1. Introduction

Like many European institutions, catalan museums hold numerous early modern artworks featuring musical iconography, i.e. depicted instruments, musical gestures, notations, and context-specific references to musical life (Seebass 2001; Baldassarre 2008). In their original contexts, such visual–musical elements encoded shared cultural, performative and symbolic knowledge between makers, patrons and viewers, forming an integrated layer of meaning (Prignano 2020). Today, however, this shared framework has largely disappeared: musical iconography from past centuries remains difficult to interpret without specialised expertise and these works often become effectively “mute” to museum visitors. This disconnection persists even within the growing body of research on the relationships between sound—whether ambient or on display—and museum space, where musical iconography remains largely overlooked, along with its potential to mediate access to historical musical cultures (Mathieu 2026). At the same time, the ongoing digital turn in museology offers significant opportunities to approach these sources from new perspectives, enriching their interpretation by reintegrating musical and sonic dimensions within a virtual environment. Indeed, research in digital cultural heritage has shown that such approaches can enhance interpretation, accessibility, and engagement (Champion 2021; Katifori et al. 2018); however, they have only rarely been applied to musical iconography. Existing initiatives range from enriched online catalogue entries with musical metadata (Prado/UCM, El sonido de la pintura , 2011) to in-situ interactive installations (University of Bologna, Gubbio Studiolo , 2019). While valuable, these efforts often remain bound to single collections or require substantial technical maintenance, leaving a gap for lightweight, cross-collection, sound-integrated tools, which the IN-MUSIC project presented in this paper seeks to address.

2. Goals

This project introduces a comparative, multimedia and cross-collection strategy for integrating musical heritage into museum interpretation. It aims to strengthen the museum’s role as an active and continuous promoter of local musical culture, moving beyond occasional or isolated initiatives. The project develops user-friendly, web-based tools accessible across devices, enabling audiences to explore thematic clusters across multiple Catalan collections (e.g. angel musicians, festive contexts, depicted instruments). These tools combine multimedial materials within non-linear pathways, while allowing independent access to each component. Crucially, the approach is designed to be scalable, transferable, and reproducible: it relies on open, accessible technologies and transparent workflows, making it adaptable to different historical contexts and to other forms of intangible heritage with material manifestations.

3. Methods and Design

3.1 Corpus

The case study focuses on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century artworks from the territories of the Crown of Aragon. Collections from seven Catalan museums were examined, including non-displayed works. The guiding principle was historical–cultural relevance rather than aesthetic criteria, with emphasis on works containing significant but little-known musical elements.

The pathways adopt a thematic, modular structure. The design is informed by concepts from Interactive Digital Narrative research (Petousi et al., 2022), particularly regarding node-based structures and flexible user navigation. Open, affordable and widely adopted technologies such as Twine and RealityScan are employed, enabling ease of authoring, browser-based delivery and minimal maintenance. The first prototypes explore two complementary domains, angel musicians and courtly life, allowing users to engage with both sacred and secular musical cultures.

3.3 Audio/video

Audio-visual examples are recorded with locally based specialists using historically informed instruments, in collaboration with musicians active in the local scene, including teachers and alumni of the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). Short excerpts illustrate timbre, performance practice and repertories relevant to the artworks, comparing key musical forms across periods and authors to highlight stylistic continuities and change. Musicians are also consulted in the selection of repertories and instrumental combinations, ensuring historically informed and performatively plausible choices.

3.4 3D

3D models document some of the rare surviving historical instruments, as well as early twentieth-century reconstructions associated with Catalonia’s pioneering early-music revival, all preserved at the Museu de la Música de Barcelona (MuM). Production follows updated academic guidelines and benefits from technical support and training provided through the Giravolt initiative of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

3.5 Museum collaboration

The project involves the Xarxa de Museus d’Art de Catalunya, facilitating coordinated outreach, broad territorial representation, and participation in testing activities. Participation of MuM establishes new collaborations between catalan institutions, linking for the first time its extensive instrument collections with the artworks preserved in local museums.

4. Early insights and expected outcomes

Preliminary design work, the collection of raw materials, and early consultations with partner museums and local collaborators reveal several consistent patterns. Museums consistently express strong interest in light, web-based tools that require minimal maintenance, can be easily integrated into existing infrastructures, and support interdisciplinary approaches to their collections. The local musical community also shows strong engagement, particularly among teachers and alumni of the ESMUC, who are interested in promoting early music repertories that remain relatively underrepresented compared to medieval and especially Baroque traditions.

Expected outcomes include improved public understanding of musical content, increased time spent exploring individual artworks, and greater attention to lesser-known or currently unexhibited pieces. The modular structure of the pathways is also expected to support personalised modes of engagement. Finally, forthcoming user testing will assess the technical sustainability and long-term feasibility of the prototype.

5. Engagement and Diversity

While active participation, non-linear exploration, and sonic interaction foster strong engagement, the pathways provide multimedial access supporting users with diverse cognitive styles and backgrounds. The inclusion of smaller museums contributes to the visibility of peripheral heritage, while collaboration with local musicians introduces disciplinary diversity and bottom-up participation.

User evaluation will employ mixed methods with heterogeneous audiences, combining qualitative feedback (short interviews, observation) and quantitative measures such as usage analytics, time spent on artworks and preferred navigation patterns, drawing on established evaluation models for mobile cultural-heritage tools (Roussou / Katifori, 2018).

6. Next Steps

The next phase of the project will focus on evaluating the educational impact of the pathways through comparative user studies, releasing selected content and workflows as open-access resources, and working with partner museums to integrate the prototype into their institutional websites. Future developments include expanding the pathways to additional collections, incorporating further musical themes, and extending collaboration to other museums in Catalonia.