The digital finding aid for musical works contained in collections, sets, and series

What is RISE?

Building on the legacy of the Index to Printed Music, RISE is a comprehensive digital finding aid for locating musical works published within collections, sets, and series. It indexes individual pieces found in complete editions of composers’ works, anthologies of music, born-digital editions, and scholarly collections. Each record includes detailed descriptions: performing forces/instrumentation, language, genre, type of score, sources, and publication information. With more than 590,000 entries, RISE expands every year to include new entries as they appear on the market. It is an essential tool for performers and researchers.

New Scope and Enhanced Features

RISE expands on the historical mission of the Index to Printed Music by including digital editions as well as scores outside the Western classical canon. It also contains over 10,000 records with direct links to open-access editions, many of which are born-digital editions. In line with RILM’s global mission, RISE indexes publications from 58 countries across six continents and vocal music in over 100 languages, from Latin to Xhosa.

In addition to its core search features, RISE offers many ways to search the index: the preferred title link connects users to all editions of a work, a full-text limiter shows records with links to open-access editions, and the instrumentation search displays pieces written for a variety of instrumental combinations. Links between different record types facilitate easy navigation from the most granular details of individual works to information on an entire series or collection. 

Trials and Subscriptions

Discovery

Series Covered

History

RISE (formerly the Index to Printed Music) began in 1985 with an NEH grant written by George R. Hill to create a finding aid for musical scores in scholarly editions. Over time, it evolved into a comprehensive database, incorporating the full contents of Collected Editions, Historical Series & Sets & Monuments of Music: A Bibliography by George R. Hill and Norris L. Stephens (Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press, 1997), itself rooted in Anna H. Heyer’s seminal Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music: A Guide to Their Contents (American Library Association, 1957–1980). The database was further developed under the James Adrian Music Company, founded by Hill in 2000. Hill continued its growth until 2018, when RILM assumed ownership and editorial stewardship, ensuring its continued expansion and accessibility.