History

The development of Edirom Online is closely linked to the question of how digital technologies can be used for editorial projects in musicology. In 2002, the first systematic discussion of how digital media can be used in music editing took place at the Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Seminar in an Editionsseminar exploring the question: How can “new media” be used in the field of music editions? This led to the first Edirom prototype in June 2004, developed with Macromedia Director, followed by a second prototype in June 2005. Back in the early days of digital editions, when CD-ROMs were the primary medium for software, Ralf Westermann (former: Schnieders), a student of Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Seminar, coined the name 'Edirom' by blending the words 'Edition' and 'CD-ROM.' The first official Edirom was published in 2005, featuring the Clarinet Quintet as a supplement to WeGA VI/3 Kammermusik.

Building on these early experiments, the DFG-funded project Edirom – Digitale Musikedition zur „Entwicklung von Werkzeugen für digitale Formen wissenschaftlich-kritischer Musikeditionen“ was launched and ran in three phases from 2006 to 2012. During the first phase (2006–2008), the project hosted the conference “Digitale Edition zwischen Experiment und Standardisierung” in December 2007 at the Heinz-Nixdorf Museums-Forum Paderborn. The Edirom Editor (see releases and help) was released in January 2007 and provided a graphical user interface for creating digital editions, supporting the creation of annotations, measure zones and collations. The Edirom Anzeige, later known as Edirom Viewer was also introduced, allowing users to view and interact with digital editions, still with the limitation to publish the edition on an external medium. The first Java version of the Edirom Anzeige was released in March 2007, with an update in August 2008.

The project continued with further DFG funding from 2009 to 2012, focusing on integrating and expanding the developed tools. In 2011, Edirom Online was introduced as a web application, so the software could now be used in a browser, allowing users to view digital editions without needing to install additional software. This marked a significant step towards making digital editions more accessible and user-friendly. After the end of the DFG project in 2012, Edirom Online continued as an open-source project, with the community actively contributing to its development and maintenance. Important contributions for further development came from the BMBF-funded project Freischütz Digital (2012–2015). In addition the Zentrum Musik–Edition–Medien (ZenMEM) supports and coordinates the sustainable development of the Edirom Online software.

Looking to the future, the Edirom Online Reloaded project (DFG-funded, 2024–2027) aims to modernize the software by modularizing features as web components, separating frontend and backend, and removing dependencies.

From 2025, the two-year DFG-funded PRIMUS project - "Presentation and legally compliant implementation of digital music editions" - will further develop the Edirom Online software and add functionalities that address the legal aspects of digital content. The aim is to integrate new challenges in dealing with copyright-protected sources and open licenses.

Over the years, a lot of projects became aware of the advantages of Edirom Online and published their digital editions using this software.

Explore Edirom Online Editions