GENERAL FEATURES

Search in MUSICA is NOT case-sensitive.
Between fields, the operator AND is active.
All alphanumerical fields are parametrized to work with the operator "is beginning with" (right truncation). That means that the search criterion that you are entering defines the beginning of the term(s) that you are looking for in that field. If you want the search engine to operate differently, you must use the expert search form and change explicitely the operators in the 2 first zones of the search criterion line.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SIMPLIFIED AND EXPERT SEARCH FORMS

The simplified search form proposes you a selection of the most commonly used fields of the Musica documentary structure. This form is static and predefined by the Webmaster. You can fill in only 1 search criterion in each zone of the form. For the field Word of title,..., we have activated 2 zones in order to give you the possibility to "AND" 2 words in that field.
The expert search form allows you to access to much more fields. The search form is built dynamically. You have first to choose a field by clicking on the arrow of this entry. Then you can enter a search criterion, and even choose to have this criterion controlled by 2 kinds of operators that can be chosen in the 2 first zones of the line. Once a search criterion defined, you can either ask for the results, or add an additional criterion. This additional criterion can either be defined in the same field as before, or you can choose another field. You will see that the search form will dynamically build up with your different entries. With this method, you can give as many criteria as you want in one field, activate as many fields as you want and activate, independently for each criterion, up to 2 operators at the same time (and, or or except for the first, is beginning with, is equal to, is greater than, etc... for the second. See below for more details on the operators).

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE FIELDS "TITLE" and "WORDS OF TITLE,..."

The field TITLE is indexed, in Musica, as a whole entity, thus allowing, for instance, to edit alphabetical lists. Thus search in this field needs that the search criterion begins with the beginning of the title, but you do not need to type it entirely. Right truncation (operator "is beginning with") is active.
The field WORDS OF TITLE is indexed by word. Thus, you can choose any word of association of words of the title as for the criteria!

• Ex: The correct title of Brahms's deutsches Requiem is Ein deutsches Requiem. Thus, searching for the composer Brahms and the title deutsches requiem will not succeed. On the contrary, searching for requiem in "Words of Title" will select all the records of Musica concerning Brahms and containing requiem, even in the keywords. Thus you will not only find Ein deutsches Requiem of Brahms, but also the french edition Un Requiem allemand and eventually other musics of Brahms about requiem, what can be an unexpected interesting information.

TYPES OF FIELDS

In Musica on the Web, 2 types of fields are appearing:

• alphanumerical fields
• numerical fields

Alphanumeric means that every stroke on your keyboard is considered as a character.
Numeric means that the whole criterion that you are typing is considered as a number (or a interval between 2 numbers; see below)
A difference, therefore, exists for the default operator, in the simplified search form and in the expert search form as well: for alphanumerical fields, the default operator is "is beginning with". For the numerical fields, the default operator is "is equal to". See below how to do it.

The numerical fields in Musica are:

• - Duration
  - Number of voices
  - Number of instrumental parts
  - Number of soloists
  - Difficulty for the singer
  - Year of composition

SEARCH INTERVALS

Ex: Duration : from 4 to 6 minutes.

You can define search intervals by using the expert mode.
To do so, in the line "define your search criterium", click on the arrow of the second zone and choose "in the interval of",then, in the search criterium (third zone), input your 2 limits separated by a dash. Example: 4-6 for the above mentioned duration
Other example: A-E to select only the answers the criteria of which begin by the letters A to E.

ORDER OPERATORS

Ex: Duration : lower or equal to 4 minutes

These order operators are:

- greater than
- greater or equal to
- lower than
- lower of equal to
- is exactly
- in the interval of

The default operator is : "is equal to".

You can choose another operator with the expert mode.
To do so, in the line "define your search criterium", click on the arrow of the second zone and choose "the desired operator",then, in the search criterium (third zone), input your search criterium.

RIGHT TRUNCATIONS

Ex: you want to select scores using the keyword sea and do not want to include, in the scores about the seasons

The default operator is : "is beginning with".
You can change it by using the expert mode. In the line "define your search criterium", click on the arrow of the second zone and choose "is equal to".

DISPLAY OF RESULTS BEYOND THE 50 FIRST ONES

Display of results of searches in Musica have been volontarily limited on the Web to the 50 first answers.

However, there are several solutions to see more:

a) THE solution: Purchase and use the DVD-Rom! It displays all the answers for each search. You will have all the other advantages of the DVD-Rom in addition.
b) Make a donation to Musica here. We will then offer you a privileged access to the site as an acknowledgement.
c) Split the results into several complementary sub-sets by using an additional criterion. For instance, for a search of all works of a composer, you can first search for all works for mixed voices, then for equal voices, ...
If this is not sufficient, one can take benefit of the fact that for a given composer, say Mozart, the titles are classified alphabetically; thus, use the expert search mode and add a second criterion for the title with the order operator set to "in the interval", say W-ZZ. This gives you all the titles of Mozart beginning with W, X, Y or Z. Repeat similar searches for all other intervals. One can always find correct intervals for having less than 50 answers after search