It should be remembered that this collection resulted from no more than a wish on Minter’s part to acquire music, put it into performable editions and perhaps hear it played. What the handlist provides is summary data about the collection. The value of this site to any user will depend on what he or she wants from it, but at best it will have perhaps three purposes. First, it can form the basis for limited quantitative investigations of some features of the repertoire in the collection, such as the frequency with which certain instrumental combinations appear; secondly, in most cases it provides sufficient information to determine the primary sources of the works; and finally the abundant loose ends in the handlist – unattributed works, uncertain concordances and so on – provide a list of seductive research questions.
