Functions of the covers of music documents in the perspective of cover studies (okładkoznawstwo)

Abstract

The concept of „cover studies” (Polish: okładkoznawstwo) as a multidisciplinary research field is relatively young in Poland, despite the fact that research in this field has been conducted earlier. The article extensing some of the theses from the author’s earlier works, it is also the first attempt to describe the music-sheet covers from a bibliological perspective (as a protection of a document, adapted to its form and content with specific functions and structure) and cover studies (as a publishing product, with specific editorial, aesthetic, historical, cultural, sociological and semiotic features aimed at evoking a specific reaction in the receiver). The overview of the functions of the music-sheet covers allowed to present the benefits of research on them and to ask the question whether this kind of covers has any specific functions, unknown to other types of documents (it has been shown that the answer requires further research).