Translations:De beschrijving van muziekinstrumenten. De collectie van Stichting Logos als case/63/en

We were confronted with a specific problem for this type of instrument during the cataloguing process, i.e. is a description per instrument sufficient, or should there be a description per ‘component’? This would involve reducing the instruments to their various constituent components. A comparison with more traditional mechanical instruments can quickly clarify this: do you describe a mechanical organ as one instrument, or do you give the various – often complete – partial instruments that it's built from (saxophone, drum, accordion, etc.) a separate description? It’s a problem that the Jef Ghysels Collection manager had also faced, and one which we sought her advice about. Because of the Logos instruments’ hybridism, modularity and larger proportion of innovative electronic and digital components, this problem is situated in a slightly different area: an instrument’s constituent components are not clearly distinguishable traditional instruments, but rather a fusion of musical instruments, composition, performance and other ‘data’ – often still in a loosely connected relationship. The project coordinator conducted a case study on the HEX tool to identify these issues. We addressed this topic at length in the steering committee, but unfortunately didn’t find a satisfactory solution. Among other things, we lack clear, internationally accepted definitions of the terms ‘musical instrument’, ‘composition’ and ‘performance’, as well as a correct delineation of ‘data’ (which could be a doctoral research subject in itself). The instruments – and their various constituent components – are therefore described as a whole.