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Purpose
The founding of the Centre d’Informations Musicales (CIM) of
the Conseil Départemental pour la Culture et la Musique de
Haute-Alsace is due to the will of the latter to offer its
direct interlocutors, which are the about one hundred and
fifty music schools and one hundred and eighty music societies
(meaning concert bands) of Upper Alsace a tool meeting their
needs. As a consulting and study place the CIM wants to be a
logistic support for all teachers, trainers, conductors, etc.
It doesn’t act as a lending library but offers his
visitors a permanent access to an up-to-date information on
the tools put at their disposal by the specialised press, to
improve both their educational approach of the instrumental
disciplines and of the musical training and their knowledge of
the diversity of the wind orchestra repertoire. Due to its
specificity and the means used, this initiative is unique in
France, and thus opens up naturally for all professional and
amateur musicians, from France and abroad, who want to live
with their time, or even to play a leading role in their
favourite field : wind orchestras.
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Documents
Located
in a splendid environment, at the first floor of the former
Guebwiller Dominican monastery, the CIM occupies a surface of
300 square meters, of which two third are the consulting area
reserved for the public. Five people work to enrich and
present the collection which covers all kind of media, ranging
from the most traditional ones (printed documents) to the most
recent ones (digital media). The scores and recordings of wind
orchestra works (concert bands, brass bands, fanfares…) make
the specificity and the main orientation of the whole. Indeed,
the goal is to gather and to offer in one only place a wide
choice of varied quality repertoires, and also to explore less
familiar styles and countries by facilitating their access for
the CIM users. Composers, publishers and record producers
understand this very well and show a particular interest for
this initiative, as well as other foreign organisms, also
specialised in the same field – with whom the CDMC exchanges
numerous information and considers common projects – in
particular in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy.
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Research tools
In
order to make the researches of its users easier, the CDMC
puts a computer based catalogue at their disposal, which
allows them to search the database according to numerous
criteria (composer, arranger, title or words of the title,
publishers, subject, kind of orchestra, soloist instrument,
length, …), to listen directly with headphones on the
multimedia stations the corresponding recordings and to
consult the full scores of the selected works. The direct
access to all documents also allows a more intuitive search
through the various areas of the Centre d’Informations
Musicales: common ones (dictionaries, encyclopaedias, guides,
directories), educational works (books and scores),
periodicals (fifty subscriptions for specialised reviews
running), full scores (for concert bands, brass-bands…),
instrumental repertoire, etc.
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Events
Furthermore,
in direct correlation with the Training-Spreading Department
of the CDMC, the CIM offers several types of activities :
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thematic events about a composer, in particular living
composers, which are asked to talk about their work, their
writing and interpretation techniques, events about the
editorial offer of a country, about various repertoire
categories (repertoire for youth ensembles, original
repertoire, transcriptions…),
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commented listening,
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public rehearsals…
It
also puts a room with about fifteen places, equipped with
audio and video, at the disposal of groups in order to allow
teachers or contributors to listen or to watch and to study
documents in common.
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Prospects
Finally,
aiming to a larger accessibility, it plans to allow soon the
access to its catalogue through the Internet. The CDMC already
gives numerous information thanks to its site (www.cdmc68.com),
and in particular the direct link to other interesting
documentary or even commercial sites. The CIM regularly scans
the documentary and commercial offers and retains only the
sites of real interest for its public: libraries and musical
information centres, music festivals, instrumental or ensemble
contests, specialised editors and producers, orchestras,
musicians, national and international musical organisms,… It
also took a subscription for several thematic discussion
groups (documentation, libraries, music instruments) which
allow him to keep informed of the most recent changes in these
various fields and to exchange useful information with
interlocutors all around the world.
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