IAML Rome Congress Diary / Kongresstagebuch #3: English (United Kingdom)

This entry on the Rome 2016 Congress has arrived from Antony Gordon, Heathfield, United Kingdom

I found myself able to approach the Rome Congress in a rather more relaxed way than usual having retired from the British Library last year and about to retire as a member of the IAML Board. Attending fewer sessions than previously I was able to see a little more of our host city.

Arriving late on the Friday evening before the congress I spent part of Saturday sightseeing and trying to adjust to the unaccustomed heat — air conditioning in the hotel was noisy but still a most welcome relief. Sunday morning and afternoon were taken up with the main Board meeting of the week, then in the evening there was the opening ceremony at the Accademia Santa Cecilia. Congress is always a good opportunity for catching up with friends and colleagues from other countries — all of us part of IAML's big family.

It's strange how fast the week seems to have passed, even while taking my more relaxed approach. There were committees to attend, two general assemblies and the Forum of National Branches as well as some interesting sessions. Then almost as soon as it had started we had already reached the end of the week with my last Board meeting and the final dinner on the rooftop terrace of the Forum Hotel. After midnight the Metro was still running, but unfortunately not the tram so we had a nice walk back to the hotel.

My most interesting papers of the week were:

• Cross‐institutional music document search. (Andrew Hankinson & Ichiro Fujinaga ­– McGill University, Montréal)

• Open Music Library – a community‐curated open index of the world’s scholarly music resources. (Andre Avorio – Alexander Street, London)

• Le fonds Olivier Messiaen au Département de la musique de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. (Marie‐Gabrielle Soret – Bibliothèque nationale de France)

• Expression beyond scope: how FRBR and MEI fit together. (Johannes Kepper & Kristina Richts – Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar Detmold/Paderborn)

• Re‐conceptualising medium of performance for the linked data environment. (Kimmy Szeto – City University of New York).

Many thanks are due to the organizers. Having been involved in the organization of both Edinburgh 2000 and Dublin 2011 I know how much work they had to put in.

I'm already looking forward to Riga 2017, Leipzig 2018 and Kraków 2019.

Antony (Ag) Gordon
Heathfield, Disunited Kingdom