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Reported by Susanne Staral

Monday July 19, 9:15 - 10:45

In the first of its two sessions in Wellington on Monday morning (July 19) Hartmut Walravens (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz-, Berlin, Germany) gave a "Report from the field. Update on the International Standard Music Number (ISMN)". The still relatively new ISMN is already implemented in twenty countries. There are also two Music in print publications that give an idea of how the numbering system may be used as an instrument for rationalization and increasing efficiency. The progress report informed about the latest developments. As announced at the ISMN Meeting in London in March 1999 there are two new members: Slovenia and Greece. Furthermore the Users' Manual was translated into Japanese. The International Music Publishers' ISMN Directory which was published in 1998 covers about 11,000 music publishers from 72 countries.

Brian W. Pritchard (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand) informed about "A project for documenting New Zealand's musical history". The widely-ranging Canterbury Series of Bibliographies, Catalogues and Source Documents in Music (established in 1984) attempts to document diverse aspects of the musical heritage of New Zealand including music in education, performance of music, music in the domestic situation, repertoire, music profession, music trade, venues for music performance and music and the public admission charges. Nine volumes are published.

Wednesday July 21, 11:15 - 12:45

At the beginning of the second session (July 21) Hartmut Walravens gave a brief information about "International Standard Work Code (ISWC); a new standard in progress". This ISO work item has reached already the stage of a Draft International Standard. If there are any questions about that please don't hesitate to contact Hartmut Walravens (E-mail: walravens@sbb.spk-berlin.de). Three papers followed this statement.

Jack Body (Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand) gave detailed informations about "The life and times of Waiteata Music Press: a personal view of music publishing in New Zealand". Waiteata Music Press was established by the famous composer Douglas Lilburn in 1967 and has become the leading publisher of music by New Zealand composers. Jack Body is one of New Zealand's best known composers and an editor of the Press since 1979. The guiding tenet of the Press is to make available scores by New Zealand composers at as low cost as possible, and to relate scores available recordings.

Prue Neidorf's (IAML Australia, Chifley, Australia) paper dealt with "On its way at last: Australia's guide to dating its 'early music' (nineteenth century imprints)." The core of the work so far are the two directories for Sydney and Melbourne. There is as yet no general history of Australian mainstream publishing and printing. A recent bibliography for the HOBA (History of the Book in Australia) project, which consists of over 6,000 items, has only five items relating to music for both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the end of her paper we were delighted to see some examples of the next exhibition she will be curating titled "A sociological study of the body language of emus and kangaroos as depicted on 19^th century Australian sheet music covers".

The last speaker was, again, Hartmut Walravens. One of his favorites are area studies, and therefore he hopes that his presentation of "The earliest music recordings from China" may encourage further study of such extant material. The earliest recordings from China, done mostly by the phonographic method, are now a hundred years old. This material, now scattered over repositories in Berlin, Bloomington, and New York provides an insight into musical interpretation practice of late imperial China. The earliest recordings that we have from China were made by Berthold Laufer (1874-1934).

During the first session new officers were elected to serve for the next three years: Susanne Staral (Germany), Chair; Barbara Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk (Poland), Vice-Chair; and Thomas Leibnitz (Austria), Secretary.