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The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive Report (a.k.a. "the EAR") is an informal discussion of ethnomusicology and archives at UCLA and beyond. It 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, John Vallier: archive@arts.ucla.edu - Copyright Regents UC, 2006. |
Volume 6, Number 2 - Winter 2006
Table of Contents
Archive Awarded GRAMMY Grant
The Ethnomusicology Archive has been awarded a $40,000 grant by the GRAMMY Foundation to digitize and make accessible 1,000 unique recordings from the D.K. Wilgus Folksong Collection. The project--known as the Wilgus Access and Preservation Project (WAPP)--is the second Archive preservation project funded by the GRAMMY Foundation since 2002.
ABOUT D.K. WILGUS: D.K. Wilgus was a giant in the field of folklore studies. He was a folksong scholar and renowned authority on "race" records, and "hillbilly" music. At the time of his death in 1991 he had authored over 250 works and edited several journals.
Wilgus was also an indefatigable fieldworker and folksong collector. In 1965, while establishing the UCLA Folklore and Mythology Program with Wayland Hand, Wilgus founded the Archives of Folklore and Mythology. This archive included materials documenting belief, medicine, dance, and folk music. When the Program and Archives were disbanded in 2002, more than 10,000 sound recordings and folk music related materials were transferred to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
CONTENTS: The Wilgus Collection consists of 8,000 commercially recorded albums, 2,800 field-recorded tapes, and some 20 linear feet of supporting manuscripts. With WAPP we will preserve and increase access to a selection of the most valuable tapes in the Collection. WAPP we have selected the following 1,000 field recordings for digitization:
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381 reels from Wilgus’s Archive of California and Western Folklore (ACWF). At 1,754 reels, ACWF is the largest part of the Wilgus Collection and covers such diverse topics as music, beliefs, medicine, jokes, and tales. The 381 ACWF field recordings selected for WAPP document folk musics in America, including Filipino gospel in Santa Monica, Irish mining songs from Montana, Portuguese music in San Diego, Creole music in Louisiana, Chicano music, Dutch music in Los Angeles, Yiddish music, Japanese-American songs in West Los Angeles, California cowboy songs, and more.
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234 reels documenting UCLA Folk Festivals. Recorded at UCLA in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1978 and 1979. Original performances by Sam Hinton, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley; Kenny Whitson, Wellman Braud, Mike Seeger, Rodney Balfa, Dewey Balfa; Mark Savoy, Alle Young, Patty Hall, Rose Maddox, Sally O’Connor, Jimmie Driftwood, Ollie Gilbert, Son House, The Triumphs, and others.
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182 reels deposited by Wilgus student David Evans. Performers include Rev. Rubin Lacy, Babe Stovall, Herb Quinn, Roosevelt Holts, Sally Dotson, Robert Pete Williams, Henry R. Crossley, Myrt Holmes, and others.
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165 reels from Wilgus’s Western Kentucky Folklore Archive. Collected by Wilgus while at Western Kentucky University in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Contains recordings by Doc Hopkins and scores of lesser-known Appalachian musicians.
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17 reels deposited by Wilgus student and Testament Records founder Peter Welding. Includes live recordings of the Blue Sky Boys, Bill Bolick, Earl Bolick, Fred McDowell, Billie and Dee Dee Pierce, Jimmie Tarlton, and others.
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8 reels collected in 1966 by Wilgus student John Fahey. Includes recordings by fiddling great Tony Thomas.
COPYRIGHT: As is the case with all our collections, the Archive physically owns the Wilgus Collection but does not own the rights to most materials (e.g. copyright, performance rights, publishing rights, etc). Therefore, we will not publish or allow personal dubbing of the material without express written permission from copyright holders. Fortunately section 108 of U.S. Copyright Law gives us the right to make preservation and access copies, and make these materials available for research.
PLAN OF WORK: The WAPP recordings contain a constellation of sounds. Though they are a diverse lot, they do have one thing in common: all are in need of preservation. Some reels have faired better than others, but all show the inevitable effects of time: cupping, edge fluttering, binder disintegration, print-through, and sticky shed syndrome.
The WAPP plan of work has two goals: to 1) preserve the recordings in a manner that meets current archival standards and 2) greatly increase access to the recordings. Our methodology is built on internationally accepted practices and the Archive’s eight years of digitization experience (e.g., an NEH preservation grant, a GRAMMY preservation grant, and recent preservation efforts).
Overview: July 2006 to June 2008We estimate it takes three times the length of a recording to digitize and provide access to it. Therefore, it will take approximately 3,000 hours to digitize 1,000 recordings. If we commit 34 hours per week over the course of 88 weeks (roughly two years) we will preserve and provide access to the materials.
Preparation: May 2006 – July 2006Before the grant begins, Archive staff will page back the 1,000 WAPP recordings from the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF). Since a detailed finding aid for the entire Collection already exists, Archive staff will double-check the accuracy of the documentation and the tapes for wear and deterioration: those media that show the highest degree of deterioration will be given priority in the digitization process. Tape players will also be reconditioned at this stage.
Reformatting and Processing: July 2006– May 2008 WAPP reels will be played back on reconditioned Nagra tape players and digitally reformatted into 24bit/96kHz Broadcast Wav Format (BWF) preservation files via two existing reformatting stations in the Archive: a G4 iMac with an Apogee Mini-Me A/D converter and a Dell PC with another Mini-Me A/D converter. We will capture the analog recording in as “flat” a manner as possible (i.e. we will not equalize or apply noise reduction filters during capture), while monitoring recording levels and quality. Metadata about the newly created digital assets will be included in the BWF files and access MPEG-4 files, and made available on our website and through an EAD finding aid. The EAD finding aid will be available through the Online Archive of California (OAC) and linked to our website. After digitizing a reel, BWF preservation files and MPEG-4 access files will be stored onto separate preservation sets of Mitsui data CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. These preservation media will be stored along with the analog tapes at the SRLF and will be checked using error detection software.
Access: October 2006 – June 2008 Throughout the grant, MPEG-4 files will be uploaded to the Archive’s server. These files will then be accessed via computers in the Archive. If the server or hard drives fail, preservation CDs will be used to reinstall content. Detailed information about the recordings and the Collection will be made freely available on our catalog—ethnomusicat—and the OAC.
Beyond 2008 Throughout WAPP the Archive will work with the UCLA Digital Library in making all MPEG-4 files available online via their website. We plan to use their online Frontera collection as our model for such access. Frontera is an elegant online solution to access which operates within the realm of “fair use” by offering non-downloadable, streaming files and 50-second samples to off-campus patrons. Full-length files can heard via computers on the UCLA campus or by off-campus patrons through special arrangement with the Digital Library. As a part of this collaboration, all WAPP BWF and MPEF-4 files will be backed up on the Digital Library server arrays and data tape. These files will be linked to our OAC finding aids. This will increase access to the materials and assure that BWF and MPEG-4 files will be preserved by state-of-the-art technologies developed by OAC’s parent organization, the California Digital Library.
To learn more about WAPP please contact John Vallier.
AV Archiving Class
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This Spring Quarter Professor Anthony Seeger and Archivist John Vallier are offering a class entitled "Audiovisual Archiving in the 21st Century." This Department of Ethnomusicology class willl meet on Wednesdays from 3:00 PM to 5:50 PM in the Ethnomusicology Archive. The first course of its kind to be given at UCLA, Audiovisual Archiving in the 21st Century, will address the history, present stage, and future of audiovisual archives. In 10 weekly meetings, featuring guest lectures and field trips to other locations, the course will deal with central issues of ethics, copyright, contracts, fieldwork, preservation, and access, as well as with nuts and bolts issues of technology, space, budgets, and staffing. For their final project students will write a paper that outlines the design and operation of an archive of their own devising. In this way they will integrate the readings, class discussions, field trips, and their personal and professional interests into the single archives vision. The material and approach of the course should be useful to all ethnomusicologists, musicologists, archivists, librarians, and those are considering careers in the fields of cultural heritage, applied ethnomusicology, and archives. More information about the class can be found here.
Radio Show Hiatus
Our Archive radio show, "Sounds from the Vaults of the Ethnomusicology Archive" will be taking a hiatus this quarter. We expect to be on the air again in the summer.
Archive Recording Review
In this installment of the EAR you will find a review by Dr. Sam Parnes (PhD Ethnomusicology, UCLA). If you are interested in reviewing Archive recordings for the EAR please contact us for more information.
Title: Music! 100 recordings, 100 years of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, 1900-2000. Published/distributed: Mainz, Germany : Wergo, p2000. Publisher number: SM 1701 2 Wergo. SM 1702 2 Wergo. SM 1703 2 Wergo. SM 1704 2 Wergo. Physical description: 4 sound discs : digital ; 4 3/4 in. Call Number: ARCD 617-620.
CD 3: Monophonic Tape Recordings 1951-74
Music! 100 Recordings, 100 Years of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, 1900-2000
The third volume consists of eighteen stereophonic tape recordings collected in the field from 1967 to 2000. Half of these involved digital audio tape (DAT), including one that is transitional, as both analog and digital techniques were used. Suzanne Ziegler brought two analog cassette machines and one DAT to Georgia in the former Soviet Union in 1991 in order to collect male vocal trios. The DAT facilitated her transcriptions. Unlike analog, the voices are recorded on separate channels, hence any one channel can be played back. The fourth and final volume consists of twelve performances presented by the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde between 1973 and 1999.
Despite the recent date, 1976, the traditional Eiponek traditions of Irian Jaya are defunct. The example is from perhaps the last great dance festival. The region was Christianized in 1980. The Berlin Museum Collection includes a set of CDs consisting of Artur Simon’s work among the Eiponek and several other Irian Jaya societies. These were already reviewed in UCLA’s Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology.
Other samples in the third volume include dying traditions, rarities that show no sign of dying, and revivals. The jigs and reels of Tobago are receding, especially in conjunction with healing rituals. In this example, the harmonica has replaced the violin that, by 1995, had become rare. A triangle and three frame drums accompany. The music, which is heard at family celebrations, has little to do with the British Isles genre. The demanding male vocal trios of Georgia have been on the wane since the fall of Communism. These are primarily sung at the dinner table and sound similar to European Medieval polyphonic music.
The jegog, the only entirely bamboo gamelan in Bali, a rarity, is being revived because of tourism. This ensemble is no longer used for entertainment by farmers at rest. The repertoire has become increasingly influenced by the predominant gong kebyar gamelans. In 1978 the Christmas songs from Ibiza, Balearic Islands, performed beside the church after mass were dying out, but subsequently were revived. They feature a rare throat singing style unlike anywhere else in Europe, the origin of which is not known. Alternating with the lyrics sung to a major scale lacking the sixth degree, it consists of a repeated syllable sounding like “yea” in a triplet pattern on a low, undetermined pitch. Also unique, if Ekkehart Royl is correct, is the only society outside Western European influence whose music contains functional harmony, the Yali of Irian Jaya. Rather than give examples of indigenous terminology that would prove this, he theorizes that it might have been introduced with the sweet potato.
Little-known outside the Aini society of Yuennan province, China, until Edda Brandes and Shu-chi Lee collected the repertoire in 1990, the “Mountain songs” are usually playful and entertaining. In contrast, the genre of one of the examples existed only since 1987, when some military Scots bagpipers (a vestige of British colonialism) on furlough from the United Arab Emirates created the Qurbah at a youth club in Northern Oman. Accompanied by African-sounding cylindrical drums, and choruses imitating popular Arab singers, the repertoire is now performed usually at wedding processions. The mizmar oboe style typical in Egypt and other Arab countries had been transferred to the Scots bagpipe.
Volume 3 consists of one instrumental ensemble with vocables, two instrumental ensembles with solo voice, five instrumental ensembles without voices, four mixed ensembles, two choruses, and one of each: vocal quartet, vocal trio, mixed trio, and solo voice. With one exception, the collector was the author of the description accompanying the recordings. For this reason, unlike volume 1, the career of each collector is not stated. With only one exception, the collectors are all ethnomusicologists. Manuel Trökes, who did fieldwork in Ibiza, teaches drama.
An annual concert series began at the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde in 1973. The first selection of volume 4 is an example from the first concert, “Ortsende,” an avant-garde composition by Paul Gutama Soegijo, inspired by the gamelan. The remaining twelve selections feature major soloists and groups from Asia and Africa.
Two of the African traditions stand out. One of the last Ugandan court musicians, Evaristo Muyinda, performed on one of the museum’s 19th century endongos (bowl lyres). The instrument had to be restored in great haste, for the instrument he intended to play went back and forth between London and Uganda, and was never brought off the airplane. Because of the political situation in 1983, there was much wrangling between the German embassy and Ugandan government officials as to whether Muyinda should travel outside his country. The appearance in Berlin marked his first outside Uganda in many years. Fortunately, the court music continues to survive. The second tradition is the rare Ghanean bridge harp, seperewa. This instrument is threatened by the ever-increasing popularity of the guitar, but it may not die out entirely. As of 1999, the performer Kwame Osei Korankye was a seperewa teaches.
The concerts also included two innovative virtuosi: Munir Bashir on the ‘ud, and Liang Tsai-p’ing on the zheng. Bashir was the first player to perform unaccompanied for forty minutes or more. Traditionally solos were confined to the taqsims, or improvised introductions, as well as to the interludes and postludes. Bashir’s concerts were often called meditations. His style is marked by extreme contrast in dynamics, which may have also been his innovation. Liang Tsai-p’ing is noted for expanding the performance technique for the Chinese plucked zither zheng. Traditionally the zheng repertoire was influenced and sometimes borrowed from that of another Chinese zither, the qin, but Liang added technical elements used in the Korean kayakeum and the Japanese koto. The resulting large variety of textures included broken and parallel octaves, arpeggios, two simultaneous lines, up/down glissandi from and to a particular pitch, and in one instance a chromatic flourish plucked behind the bridge.
Soloists are more dominant here than in previous volumes of this series. The CD contains one instrumental ensemble with some vocables, one instrumental ensemble without voice, an instrumental trio, and three instances each of mixed ensemble, voice and instrument, and instrumental solo. The descriptive notes were written by various individuals. For the Egyptian and Mauritanian examples, the concert reviews from Der Tagesspiegel were selected. The two editors for the entire 4 CD series contributed: Artur Simon for the work by the 18th century South Indian composer Tyagaraja, and Ulrich Wegner for the ‘ud and Ugandan bowl lyre performances. The composer Soegijo wrote his own description, as well as the Vietnamese dan tranh zither performer Trân Quang Hai. The Ghana specialist Tobias Robert Klein reported both examples from this country. The authors’ names of the remaining selections, representing North India, Taiwan (the zheng mentioned earlier), and Malawi, are not given.
Reviewed by Dr. Sam Parnes
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