Key idea & worked example
A state describes an instrument at a particular phase; a configuration describes how its components are arranged and function together. Context limits where a statement applies.
A well-formed record can preserve disagreement accurately while the historical interpretation remains open.See the worked example →On this page
Historical state
An account may have a publication date without establishing the date of the configurationConfigurationAn identified arrangement of components and their relationships. Rebuilding or reassigning parts can change a configuration while the instrument’s broader identity persists.Work through the Cuntz example → it describes. Avoid turning an undated observationObservationA record connecting a property and result to the thing observed, with a method and source context. A number alone leaves those relationships unspecified.Explain the 1281 mm Cuntz observation → into a precise chronology.
Which Cuntz are we describing?
A state describes an instrument at a particular phase; a configuration describes how its components are arranged and function together. Context limits where a statement applies.
- IdentityThe instrumentContinuity must be argued from evidence.has a scoped description
- StateA documented phaseWhen the description applies.describes an arrangement
- ConfigurationParts & relationshipsAn arrangement within the qualified scope.
Work through the example 3 STEPS
The thesis distinguishes the physical description of four registers and 180 pipes from an analyzed digital configuration with five register labels and 225 recordings. The published VAO also inventories 225 pipe entities.
Keep the descriptions attributed
Record the historical description, digital analysis configuration and published inventory with their respective sources. Their numbers concern different documented accounts.
Ask the state and counting question
Determine which phase, configuration and counting convention each account describes before comparing totals. A virtual register label is not by itself an additional original physical register.
Retain the unresolved mapping
The thesis identifies a missing mapping, particularly for Regal 8′. Keep that unresolved relation visible. A structured manifest records its inventory but does not independently settle the historical discrepancy.
- Cuntz Positiv · VAO 0.5.0-rc.2 ↗
Published manifest: identities, measurement observations, realization digests, profiles and rights. Exact examples checked against this release.
- Dominik Ukolov · Musikinstrumente im virtuellen Raum (2026)
Submitted dissertation, 11 September 2026; §§8.2.2.1 and 8.4.1, printed pp. 264–265 and 275–276. The historical description and digital inventory require a resolved mapping; the manuscript is not redistributed here.
- MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0 ↗
Identity, state, configuration, evidence, assertions, context and provenance. Teaching examples explain its distinctions without inventing new normative properties.
This example does not assert that the organ underwent a particular rebuild or that an extra original register existed.
The useful distinction. A well-formed record can preserve disagreement accurately while the historical interpretation remains open.
Identity and relationships
Shared names and similar specifications can suggest a relationship without proving identity. Unresolved actor or represented-instrument links should remain unresolved in downstream analysis unless additional evidenceEvidenceMaterial offered as grounds for a claim. Its relevance depends on the claim, context, transmission and interpretation.Work through the Cuntz example → supports a decision.
Geographic precision
Coordinates can refer to locations at different levels of precision. Preserve coordinate qualifications and administrative evidence when making maps or spatial comparisons.
Counts and occurrences
A source-account row is not necessarily a unique physical component. For example, multiple accounts may describe the same stop at different times. Count the unit that your question actually concerns.
Missing values have different causes
| Situation | Careful interpretation |
|---|---|
| No stoplist in a source | The source does not provide a list; the instrument is not thereby described as having no stops. |
| An unresolved builder link | An attribution is present but has not been linked confidently to a canonical actor. |
| An undated specification | A description exists, but its applicability to a configuration date remains uncertain. |
| An approximate location | The available evidence supports a geographic scope less precise than a surveyed point. |
Keep these distinctions through transformations. Converting all missing values to zero, attaching an arbitrary year or resolving every name by its nearest spelling can make a table easier to compute while changing its meaning. If a method requires complete cases, document the selection rule and assess which sources or regions it disproportionately removes.
Repeated accounts are not independent witnesses
Agreement across records can be valuable, but sources may copy one another or derive from a shared earlier account. Count supporting records separately from independent evidence. When the transmission relationship is unknown, that uncertainty belongs in the interpretation rather than being replaced by a simple majority vote.
Do three copies of a value count as three measurements?
Source dependence means that apparently separate records may derive from the same underlying evidence. Corroboration needs attention to that shared origin.
- Original sourceOne recorded observationThe evidence begins at an identified source.is copied or transformed
- Derivative copiesSeveral displaysSpreadsheets, exports and graphs may repeat it.retains the same lineage
- Evidence countOne lineageRepetition does not create independent measurement.
Work through the example 3 STEPS
Imagine the Cuntz value 1281 mm appearing in a workbook, an exported JSON observation and a catalogue summary based on that export. Only the first two are the concrete record types used here; the catalogue repetition is illustrative.
Trace each occurrence
The JSON observation points to the workbook cell. The hypothetical summary points to that observation. These records form a derivation chain.
Count the evidence correctly
Three appearances of the value do not establish three independent measurement sessions. Repeating an extraction in another file adds accessibility, not an independent observation.
Seek a genuinely different check
An independently documented measurement or suitable calibrated survey could support comparison. Its own conditions and uncertainty would still need inspection.
- Cuntz Positiv · VAO 0.5.0-rc.2 ↗
Published manifest: identities, measurement observations, realization digests, profiles and rights. Exact examples checked against this release.
- MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0 ↗
Identity, state, configuration, evidence, assertions, context and provenance. Teaching examples explain its distinctions without inventing new normative properties.
This example supplies no additional independent measurement of the Cuntz pipe.
The useful distinction. Count independent evidence, not the number of places where a claim is repeated.
A bounded comparison is often more useful
For a comparison of specifications, choose a documented unit, date scope and inclusion rule before interpreting differences. Report both what the selected corpus supports and what it cannot answer. A bounded result about attributed accounts can be strong research without claiming to describe every surviving instrument or its present condition.
One coverage statistic, carefully bounded
For POD 1.6.0, 143,880 of 215,769 canonical organs have stop accounts: approximately 66.7 percent. This describes presence of that category of documentation in the specified release. It does not assess whether each account is complete, whether multiple accounts concern the same state, or how well the corpus represents all historical organs. The 3,604,579 public stop rows use another counting unit and must not be substituted for a count of physical stops.