Library receives grant to expand music software

In 1996, the IU School of Music developed the nation's first digital music library, which allowed students to access vast music libraries and interact with what they heard through innovative digital capabilities at the University. \nNow, thanks to a $770,000 grant, students across the nation will hear that music, and IU will spearhead the changing landscape of music education.\nOn Sept. 20, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the School of Music a grant to expand the library software, Variations, to other universities across the nation. The IU Digital Library Program will head the project. \n"By the end of the grant, we hope to release Variations3 as open source software that would be free to any institution who wants to use it," said Jon Dunn, program director and associate director for technology.\nInstitutions who see Variations want it.\n"When members of the Variations2 team have given presentations at various conferences, one of the first reactions from music faculty is, 'Can we get this?' The aim of the new grant is to transform Variations into a system that other institutions can easily adopt," said Eric Isaacson, Variations2 principle investigator and chair of music theory.\nThe Digital Library Program developed Variations2 after the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $3 million research grant in 2000. Its predecessor, Variations, was one of the world's first digital music systems. \n"IU's Variations system, which went online in 1996, was the first example in the world of digitized music distributed over a computer network for educational use," Dunn said.\nSince the onset of Variations, students have benefited from digitally catalogued music. Students now have access to over 10,000 recordings in one location.\nBefore Variations, students had to check out CDs. LPs or cassette tapes to listen to music for class assignments and them at machines in the Music Library, said musicology professor Peter Burkholder. This meant that only a handful of students could listen to a particular song at a time.\n"This always created logjams, because everyone in a class is normally listening to the same pieces at the same times because they are preparing for a class session or studying for an examination," he said. "With Variations, all the students in a class can listen to the pieces on reserve when they want to, at their own pace. This was already a great step forward with the first Variations program." \nTraditional music education involves listening to a sound recording while studying a score, said Burkholder. But, Variations allows students to interact with the music.\n"One of the principal aims of Variations2 was to make it possible for students to work more interactively with music they were studying in their classes, rather than listening passively," Isaaacson said. "Among the benefits that have emerged, the students found the ability to listen to their extensive listening lists from their homes extremely convenient. The 'listening quiz' feature helped them prepare for exams. The Timeliner tool made it easier to illustrate the structure of works. The ability to display musical scores and highlight features in multiple colors with the annotation tools was more convenient and easier to see than using overhead transparencies." \nCurrently, IU's music students can bookmark places within a recording, view and annotate scores while listening, skip to a specific measure, analyze musical form with a Timeliner tool, create a playlist and prepare for tests with the playlist listening drill tool -- all in the convenience of their rooms.\n"It makes it incredibly easy to listen to recordings. You can access publication information, related texts and scores, which is fantastic," said Carmund White, Doctorate of Musicology and Voice student. The benefits are not confined to music students either. \n"Variations has really opened the School of Music because the technology is great. They're using it to make music more accessible, not just to music students, but non-music majors, too, who have classes involving music," White said.\nStudents cite the accessibility to be the paramount feature of the software. Doctorate of musicology student Kasia Sokol sat submersed in binders, visibly frustrated by her workload. The computer in front of her revealed the Variations homepage. She recognizes that the accessibility of Variations reduces her labor.\n"All the music I have to listen to is right here. I don't have to run separate recordings," Sokol said. \nAcademic institutions want this novel resource, and with the conception of Variations3, the School of Music will distribute this esteemed educational tool, reaching students across the nation. \n"Variations will give IU a lot of prestige," graduate student of musicology Jon Yaeger said. "They've already gotten a lot of good press in the academic world and especially in library science"