Publications of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin's archive

In 1999 the music archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, which was considered lost for a long time, resurfaced in Kiew. After successful negotiations concerning restitution, the collection returned to Germany in December 2001; since then it is kept as a deposit of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in the music department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz and open to the public.

Almost ten years have passed now since the rediscovery of this precious collection, which is of great interest to researchers and practical musicians alike. This continuous interest is documented in numerous concerts and CD productions with works from the archive as well as in the considerable efforts that have been undertaken in terms of conservation, cataloguing and musicological studies. The endeavors of Bach researchers were pioneering: In 2006 the Bach-Archiv Leipzig published a complete descriptive catalogue of the Bachiana kept in the collection. The historical significance of the Sing-Akademie archive can be summarized as follows: Due to its origins, the collection – apart from its numerous unique and precious items from the 17th and 18th centuries – can be regarded a “memory” of the music history of Berlin and northern Germany. The bulk of the material, which was mainly gathered by institution’s second director Carl Friedrich Zelter, consists of the more or less complete music libraries of cantors, musicians of the court chapel, and connoisseurs, of which many were members of the Sing-Akademie themselves. The collection as a whole unfolds a multi-faceted panorama, providing valuable insights in the taste of musical amateurs from the second half of the 18th century in Berlin and far beyond as well as concerning aspects of regional music history, source transmission, and the developments of certain genres. Thus studies of the Sing-Akademie sources can yield significant contributions to a description of music history in the 18th and early 19th century.