15th October 2021
RWA online
Music edition project Reger-Werkausgabe conquers new paths and starts publicating its digital edition's contents through new web service RWA online.
Together with the publication of the two latest edition volumes Songs II (Volume II/2) and Works for mixed voice unaccompanied choir II (Volume II/9) with Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart, the Reger-Werkausgabe (RWA) launches its new project website RWA online. The RWA thus renews its hybrid edition's model and publishes the digital edition components online, centrally, sustainably and freely accessible.
As in the past with the volume-by-volume DVDs, the digital edition parts consist of the accompanying scholarly texts, the digital editions with critical report and a comprehensive digital encyclopaedia (from late 2021) about life and œuvre of Max Reger. With RWA online, the previous boundaries of the double edition volume/DVD become permeable. Users will have a variety of possibilities to embark on extensive digital wanderings through the entire complex of works edited in the RWA and their historical contexts beyond a separate volume context. In addition to being able to follow the progress of the edition project just in time, users always will have access to the current state of research and published material.
RWA online is developed and operated by the Max-Reger-Institute (MRI) in Karlsruhe/Germany as an additional service to its central research and information web service Max-Reger-Portal and is thus directly connected to the research data repositories there. Following the publication of digital editions of volumes II/2 and II/9, the digital encyclopaedia will also be made accessible by the end of 2021, as well as the editions of volumes II/1, II/7 and II/8, which have so far been published in Module II - Songs and Choral Works. Furthermore, the editions of Module I - Organ Works, which has already been completed, will follow in the course of 2022.
The RWA and the MRI are significantly supported in the implementation of RWA online by the Carus-Verlag in Stuttgart, which has kindly agreed to make all printed content accessible in RWA online, with the exception of a full page view of the printed musical text. Thus, in addition to the accompanying scholarly texts, the complete critical report, together with a partial representation of the printed musical text, can be provided to the user free of charge. The complete edition text is reserved for users of the printed volumes.
Since the publication of the project's first volume in 2010, the editions of the Reger-Werkausgabe have been widely known for and connected to extensive digital reproductions of Reger's manuscripts and their respective first editions. Here, too, the RWA is able to rely on the manifold and generous support of many institutional and private manuscript owners (see Acknowledgement).
The technical implementation of RWA online was made possible not least by the surrounding research and funding conditions of the Akademienprogramm - represented by the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz - together with other music edition projects. In particular, the intensive exchange with the Weber-Gesamtausgabe should be mentioned here.
Detailed information on the RWA can be found at About the RWA.