The EAR is an informal discussion of ethnomusicology archiving at UCLA and
in the world. The EAR is issued four times a year, in the fall, winter, spring,
and summer quarters. Contributions from readers are welcome and should be sent
to the editor, Louise Spear, UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, 1630 Schoenberg Music
Building, Box 951657, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1657; telephone 310-825-1695; fax
310-206-4738; email LSpear@arts.ucla.edu.
Vol. 2, no. 1 (Fall 2001)
Table of Contents
40th Anniversary Symposium Invokes Warm Memories
Joint Meeting of ARSC/IASA Held in London
New Recordings from the International Music Collection of The British Library National Sound Archive
40th Anniversary Symposium Invokes Warm Memories
The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive's 40th Anniversary Symposium, held in Schoenberg Music Building on November 9-10, 2001, was deemed a wonderful occasion by the over 120 alumni, faculty, students, archivists, and others who attended. Titled "Found Sound: University Sound Archives in the 21st Century," the symposium was opened in Jan Popper Theater on Friday morning with welcoming remarks by Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Director of the Archive; Gloria Werner, The University Librarian; Lorraine Sakata, Associate Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Architecture; and Timothy Rice, Chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology.
The sessions began with a panel on "The History of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive" chaired by Steven Loza. Ki Mantle Hood, founder of the UCLA Institute of Ethnomusicology, gave a presentation titled "Wellspring of UCLA's Ethnomusicology Archive." Ann Briegleb Schuursma, founder of the Archive, followed with "Anniversary Song: Reflections of an Ethnomusicology Archivist." Their talks engendered fond memories for those who were at UCLA in the 1960s and gave new insights to those who came later.
The early history was followed by "The Ethno Meeting Place: The Essential Role of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive in the Early Post-Hood Era," presented by Don Niles, now an archivist at the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, and "The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive Today," presented by Louise Spear. Both acknowledged the importance of the early work done by Mantle Hood and Ann Briegleb Schuursma.
Among the most poignant sessions was "Memories and Recollections about the Ethnomusicology Archive: A Student Perspective" chaired by Maureen Russell. Participants were Fred Lieberman (Ph.D., 1976), Peggy Caton (Ph.D., 1983), Linda O'Brien-Rothe (Ph.D., 1975), Paul Humphreys (Ph.D., 1988), Chuks Iwotor (M.A., 1989), Miri Park (M.A., 1992), Ray Briggs (Ph.D. expected 2002), and Robert Reigle (Ph.D., 2001). They all felt that their studies at UCLA and work in the Archive had a profound influence on their lives.
Jihad Racy chaired a session titled "University and Public-Sector Archives."
Speakers were
J.H. Kwabena Nketia from the International Centre for African Music and Dance
at the University of Ghana, who spoke on "University Archives in Africa
and National Cultural Policy"; Lligany Lomeli from Centro National de Investigación,
Documentación e Información Musical (CENIDIM) del Instituto Nacional
de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, who spoke on "University and Public Sector
Sound Archives in Mexico"; and Judith Gray from the American Folklife Center
at the Library of Congress, who spoke on "Past and Potential Collaborations
between Academic and Public-Sector Archives."
The final session of the day, "Archiving Special Collections: Jazz and
Popular Music," was chaired by Cheryl Keyes. Paul Wells from The Center
for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University, spoke on "Archiving
American Popular Music." By now, the audience was growing amazed by the
wide variety of archives in the world.
The busy day was followed by a patio reception and Ethnomusicology Archive open
house. Symposium attendees were greeted by the lively string band music of Trailer
Park, led by Amy Wooley on guitar, Peter Inouye on banjo, and David Bragger
on fiddle. Already dark, the patio was decorated with lights and white tables
with bouquets of flowers on them. Buffet tables were loaded with hors d'oeuvres,
drinks, and a huge birthday cake. Thanks were given to the Department of Ethnomusicology
and the School of Arts and Architecture for supporting the symposium, and everyone
sang "Happy Birthday" to the Archive.
Saturday morning began with a session on "History and Issues in Archiving" chaired by Helen Rees. Bruno Nettl, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, spoke on "What Did We Think We Were Doing: Reflections on Archiving in Mid-Century." If there had been a prize for fanciest audiovisual supplement, Robert Garfias, University of California, Irvine, would have won for his presentation of "Searching for and Preserving: The Changing Nature of the Search and Rescue of the Artifacts of Human Musical Expression." Nora Yeh, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, spoke on "The Role of the University Sound Archives in the 21st Century: Perspectives and Recommendations of an Archivist." Robert Brown, San Diego State University, presented "Some Thoughts About Archives and UCLA. Robert Brown also surprised the audience with an announcement that he would be depositing two large collections in the Ethnomusicology Archive: his field recordings from India and the recordings collected by the Center for World Music based in San Francisco.
Tara Browner chaired a session on "Archiving Special Collections: Indian and Native American Music." Nazir Jairazbhoy, UCLA, talked about "The Migratory Paths of Arnold Bake's Collections." Scott Marcus, University of California, Santa Barbara, presented "Reflections on Archiving a North Indian Folk Music Tradition." Laurel Sercombe from the Ethnomusicology Archives at the University of Washington spoke on "Archives and Research in Native American Music."
Many thought the most exciting session was the one on "Archiving and Technology" chaired by Roger Kendall. No one will forget the images of deteriorating discs shown by Dietrich Schüller from the Phonogramm-Archiv in Vienna, Austria, in his talk on "The Future of Our Audiovisual Source Material: Threats of Loss, and Strategies to Keep What We Have Collected So Far." Virginia Danielson from the Archive of World Music at Harvard University spoke about "Developing Digital Access and Preservation: An Approach to the James Rubin Collection of South Indian Music." Daniel Reed from the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music talked on "The New Technologies and Dissemination of Archival Materials" and demonstrated Five Windows Into Africa, a CD-ROM project developed by Ruth Stone and others, and The Straus Expedition: Music and Culture of West Africa, a CD-ROM project based on collections in the Archives of Traditional Music. The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive has both CD-ROMs on order!
Anthony Seeger summed up the many papers with a song and pithy closing remarks.
After dinner, Steven Loza led a pre-concert discussion with former members of the Don Ellis Band. Joining Steve on the stage in Popper Theater were Fred Selden, Glenn Stuart, Milcho Leviev, and Sam Falzone. The audience was captivated by their tales of rehearsals, performances, and tours. Don Ellis was clearly a talented and inspirational composer, performer, bandleader, and teacher. His fellow musicians will never forget him…nor will those who listened to their stories.
The evening concert, produced by Steven Loza, was titled a "Celebration of World Music." The 500 seats in Schoenberg Hall were completely filled, and scores of people waited in the lobby, hoping to get in. The concert began with music of Korea and 100-plus student members of the UCLA Samulnori, directed by Dongsuk Kim. The Korean performers were followed master musicians who teach in the Department of Ethnomusicology. Chi Li played a stirring Chinese folk melody on the two-stringed erhu. Ivan and Tzvetanka Varimezov, with gaida and voice, contributed music from Bulgaria. Shujaat Khan on sitar and Abhiman Kaushal on tabla played music from India. Kobla Ladzepko led music and dance from West Africa, and Jihad Racy on buzuk and mijwiz, with Souhail Kaspar on percussion, played music from the Arabic world. The first half on the concert was concluded with a performance by the UCLA Balinese Gamelan directed by I Nyoman Wenten.
The second half of the concert was a tribute to Don Ellis and recognized the Don Ellis Collection, now deposited in the Archive. Ellis compositions "Homecoming," "Invincible," and "Indian Lady" were performed by the UCLA Jazz Ensemble and former members of the Don Ellis Band. Glenn Stuart served as guest conductor and played Ellis' quarter-tone trumpet, which is now housed in the Ethnomusicology Archive. Fred Selden played alto sax and other woodwinds. Milcho Leviev played piano and clarinet. Steven Loza also took a turn on the quarter-tone trumpet. Other UCLA faculty performers included Kenny Burrell, Francisco Aguabella, Sherman Ferguson, and Roberto Miranda. An innovative part of the program included a piece by Steve Loza in which the World Jazz Ensemble and Balinese Gamelan played together.
A review of the concert by Don Heckman in the Los Angeles Times posited, "The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive celebrated its 40th anniversary…with an entertaining survey of the colorful music that the Ethnomusicology Department brings to the Southland on a continuing basis." (November 12, 2001).
The Ethnomusicology Archive has photographs as well as videotapes of the concert and the papers that were presented during the symposium. If you would like to enjoy the concert again-or hear a paper you missed-come by anytime.
In celebration of our 40th anniversary, the Ethnomusicology Archive has mounted three exhibits in the large display cases in Schoenberg Music Building.
One exhibit recognizes the Colin McPhee Collection and includes McPhee's books on the music of Bali, a few music compositions, correspondence, and several beautiful black and white photographs that were taken by McPhee in Bali in the 1930s. Also included is a gender and shadow puppets.
A second exhibit features the Don Ellis Collection and includes colorful photographs and album covers hung against a gold lame drapery. Also in the exhibit is Ellis' quarter-tone trumpet, and the white, polyester pantsuit he wore on the Shirley MacLaine television show.
The last exhibit includes a world map and photographs of UCLA students and faculty and other researchers conducting fieldwork in many parts of the world.
Special thanks go to staff members Amy Wooley and John Vallier for putting up the displays and to I Nyoman Wenten for his contributions to the McPhee display.
Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Maureen Russell, and Louise Spear would like to recognize the student staff for 2001-2002 academic year.
Yanni Afendoulis has a double major in ethnomusicology and history. He is interested in Greek, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, and he directs the Byzantine Chant Choir at UCLA.
Todd Honma is a student in the Department of Information Studies and is using his Japanese language skills to help us organize a collection of 78-rpm records of Japanese music.
Alyssa Lightbourn is a systematic musicology student and is interested in American popular music. She is working with the Don Ellis jazz collection.
Ann Riordan is interested in music of the Near East and specializes in Persian music. She copying open-reel tapes of field collections from the 1970s on to compact disk.
John Vallier has a master's degree in ethnomusicology and is currently a student in the Department of Information Studies. Among many other things, he serves as the Archive's webmaster.
Joint Meeting of ARSC/IASA Held in London
In September Louise Spear and Tony Seeger attended a joint meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives at the British Library in London. We learned a lot about the state of audiovisual archiving in the 21st century, and we thought readers of The EAR might like to know more about these two organizations.
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) was founded in 1966 and is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, study, publication, and information exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound. Though ARSC generally holds its conferences in the United States or Canada, the organization has over 1000 members from twenty-three countries. Members include collectors, dealers, appraisers, archivists, librarians, historians, musicians, students, discographers, reviewers, media producers, and recording engineers. ARSC publishes the ARSC Journal, ARSC Newsletter, and various bulletins, directories, and special publications.
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) was founded in Amsterdam in 1969 and is a non-governmental organization affiliated with UNESCO. It functions as a medium for international cooperation between archives which preserve recorded sound and audiovisual documents. IASA is actively involved in all subjects related to the professional work of audiovisual archives and archivists including acquisition, documentation, copyright, access, distribution, preservation, and the technical aspects of recording and playback. There are over 350 members from more than 46 countries. IASA generally meets in Europe, but there have been recent meetings in Oman and Singapore. IASA publishes the IASA Journal, an Information Bulletin, and other special publications.
ARSC's next annual meeting will be in nearby Santa Barbara on May 9-11, 2002. IASA's next annual meeting will be in Denmark on September 18-22, 2002.
For more information about these organizations, check their web sites at www.arsc-audio.org and www.llgc.org.uk/iasa.
New Recordings from the International Music Collection of The British Library
National Sound Archive
While at the ARSC/IASA conference in London, we met with Janet Topp Fargion, Curator of the International Music Collection of The British Library National Sound Archive and learned more about their field collections and their new commercial recordings.
New in the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive are four CDs recently published by Topic Records in conjunction with the International Music Collection of The British Library National Sound Archive.
ARCD 953 Music of Makran-Traditional Fusion from Coastal Balochistan
Recordings, text, and photographs by Anderson Bakewell
Topic Records TSCD 916
p & c 2000
The remote coastal area of Balochistan called Makran is the setting for a fusion of musical cultures from the Middle East, Indo/Pakistan and Africa, which have developed over centuries into a tradition of great intensity and beauty. Containing vocal and instrumental genres which demonstrate a high level of musicianship and improvisational artistry, much of this selection is drawn from the repertoire performed during healing ceremonies, music specifically devised to create suitable conditions for a state of trance.
ARCD 954 Zanzibar-Music of Celebration
Recordings, text, and photographs by Janet Topp Fargion
Topic Records TSCD 917
p & c 2000
Taarab is the most common style of music performed at weddings on the island of Zanzibar-a unique blend of musical elements from the Middle East, India, and the West, combined with, to varying degrees, local African music practices. It is an essential ingredient of most celebrations. And when Zanzibaris are not playing taarab, they are playing maulidi. Although this is primarily a sober religious performance style (celebrating the birth of Mohammed), it is also becoming common at wedding celebrations, albeit in a more extrovert guise.
ARCD 955 Healing, Feasting & Magical Ritual-Songs & Dances from Papua
New Guinea
Recordings, photographs, and text by John Thornley
Topic Records TSCD 918
p & c 2001
Songs and dances of hunting, war, work, totemistic ritual, cannibalism, myth, initiation, courtship, rain-making, funerals, magical healing, shark-catching, and marathon feasting, recorded in remote coastal and inland villages in five far-flung regions of Papua New Guinea.
ARCD 956 The Moken-Sea Gypsies of the Andaman Sea
Recordings and text by Tom Vater
Topic Records TSCD 919
p & c 2001
The Sea Gypsies of the Andaman Sea have been sailing up and down the west coast of the Malay peninsula for hundreds of years. Traditionally living on their kabang (self-contained houseboats) and trading sea slugs, pearls, shells and bird's nests for life's necessities, many sea gypsies have now begun to settle permanently and abandon their nomadic culture.
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