The McGoodwin Music Database

Music is life, and like life, inextinguishable.
(Carl Nielsen)

Leighton (Lord Frederic), Music Lesson, 1877 (detail)
(Frederic Leighton, Music Lesson, 1877, detail)

The McGoodwin Music Database is a database application intended for serious music lovers, scholars, and collectors with large music collections. I have developed it gradually over many years of amateur musical interest. It is a free but copyrighted "open source" project intended for noncommercial use only. (For specific licensure information, click here).

Goals

There are several goals this database aims for:

Persons

It lists the full names and years lived or flourished of many of the great or near-great figures of music, particularly composers--over 1600 persons in all. Many of these persons are identified regarding typical roles they have played in music (e.g., as composer, librettist, conductor, soprano, etc.)

Works

It provides a relatively large listing of the known ("extant") works of music, selected primarily from the classical repertory. There are over 7,000 works and subworks listed currently, including more than 500 operas.

Recordings

It provides a means for listing the recordings of performances which you have in your collection, or wish to keep track of. The Database includes a listing of over 700 recordings, mostly in CD format.

Searching

There are many features that I have included that facilitate searching for various works and recordings, including by non-English or English names. Using filters, you may view subsets of the collection (for instance, only the operatic extant works).

Playing AV Files

I have also incorporated a mechanism for storing in the database the names of audio-visual files you possess, and for playing these files using Play buttons located on the database forms.

Selected Screen Shots

View 1
The "Extant Works" form showing the work Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. 30 subworks (in this case, the prelude and various acts and scenes) are explicitly included in the subworks subform. Five of these subworks are currently visible in the subform, the first of which (the Prelude) is highlighted and can be played as an AV file by pressing the arrowhead in the subform. Two recordings are listed as containing this complete work, and the highlighted one can be played by pressing the arrowhead in the Recordings subform.

McGoodwin Music Database, Screen Shot of Extant Works Form

View 2
The "Recordings" form showing a recording having 13 line item works and subworks, all by Corelli. The single work included and its 12 subworks are currently visible in the subform. The currently highlighted work, Corelli's Concerti grossi taken as a whole, has an AV file which may be played by pressing the arrowhead in the subform. Doing this will invoke a playlist which will play each of the 12 concerti grossi contained in this work in sequence. (Each of these subworks happen also to be individually named on the subform, corresponding to the recording's tracks 1 through 35, and may be separately played if desired). A playlist also exists for the entire recording, which may be played by clicking on the arrowhead lower left.

McGoodwin Music Database, Screen Shot of Recordings Form

View 3
The "Works on Recordings" form showing a recorded work by Handel. This form facilitates searching for a recorded work, using the text box which combines work name, name translation, and opus information

McGoodwin Music Database, Screen Shot of Recorded Works form

How to Learn More and Download

View the complete Program Manual for the McGoodwin Music Database
Download the McGoodwin Music Database (for use in Microsoft Access)

File mcmavdb.exe, a self-extracting ZIP archive file, 3.0 Mb,
Version 8.0b last updated 18 May 2007.
View a webpage listing more than 8,000 Extant Works and Subworks extracted from the McGoodwin Music Database

Last updated 30 July 2007. 1.1 MB
Note: This is a very large webpage.