Digital critical edition of Čiurlionis' piano music: a case study

Abstract

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911) is a key figure in Lithuanian music and art. As a professional composer and painter, he left behind over 220 paintings and 350 musical compositions. His art showcases early examples of abstract painting and serial music in Europe. However, his work and contributions to the music world are not widely known. The publication of his music was delayed for 50 years, and several different systems of cataloguing Čiurlionis' music were used, as well as different editing practices and multiple editorial versions. This complexity made the performance and further research of his music complicated for contemporary users. After a grant of the Lithuanian Research Council was received in 2022, the digital critical edition of Čiurlionis' piano music was started. It is based on the previous research done by members of a research team, when the Chronological Catalogue of Čiurlionis Music (2007) and several urtext editions were published (2010–2020). The currently developed prototype online system is a web-based application that enables users to work with all of Čiurlionis' piano music (manuscripts and previous editions), to use the digital edition for performances, and for further studies or research. The corpus of material is presented as an online digital critical edition with a catalogue, search tool and a specially developed tool for musicological and computational analysis of music scores.