[78-L] Fw: [Harmony] British traditional music sound library now available free on the web

[Jeff Lichtman]

I am forwarding this from another list (Harmony, 
the list of the San Francisco Folk Music Club):

>From: "Leo Lichtman" <leo.lichtman at att.net>
>To: "Jeff Lichtman" <jeff at swazoo.com>
>Subject: Fw: [Harmony] British traditional music 
>sound library now availablefree on the web
>Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:21:27 -0700
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5843
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:ninafel at pacbell.net>Nina Feldman
>To: <mailto:Harmony at sffmc.org>'Harmony Harmony' 
>; 
><mailto:ccmusiccamp at yahoogroups.com>ccmusiccamp at yahoogroups.com 
>; 
><mailto:PSGW_campers at yahoogroups.com>PSGW_campers at yahoogroups.com 
>; <mailto:strawberry at hogranch.com>Strawberry
>Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:24 PM
>Subject: [Harmony] British traditional music 
>sound library now availablefree on the web
>
>
>
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/03/british-library-traditional-music>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/03/british-library-traditional-music
>
>
>
>To say they are diverse may be understatement. 
>There are Geordies banging spoons, Tawang lamas 
>blowing conch shell trumpets and Tongan 
>tribesman playing nose flutes. And then there is 
>the Assamese woodworm feasting on a window frame in the dead of night.
>
>
>
>The British Library revealed it has made its 
>vast archive of world and traditional music 
>available to everyone, free of charge, on the internet.
>
>
>
>That amounts to roughly 28,000 recordings and, 
>although no one has yet sat down and formally 
>timed it, about 2,000 hours of singing, 
>speaking, yelling, chanting, blowing, banging, 
>tinkling and many other verbs associated with 
>what is a uniquely rich sound archive.
>
>
>
>"It is recordings from around the world and 
>right from the beginnings of recorded history," 
>said the library's curator of world and 
>traditional music, Janet Topp Fargion. "This 
>project is really exciting. One of the 
>difficulties, working as an archivist, is 
>people's perception that things are given to 
>libraries and then are never seen again – we 
>want these recordings to be accessible."
>
>
>
>Much of the British archive was obtained by the 
>library in 2000-01 in a lottery-funded project.
>
>
>
>"These were recordings that were under people's 
>desks and in people's attics and now we're 
>really excited because we're able to put them 
>out to a much wider audience," said Fargion. 
>"These are unpublished and often raw recordings 
>and there are people fluffing the words and 
>discussing the songs so they give you a real 
>sense of the store of traditional music that 
>people carry around with them in their heads."
>
>British Library music archive: 'If the Sergeant 
>drinks your rum' Link to this audio
>
>
>
>The archive includes many folk songs, and troop 
>songs. Other clips might provide a lunchtime 
>pick-me-up for workers trapped in offices, such 
>as a boisterous pub version of It's a Long Way 
>to Tipperary recorded at the Boldon Lad in 
>Newcastle in 1979, complete with banjos and spoons and beery refrains.
>
>British Library music archive: 'Chainmaker Lad is a Masher' Link to this audio
>
>
>
>Fargion said the cheering news was that, in 
>Britain at least, traditions are still alive and 
>well. "You do hear doom and gloom about 
>traditions but I think we're seeing a bit of a 
>revival of interest in traditional music, especially among younger people."
>
>
>
>British Library music archive: aboriginal song 
>on wax cylinder 1898 Link to this audio
>
>
>
>The recordings go back more than 100 years, with 
>the earliest recordings being the wax cylinders 
>on which British anthropologist Alfred Cort 
>Haddon recorded Aboriginal singing on his trip 
>to the Torres Strait islands off Australia in 1898.
>
>
>
>There are also recordings which were published 
>but are little heard such as the Decca West 
>African yellow label recordings, recorded 
>between 1948 and 1961, which include calypso 
>from Sierra Leone, quickstep from Ghana and the 
>not easily categorisable - Ma Felreh and her 
>Susu Jolly Group, possibly from Togo, performing Kingsway Bairie.
>
>British Library music archive: Assamese woodworm Link to this audio
>
>
>
>And then there is the downright peculiar. 
>Someone, for example, has recorded an Assamese 
>woodworm as it chews away at a window frame at 
>4am with crickets chirruping away in the 
>background. "It is not easy to record a woodworm," said Fargion.
>
>

                        -        Jeff Lichtman
                                 jeff at swazoo.com
                                 Check out Swazoo Koolak's Web Jukebox at
                                 http://swazoo.com/