York, 1982).
In recent decades there has been a tendency to create all-inclusive thematic catalogues that exceed existing ones in size and coverage. This development is in part a result of the work on RISM, which was originally intended to include all early music, printed and manuscript, up to 1800 (in some countries it has been extended to 1900). This ‘mega-catalogue’ expansion has been facilitated by advances in automation and has been applied to library holdings, specific genres and individual composers.
Thematic catalogue, §2: History and function
A number of effective non-conventional and machine-readable codes have been developed to simplify the control of and access to data. Among the earliest of these were Nanie Bridgman’s intervallic system, Ingmar Bengtsson’s ‘Numericode’, Barry Brook’s ‘Simplified Plaine and Easie Code’, Sefan Bauer-Mengelberg’s Ford-Columbia language, and the melodic code used by Franklin B. Zimmermann.
Broad interest in the machine processing of musical data developed in the early 1960s, but it was not until the 1980s and 90s that computers became available with sufficient power to store the quantities of information and provide the quick access necessary for electronic thematic catalogues to become a reality. The advent of CD-Rom and the Internet have provided the possibility for the complete distillation of musical, analytical, literary, contextual and chronological information, its quick and inexpensive dissemination, and facilities for sorting and searching the material. The fifth, cumulative edition of RISM appeared in 1997 on both CD-Rom and the Internet.
ČSHS (‘Inventáře hudební’)
MGG2 (‘Thematische Verzeichnisse, Thematische Kataloge’, H. Schaefer)
D. Scheurleer: ‘Preisfrage: welches ist die beste Methode, um Volks- und volksmässige Lieder nach ihrer melodischen (nicht textlichen) Beschaffenheit lexikalisch zu ordnen’, ZIMG, i (1899–1900), 219–20
O. Koller: ‘Die beste Methode, Volks- und volksmässige Lieder nach ihrer melodischen Beschaffenheit lexikalisch zu ordnen’, SIMG, iv (1902–3), 1–15
I. Krohn: ‘Welche ist die beste Methode, um Volks- und volksmässige Lieder nach ihrer melodischen (nicht textlichen) Beschaffenheit lexikalisch zu ordnen?’, SIMG, iv (1902–3), 643–60
W. Heinitz: ‘Eine lexikalische Ordnung für die vergleichende Betrachtung von Melodien’, AMw, iii (1921), 247–54
W. Altmann: ‘Über thematische Kataloge’, Beethoven-Zentenarfeier: Vienna 1927, 283–9
N. Bridgman: ‘L’établissement d’un catalogue par incipit musicaux’, MD, iv (1950), 65–8
O.E. Deutsch: ‘Theme and Variations, with Bibliographical Notes on Pleyel’s Haydn Editions’, MR, xii (1951), 68–71
N. Bridgman: ‘A propos d’un catalogue central d’incipit musicaux’, FAM, i (1954), 22–3
A.H. King: ‘The Past, Present, and Future of the Thematic Catalogue’, MMR, lxxxiv (1954), 10–13, 39–46
O.E. Deutsch: ‘Thematische Kataloge’, FAM, v (1958), 73–9
N. Bridgman: ‘Le classement par incipit musicaux, histoire d’un catalogue’, Bulletin des bibliothèques de France, iv (1959), 303–8
J. Fukač: Inventarien böhmischer oder mährischer Provenienz (Brno, 1959)
J. LaRue: ‘A Union Thematic Catalogue of 18th Century Symphonies’, FAM, vi (1959), 18–20
J. LaRue: ‘Major and Minor Mysteries of Identification in the 18th-Century Symphony’, JAMS, xiii (1960), 181–96
J. LaRue: ‘Union Thematic Catalogues for 18th-Century Chamber Music and Concertos’, FAM, vii (1960), 64–6
N. Bridgman: ‘Nouvelle visite aux incipit musicaux’, AcM, xxxiii (1961), 193–6
R. Schaal: ‘Quellen zur Musiksammlung Aloys Fuchs’, Mf, xvi (1963), 67–72
W. Schmieder: ‘“Menschliches Allzumenschliches”, oder Einige unparteiische Gedanken über thematische Verzeichnisse’, Festschrift Otto Erich Deutsch, ed. W. Gerstenberg, J. LaRue and W. Rehm (Kassel, 1963), 309–18
B.E. Wilson: ‘A Review of Köchel, sixth edition’, Notes, xxi (1963–40), 513–40
L.F. Bernstein: ‘Data Processing and the Thematic Index’, FAM, xi (1964), 159–65
B.S. Brook and M. Gould: ‘Notating Music with Ordinary Typewriter Characters (a Plaine and Easie Code System for Musicke)’, FAM, xi (1964), 142–59
S. Bauer-Mengelberg: ‘The Ford–Columbia Input Language’, Musicology and the Computer … : New York 1965, 48–52
B.S. Brook: ‘The Simplified “Plaine and Easie Code System” for Notating Music: a Proposal for International Adoption’, FAM, xii (1965), 156–60
B.S. Brook: ‘Utilization of Data Processing Techniques in Musical Documentation’, FAM, xii (1965), 112–22
O. Elschek and D. Stockmann: Methoden der Klassifikation von Volksliedweisen: Bratislava 1965
J. LaRue and G.W. Logemann: ‘E[lectronic] D[ata] P[rocessing] for Thematic Catalogues’, Notes, xxii (1965–6), 1179–86
F. Zimmerman: ‘Musical Biography and Thematic Cataloguing: Two Opposing Aspects of Musicology in the 21st Century’, Musicology and the Computer; Musicology 1966–2000: New York 1965 and 1966, 216–21
F.B. Zimmerman: ‘Melodic Indexing for General and Specialized Use’, Notes, xxii (1965–6), 1187–92
J. Fukač: ‘Tschechische Musikinventare’, Tschechische Musikwissenschaft: Geschichtliches (Prague, 1966), 1–64
O. Pulkert: Souborný hudební katalog: pokyny ke katalogizaci hudebnin (Prague, 1966)
F.W. Riedel: ‘Zur Geschichte der musikalischen Quellenüberlieferung und Quellenkunde’, AcM, xxxviii (1966), 3–27
I. Bengtsson: ‘Numericode: a Code System for Thematic Incipits’, STMf, xlix (1967), 5–40
H.B. Lincoln: ‘Musicology and the Computer: the Thematic Index’, Computers in Humanistic Research: Readings and Perspectives (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967), 184–93
H.B. Lincoln: ‘The Thematic Index: a Computer Application to Musicology’, Computers and the Humanities, ii (1967–8), 215–20
L.B. Plantinga: ‘Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Muzio Clementi’, MQ, liv (1968), 257–63
K. Gofferje: ‘Über lexikalisch geordnete Melodieverzeichnisse zum mehrstimmigen deutschen Lied des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: ein neuer Versuch’, Musa – mens – musici: im Gedenken an Walther Vetter (Leipzig, 1969), 37–44
B.S. Brook: ‘The Earliest Printed Thematic Catalogues’, Festskrift Jens Peter Larsen, ed. N. Schiørring, H. Glahn and C.E. Hatting (Copenhagen, 1972), 103–12
B.S. Brook: Thematic Catalogues in Music: an Annotated Bibliography (Hillsdale, NY, 1972, rev. 2/1997 by Brook and R. Viano)
B.S. Brook: ‘A Tale of Thematic Catalogues’, Notes, xxix (1972–3), 407–15 [on the definitions, functions, historiography and future of the thematic catalogue]
K. Ottosen: ‘Le classement par ordinateur des listes de répons liturgiques: le traitement des données’, Informatique musicale: Paris 1973, 135–43
C. Johansson: ‘From Pergolesi to Gallo by the Numericode System’, STMf, xlvii/2 (1975), 67–8
B.S. Brook: Reviews of R. Münster and R. Machold, eds.: Thematischer Katalog der Musikhandschriften der ehemaligen Klosterkirchen Weyarn, Tegernsee und Benediktbeuern (Munich, 1971); U. Bockholdt, R. Machold and L. Thew, eds.: Thematischer Katalog der Benediktinerinnenabtei Frauenwörth und der Pfarrkirchen Indersdorf, Wasserberg am Inn und Bad Tölz (Munich, 1975); G. Haberkamp, ed.: Thematischer Katalog der Musikhandschriften der Fürstlich Oettingen-Wallerstein’schen Bibliothek Schloss Harburg (Munich, 1976), JAMS, xxxii (1979), 549–55
M. Remmel: Automatic Notation of One-Voiced Songs (Tallinn, 1975)
P. Winter: ‘Cataloguing Schubert’, 19CM, iii (1979–80), 154–62
B.S. Brook: ‘The Past, Present and Future of the Music Library Thematic Catalogue’, Music and Bibliography: Essays in Honour of Alec Hyatt King, ed. O. Neighbour (London, 1980), 215–42
K. Michałowski: Katalogi tematyczne: historia i teoria (Kraków, 1980)
A. Basart: ‘Bringing Order into a Preposterous Muddle: Recent Trends in Thematic Catalogues’, Cum notis variorum, lxvii/Nov (1982), 5–17
B.S. Brook: ‘Christian Ulrich Ringmacher (1743–1781): his Heritage, his Firm, and his Catalogue’, Music and Civilization: Essays in Honor of Paul Henry Lang, ed. E. Strainchamps, M.R. Maniates and C. Hatch (New York, 1984), 243–61
P.J. Drummond: Computer Applications to Music: a Survey and Review of the Literature 1949–1979 (thesis, U. of New South Wales, 1984)
W.B. Hewlett and E. Selfridge-Field: Directory of Computer Assisted Research in Musicology 1986 (Menlo Park, CA, 1986)
P. Gossett: ‘The Rossini Thematic Catalogue: When does Bibliographic Access become Bibliographic Excess?’, Music Reference Services Quarterly, ii (1993), 271–81
P. van Reijen: ‘Köchel 2000: Suggestions for a New Catalogue of Mozart's Works’, FAM, xlii (1995), 299–310
N. Zaslaw: ‘Der neue Köchel’, Mozart Society of America Newsletter, i/1 (1997), 4–5