10 March 2014
The Decca Record Company: PhD studentship
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Studentship
‘The Decca Record Company of the 1960s and 1970s: the legacy of Christopher Raeburn’
The Music Department at the University of Sheffield and the British Library are pleased to announce a three-year PhD Studentship under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) Scheme, to commence 1 October 2014. The successful applicant will receive full funding (tuition fees; maintenance payment of £15,863 for 2014/15, increasing annually), plus associated expenses (£550 yearly maintenance payment from AHRC; up to £1,000 per annum from the British Library to cover travel and related costs).
The subject of this studentship will be the Christopher Raeburn papers, recently acquired by the British Library. Christopher Raeburn pursued a lengthy career as a record producer, initially with the Decca Record Company, working globally as a member of the Decca production team with conductors and orchestras of the highest calibre, and then as a freelance producer, in which capacity he masterminded the careers of several of the finest of today’s musicians.
The archive of his papers held by the British Library covers the whole of his career and is extremely detailed, enabling a large range of subjects to be considered for primary research by candidates. Applicants for this studentship are welcome to shape the precise proposal according to their own interests, skills and initiative. Points of enquiry may include amongst much else:
- the professional career of Christopher Raeburn
- the role of the classical music producer at Decca, taking into account the classical music production team of which he was a member from the late 1950s onwards, under firstly John Culshaw and then Ray Minshull
- a history of Decca in the post-War period and its significance in the development of the international classical music recording industry.
This Partnership offers a collaborative supervisory team that brings together Sheffield University’s Dr Dominic McHugh and Dr David Patmore, both of the University’s Department of Music, and, from the British Library, Dr Nicolas Bell, the Curator of Music Collections and Jonathan Summers, the Curator of the Classical Music Sound Archive. This will be the third collaborative partnership in the field of the history of the recording industry between the British Library and the University of Sheffield.
The successful candidate will profit from the academic and practical resources of both partner institutions, becoming a full participant in the vibrant research community at the University of Sheffield while also having the opportunity to gain first hand professional experience of curatorial work at the British Library in London, including cataloguing, digitization, conservation and exhibitions work. The student will be allocated office space in the British Library and will be able to access the British Library’s Sound Archive, as well as its extensive collection of printed materials including books, journals and magazines relevant to the subject. In addition they will be able to participate in the Library's rich programme of public events, study days and student seminars and to disseminate research findings to academic and non-academic audiences. The student will be expected to contribute to the re-cataloguing of the Raeburn papers, on the basis of 60 days per year for three years, work which in the past has proved to be invaluable in gaining deep and relevant archival knowledge. In the longer term, the blend of academic research and curatorial work should considerably enhance employment-related skills while simultaneously informing the project with great potential for knowledge exchange and public impact.
The deadline for receipt of applications (including two references) is 31 March 2014.
For further information, and details of how to apply, see: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/music/prospective_pg/ahrcstudentship
03 October 2013
English folksong at the British Library
Saturday 21st September saw the London leg of The Full English’s tour of Folksong in England Study Days, which took place in the British Library.
Renowned folklorist Steve Roud led the study day with a guest talk from Julia Bishop, Steve’s co-author of the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs who is also currently leading the project to produce the James Madison Carpenter Collection. See a full report by Scott Standing of the Full English's blogspot.
British Library curators, Nicolas Bell (Lead Curator Western Music) and Janet Topp Fargion (Lead Curator World and Traditional Music) organised a 'show and tell', bringing out items from the collections that now form part of the Full English's digital archive, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams folksong transcriptions, plus related items such as newly acquired photographs of Percy Grainger and selections of folksong recordings including wax cylinders recorded by Vaughan Williams, many of which are available for listening online at BL Sounds.
05 September 2013
Folk song in England study day
Learn more about England’s cultural heritage through folk song, from ballads to shanties. This study day - to be held at the British Library on Saturday 21 September - explores the history, development and purpose of folk songs collected in England.
The day will be led by renowned folklorist Steve Roud with Julia Bishop - a superb opportunity to share their knowledge and insights into folk song and music. Steve and Julia are co-editors of the acclaimed New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.
Learn more about the day and how to book via the What's On.
The event forms part of The Full English, a project by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), and supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Folk Music Fund and The Folklore Society. The Full English includes the most comprehensive free searchable digital archive in the world. Ralph Vaughan Williams' manuscripts of folk songs and other works, which were deposited after the composer's death in 1958, have been digitised as part of the project.
Vaughan Williams didn't only note folk songs down on paper, he also recorded the performances. You can listen to 3 folk songs recorded on wax cylinders by Ralph Vaughan Williams on the British Library's Sounds website:
Turtle Dove, sung by David Penfold, recorded 1907
The Trees They Do Grow High, sung by David Penfold, recorded 1907
Fare Ye Well, Lovely Nancy, sung by George Lovett, recorded 1909 (only a few years after George Gardiner noted it down on paper as in the image above)
The cylinders are owned by the EFDSS but housed at the British Library on their behalf.
11 July 2013
Oral History of Glyndebourne opera
In 1990 the British Library initiated its Oral History of Glyndebourne project. For the next seven years 68 interviews were conducted, not just with singers, but with a whole range of people connected with Glyndebourne and the running of the annual opera festival. Among the musicians can be found singers Janet Baker, Ian Wallace and Elisabeth Söderström as well as instrumentalists Philip Jones, Jack Brymer and Evelyn Barbirolli (Rothwell) who tells how she joined the very first orchestra in 1934. The history of the running of the opera company is recounted by administrators, finance directors and producers while insights into other areas are provided by gardeners, stage technicians and day to day staff.
Some of the interviewees recall their experiences before the War and, twenty years on, many of them are no longer with us, so this is not only a comprehensive record of the microcosm that is Glyndebourne Opera, but a record of some people who may not otherwise have been recorded in interview.
12 April 2013
Interviews with Ethnomusicologists now online!
You can now hear the recorded interviews of leading ethnomusicologists on the British Library “Sounds” website. These interviews were made by Dr Carolyn Landau from 2010 to 2012.
The interviews offer an insight into the researchers’ musical upbringing and education and what drew them to the field of ethnomusicology in the first place. The interviews also discuss the researchers’ perceptions of ethnomusicology as they began their careers and how the subject is viewed now.
Here’s a short clip of one of the interviews, from John Baily, originally a psychologist who studied under the late John Blacking at Queen's University Belfast.
In this clip, Baily talks about the influence of Blacking on his research into the music of Afghanistan. Baily goes on to discuss whether, for example, ethnomusicologists need to have “big ears” – in other words, whether they need the transcribing skills of the composer Béla Bartók (pictured). If you're interested in seeing handwritten examples of Bartók’s transcriptions, some of them can be found in the Milman Parry Collection, Harvard University.
As well as hearing the interviews, you can also hear the recordings that some of these ethnomusicologists deposited with the British Library. For example, Peter Cooke made recordings of Ugandan music and Donald Tayler & Brian Moser made recordings in Columbia.Tweets by @BL_WorldTrad
02 April 2013
Cataloguing and Processing the Ethnographic Wax Cylinder Collection – Part 2
In my last post, I offered a selection of three short recordings that form part of the ethnographic wax cylinder collections housed and available for listening at the British Library.
Coming towards the end of processing this 3500 strong collection, this follow-up post offers some further musical highlights that caught my ear whilst listening to thousands of recordings. I think they are of some significance, offering good examples of some of the earliest (and pioneering) music recordings taken from various locations around the world, and are therefore worth sharing.
Collection Samples
1) C37/1590, English Folk Dance and Song Society Collection. The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) is one of the leading folk development organisations in the UK with a history dating back to 1898. This recording is one of 106 cylinders (on long-term loan to the British Library from the EFDSS) comprising several smaller British folk music collections (Welsh, Scottish and English) recorded by Cecil Sharp and Vaughan Williams, and others. Recorded in Herefordshire, England, in 1908 by Cecil James Sharp (1859-1924), this recording is in two parts. The first part is a male vocal solo sung by an unknown performer. The performance is entitled ‘there is an ale house (died for love)’. The second part is a solo fiddle performance, possibly by John Locke, of a hornpipe: a music/dance form popular in Britain from the late 17th century.
2) C51/2611, Northcott Whitridge Thomas Collection. Thomas (1868–1936) was a British government anthropologist who conducted field research in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915, recording songs, music and the spoken word onto hundreds of wax cylinders. This example was recorded in the Kaba, Akoko region of Nigeria by Thomas on the 4 March 1910: a spirited male vocal group performance.
3) C51/2853, Northcott Whitridge Thomas Collection. Another sample from the Thomas Collection recorded in the Ugwashi Uku, Ibo region of Nigeria on the 25 November 1912. This is a female vocal group with leader, accompanied by clapping.
4) C72/820, Fox Strangways Cylinder Collection. This collection of 101 high quality recordings were made in India between 1910 and 1911 by British ethnomusicologist, Arthur Fox Strangeways. This is a good example of Shahnai (double-reed conical woodwind instrument of North India) music with drum accompaniment that was recorded in India around 1910 by Fox Strangways. It features a performance of Rag Sarang, Rag Adachautal and four thekas (repeated patterns of rhythmic strokes played on the drums).
5) C664/641, Berlin Demonstration Cylinder Collection. This collection is an early anthology of traditional music compiled by the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin. It contains 107 recordings made between 1903 and 1913 in various locations including China, Japan, Java, Borneo, Africa, Russia, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. This example was recorded in East Africa (date unknown) and is of a 'waNyamwezi drinking song' performed by an unaccompanied male vocalist.
Work Completed
The general approach taken to working on each wax cylinder collection was, firstly, to familiarise myself with previous work completed by a number of engineers and curators at the British Library. This involved delving into paper files, correspondences and technical reports that have amassed since work began on the collections in 1994. Secondly, this information was checked against existing catalogue entries and online sources for consistency and accuracy, and where necessary entries were updated. Thirdly, I listened to the majority of the 3500 previously digitised recordings and checked the contents against the catalogue entries and paper files. On occasion, I requested that the original cylinders were re-dubbed by engineers at the British Library as the files were missing, or they had been dubbed at the wrong playing speed. This work was done on a universal cylinder player build at the British Library for dubbing the ethnographic wax cylinder collections:
Fourthly, technical metadata (e.g. dubbing speeds, dubbing dates, filenames and engineer’s names) was added to catalogue entries. Lastly, after some final consistency and accuracy checks, the cylinder collections were uploaded onto the British Library catalogue where the documentation can be viewed and the recordings are available for listening by the public.
Further sample recordings taken from wax cylinder collections are also for public access at sounds.bl.uk.
15 February 2013
Kalahari San [Bushmen] music online
Over 1000 recordings of music recorded by John Brearley in Botswana, primarily among San or Bushmen people in the Kalahari, have been made available on the British Library Sounds website.
Recording of Oba playing the zhoma and singing.
John Brearley’s collection began with his first trip to Botswana in July 1982 to investigate and record traditional music, and to observe the extent to which the influence of radio and recorded music had interrupted the use of traditional instruments. In particular he wanted to learn about the music of the Basarwa (San / Bushmen) and so the collection includes recordings from a range of Bushmen groups including the !Kung, Nharo and Makoko, and features performances of healing dances, games, and instrumental tunes on a range of indigenous instruments. John returned to the Kalahari many times from 1982 to 2007.
Recording of women playing tandiri, 1989
During his travels in northern Botswana John came into contact with the anthropologist Hans-Joachim Heinz. Heinz had also made recordings of music and ceremonies, which he deposited at the British Library. These are also available online. Heinz also made films during his research in Botswana. Copies of these are in the British Library's collections as C312.
John wrote a report of his very first trip in 1982 which was published in Botswana Notes and Records (volume 16). This includes details of instrument tunings and musical transcriptions of brief extracts from the recordings.
28 January 2013
British and Irish traditional music online
150 hours of audio and almost 100 photographs from the Peter Kennedy Collection have been made available this week via the British Library Sounds website.
Sheila Gallagher talks and sings
Peter Kennedy (1922 – 2006) was one of the most important collectors of music traditions from the British Isles. Picking up from work begun by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams in the first decades of the twentieth century, he started recording in the early 1950s with his aunt, Maud Karpeles (founding member of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, along with Sharp and Peter’s father, Douglas Kennedy), work that instigated the presentation of folk music and traditions on the BBC. He was greatly inspired by Alan Lomax, wishing to demonstrate that the folklore tradition was alive and well in Britain and Ireland. In just over 50 years he amassed a collection of audio and video recordings amounting to approximately 1500 hours, plus several hundred photographs and many cabinets of papers including correspondence, notes and song texts. The recordings now made available represent a small portion of the field recordings Peter Kennedy made during the four decades from the late 1940s in which he was most active "in the field”.
Peter Kennedy is in good company on the website, with an additional 20,000 recordings of songs, tunes and interviews mainly from the British Isles recorded by Bob and Jacqueline Patten, Bob Davenport, Carole Pegg, Desmond and Shelagh Herring, John Howson, Keith Summers, Nick and Mally Dow, Reg Hall, Roy Palmer, Steve Gardham and Terry Yarnell.
Notes: Peter Kennedy passed away in 2006 and we acquired the collection in collaboration with Topic Records who have been drawing on the Collection for their new Voice of the People series of publications. When the photographs, papers and original tape recordings came to the BL in 2007, all Peter's commercial LPs and his book collection went to Halsway Manor. In March 2012 we received a grant from the National Folk Music Fund to catalogue the photographs onto the Library’s Integrated Archives and Manuscripts System. This online project was supported by the British Library Friends.
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