The Early Keyboard Instrument Database
This is a pre-release beta version of the initial data model, made available by kind permission of the University of Edinburgh. It provides high level information of over 2,000 early keyboard instruments, of which 478 are Clavichords, in the form of an eXist native xml database. As we are still testing the data model, we have not yet developed a user interface, so the only access to the database is via standard eXist Admin application. At present, only the 478 Clavichords have been made available for testing (i.e. none of the harpsichords, virginals etc.).
You must be an approved tester, and will need a username and password to be able to access this database. If you have these, just click on the Java WebStart image to launch the eXist Admin client application.
(If you have a Java Runtime Environment already installed on your machine, it will be used to run the client application. Otherwise, it will first invite you to install the Java Runtime Environment, then run the client application.)
Click here to view the design principles that are being applied to this project.
Click here to view a technical briefing on the development of the database.
Click here to view the xml database structure.
Click here to view a demonstration of how to log on to the database and submit test queries (the demo will run as flash movie in your browser, and lasts just under 4 minutes).
Here's a few simple queries you can try:
To retrieve all 478 clavichords, enter:
//Instrument[@type="Cd"]
To retrieve only those clavichords made in Italy, enter:
//Instrument[@type="Cd" and Attribution/Country="ITALY"]
If you do experiment with the database, and have some feedback, please do let me know.