Manuscripts and Sheet Music

The Musical Folklore Archives include a very important collection of manuscripts, which span a wide range of scholarly material. The collection follows the methodical and systematic work of the MFA’s partners from 1930 to the present day, while at the same time preserving the work of earlier scholars and researchers.

Noteworthy is the complete series of transcripts of the 1930- 31 recordings in European notation, which had been assigned to important musicians and musicologists of that time, such as Nikos Skalkotas, Samuel Baud-Bovy, Georgios Poniridis, Petros Petridis and Eugène Borrel.

The collection also includes significant Byzantine sheet music, written by Phanariot precentors Georgios and Nikolaos Redestinos, covering the period from 1870 to around 1930.

Special attention is paid to the methodical cataloguing, digitalization, preservation and appropriate storage of these sensitive manuscripts, in special acid-free sleeves and archival boxes and in premises with controlled temperature and humidity conditions.