Using Digital Libraries in the Research of the Reception and Interpretation of Richard Wagner's Leitmotifs

This Paper describes a study, which is, as part of the Transforming Musicology-Project, exploring the possibilities, problems and further perspectives of the use of digital libraries (amongst other digital technologies) on a musicological investigation focusing on the reception of Richard Wagner's leitmotifs. The main research interest is to achieve a systematic overview and comparison over the large number of different leitmotif interpretations, as they present themselves e.g. in opera introductions or leitmotif threads, in order to carve out influences, cultural or historical patterns of Wagner interpretation. The paper also describes methodological ideas to integrate digital technologies such as digital libraries to pursue this research, namely on three different stages: 1. the sources are gathered by using digital libraries to assemble a digitally accessible body of material; 2. the sources are dealt with and analysed by using tools to operate on the digital data, such as building up a database containing the different leitmotif interpretations; 3. the outcome of the study is defined and presented differently, as a multidimensional digital content combining the digitally accessible sources themselves, the created or applied methods of search and analysis, as well as the presentation of the research insights gained during the study.