ChoralWiki:Volunteers
Hello all,
Welcome to the Volunteers page, and thank you for your interest in helping out! The site was just installed on August 23, 2005. The complete archive from CPDL is now available in page format. It consists of composer pages and music pages, which are linked together. There are several major issues that need to be addressed immediately. Some result from the transfer process, but most are long-standing issues with the CPDL data. Luckily, ChoralWiki is fully editable, so folks can jump in (if you feel comfortable). That is where you come in. Since all pages are editable, it is hoped that pages can be improved collaboratively. With this in mind here is list of major items that need to be addressed. Also, here is a link to a page for help with Wiki Page Editing. Thank again for your willingness to help CPDL!
Best,
Rafael Ornes, Manager CPDL, ornes@cpdl.org
Adopt-a-Composer
Volunteer to "Adopt" the composer of your choice (if he/she is not already taken) by visiting the adopt a composer page. You would build up the composer page with additional material fo your "adopted" composer.
Fixing incorrect or incomplete information
Many scores on CPDL have incomplete data. This causes searches and browsing features to give incomplete results. There are several instances that can be easily fixed. Here are some examples of items:
- Incorrect number of voices: If you search for '0vv' you will find hundreds of scores which do not have the correct number of voices or voicing information. Feel free to add this information.
- Choral music category missing: If you browse the category Category:Unknown, you will find hundreds of mislabelled entries. Click on one and then click on edit and scroll to the bottom of the page. You should see the text [[Category:Unknown]]. This usually should be changed to [[Category:Sheet music]] for all choral scores and [[Category:Solo vocal music]] for solo vocal music.
- Choral music genres and voicing missing: Likewise, if you browse the categories Category:Unknown genre and Category:Unknown voicing, Category:Unknown nationality and you will find many entries. A standard choral work should have the following categories at the bottom of the works page:
[[Category:Sheet music]][[Category:Sacred music]][[Category:Motets]][[Category:SATB]]
(The genre, subgenre, and voicing information should be changed to reflect the actual piece)
Adding texts and translations
One of the many advantages of CPDL being a wiki is that any user can easily add texts or translations to a score page. You can view a list of score pages which need texts adding here. It is a good idea to read through the help page on how to add texts and translations.
In the case where there are many settings of the same text (eg. Mass settings, Pater Noster, etc.), one "text page" exists for the text and all translations. All score pages which use that text then link to the text page.
Here are two web addresses with lots of translations that need to be added:
- ChoralWiki:Translations/St._Ann_Choir: A set of translations that are available to be placed on CPDL.
- ChoralWiki:Translations/Swithinbank: A set of translations that were created by Mick Swithinbank for CPDL last spring, and which need to be re-entered.
Adding information to Composer pages
One of the goals of the new website is to create a resource for finding scores and information about a composer. With this in mind, it is requested that people add material to composer pages. One easy way is to visit the Composer pages, click on Unknown nationality under the 'Nationality subsection. Then, find a composer (and his/her nationality), click on the composer's name, click on the 'edit this page' tab, and change the line at the bottom from [[Category:Unknown_nationality]] to [[Category:Russian composers]] (or any other nationality). There are 350 composers with unkown nationalities. Here is the link:
Fixing dead links
There are two primary types of dead links:
1: When brackets appear [[title,composername,etc.]], that means that the link is broken, usually because of a missing umlaut or accented character. If you repair that character the link should work.
2: When a link appears red, that means that there is no associated page to that link. Either the link is wrong, or the destination page is misspelled.
- A special page called "Orphaned pages" lists all those pages which are not linked from any other page.
3: When a web-link returns an error - or shows the intended information is not on the hosted site - the
page should be edited and marked with the "broken template", which will show up as: 
. It goes just just after the CPDL Number, as shown below:
Example --> *'''CPDL #7884:''' {{broken}}[http://www.odhecatonmusic ...
Creating redirects and aliases for optional spellings of composers
This involves creating links to composer names, based on a common name, or on a variant spelling. For example, the page for Orlando di Lasso should appear when people type in a search for 'Roland Lassus' or 'Lassus'. This is done be creating 'redirects'. To create a redirect, go to a page called 'Roland Lassus' and edit the page so that this line appears:
#redirect[[Orlando di Lasso]]
This will cause all searches for 'Roland Lassus' to be redirected to the page for 'Orlando di Lasso'. Similarly, redirects should be created in many cases so that the last names of composers point directly to the composer page. An important question arises: 'What should the official name for a composer be?' If you are interested in discussing such issues, or suggesting a name change, you can post the suggestion on the discussion page for a particular composer (see the tabs along the top of a wiki page), or post it on the CPDL forum.
Combining multiple editions for a single musical work onto one page
All redundant listings should be moved to the corresponding Title page, and then removed from the Composer page. Check out Giuseppe Pitoni for an example of how this is done. (look at the 'history' tab on that page to see how it appeared originally). Over 500 pieces have duplicate listings that need to be fixed.
Combining movements of a larger work onto one page and deleting excess pages
Especially important for all Mass listings. Instructions will be forthcoming...