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 UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive: archive@arts.ucla.edu
Vol. 3, no. 2 (Winter 2003)
Preservation & Funding
Archive Awarded Grammy Grant
April 3, 2003 - The Ethnomusicology Archive has been awarded a $22,000 Grammy
Foundation grant to initiate the digitization of its collections of Native American
field recordings. Known as the First Nations Audio Preservation Project (FNAPP),
the venture will preserve selected sound recordings in a manner that meets the
current standards of archival-level preservation. Beginning with a 1937 recording
of the Winnebago and ending with a 1981 recording of Diegueño music, the
one-of-a-kind FNAPP recordings cover nearly half a century of American Indian
musics and contain about 200 hours of recorded sound. In addition to their vast
time span, the FNAPP recordings also document an amazing array of music cultures.
From Alaskan Eskimo performances to Zuni Rain Dance rites, these 225 unpublished
recordings include sounds from 65 distinct American Indian music cultures. A press
release from the Grammy Foundation with details about all of the 27 funded projects
is available here.
Collection Updates
Ethnomusicology Archive to be Home for UCLA's D.K. Wilgus Folksong Collection
- We are happy to announce that the transfer of the D.K. Wilgus Folksong Collection
from UCLA's Folklore and Mythology Archives to the Ethnomusicology Archive has
begun. The D.K. Wilgus Folksong Collection consists of approximately 8,000 commercially
recorded albums of traditional music, song, and narrative as well as 1,000 field-recorded
tapes.. D. K. Wilgus and Wayland D. Hand established Folklore studies at UCLA,
and together founded the Folklore and Mythology Program in 1965. Wilgus was
a folksong and ballad scholar, indefatigable fieldworker, and renowned authority
on Anglo-American folksong, "race" records, and "hillbilly" music. He directed
five Folk Music Festivals at UCLA. He also built the collection of commercial
albums and field recordings, now called the D.K. Wilgus Folksong Collection.
An obituary for D.K. Wilgus is available here,
while a Daily Bruin article about the transfer of the D.K. Wilgus Collection
to the Ethnomusicology Archive is available here.
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McPhee Collection: Finding Aids, Online Exhibits, and Interviews - Composer, photographer, and ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee taught at UCLA between 1960 and 1964. His collection of photographs, films, sound recordings, and various paper documents reside in the Ethnomusicology Archive. A detailed description of the collection and parts of the finding aid, as well as an online exhibit--which features an audiovisual slideshow and selections from three of his silent movies--are now available here. In related news, Dr. Carol J. Oja--author of Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds--has donated to the Archive a collection of cassette recorded interviews she conducted as part of her research for the book. We thank Dr. Oja for her donation. An online finding aid for her collection of interviews is available here. |
Ethnomusicology Department Audio-Visual Collection (call number 2002.1) - As mentioned in the last EAR, the Archive is now serving as the repository for a collection of audio and audio-visual materials from the Department of Ethnomusicology. The "Department of Ethnomusicology Audio-Visual Collection" contains over 500 recordings. Contents of the recordings include a 1982 Music of Mexico concert, Dizzy Gillespie's 1989 visit to the department, a performance by Royal Nepalese Musicians in 1992, lectures and concerts from the department's Year of Archiving, and a recent deposit from the Italian Oral History Institute of videos documenting the department's Year of Music and Ecstasy. The collection dates back to 1977 and is updated each quarter with new AV recordings of departmental events. An online finding aid for the collection, which is updated with new deposits at the end of each of quarter, is available here.
78rpm Recordings from Afghanistan (AR 2300-2320) - A finding aid is now available online for our recently acquired a collection of Afghan 78 rpm records. As mentioned in the last EAR, these recordings were deposited by Larry Modell and contain both instrumental and vocal music from Afghanistan. Special thanks to Farhad Azad, journalist and publisher of afghanmagazine.com, for providing us with the finding aid for this collection.
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J.H. Kwabena Nketia Oral History Collection (call number 2003.1) |
World Music Promos Continue to Roll In
Many World Music record companies continue to send the Archive promos for our
radio show, "Sounds from the Vaults." We wish to express our thanks to these
organizations by noting their donations below:
Information Literacy at the Ethnomusicology Archive
Information literacy is defined as the ability to locate information efficiently,
evaluate it, and use it effectively. This past quarter, as part of a campus-wide
campaign to bolster the information literacy of UCLA students, faculty, and
staff, the Archive librarians introduced a number of ethnomusicology undergraduate
students to a variety of electronic, audiovisual, and print based research materials.
If you are a faculty member and would like to the librarians conduct an information
literacy session for your students, please call or come by the Archive. More
about UCLA's Information Literacy initiative can be found here.
Duro Oni
Dr. Duro Oni visited the Archive this past quarter. Dr. Oni is the Director
General of The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC),
located in Lagos, Nigeria. CBAAC was established in1979 by the Federal Government
of Nigeria and given the responsibility of promoting Black and African Arts
and Civilization and preserving audiovisual recordings from the 2nd World Black
and African Festival of Arts and Culture, popularly referred to as FESTAC '77.
Dance Music Goes Global: Six CDs from Music Mosaic - by Abimbola Cole
Dance music fusions that draw upon elements from world music are becoming increasingly popular amongst American listeners. Fans of dance music have learned to appreciate world music fusions that are influenced by genres like techno, ambient, house, and trip-hop, to name a few. Labeled "ethno-trance" and "ethnic fusion," such musical hybrids are introducing new musical sounds. These musical fusions are usually European-produced surfacing in countries like France, Britain, and Germany. However, there also appears to be a growing electronic dance music fusion scene emerging in Australia, presenting musical mixtures that have never been heard before. It is capturing the attention of local fans, and is slowly appealing to international audiences as well.
Music Mosaic, an Australian record label specializing in world and new age music, recently donated six electronic dance music fusion albums to the Ethnomusicology Archive. These compilation albums represent the current electronic world music developments. The Music Mosaic recordings have titles such as Didgeridoo Trance Dance, Drumming Planet, Dance Planet, Groove Temple, Spice Groove, and Tribal Groove. On these albums one can hear the sounds of an Australian didgeridoo blended with drum n' bass, South East Asian tabla mixed with house music, or African chant combined with trance. These are certainly experimental musical combinations. Nonetheless, on each album there is some sort of theme that unifies each of these musical collages.
The main themes of the Music Mosaic compilations relate to either a musical instrument or geographical region. Didgeridoo Trance Dance is devoted to the Australian didgeridoo. Drumming Planet brings together drumming from the South Pacific, Africa, the United States, and Europe. Groove Temple is largely inspired by the music of India, but also features music from Australia, Central Europe, and Africa. Spice Groove is a combination of vocal and instrumental music from India, Europe, the United States, and Australia. Finally, Tribal Groove highlights music from regions in Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Mongolia, and Tibet.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of these Music Mosaic compilations is the variety of music incorporated in the musical fusions. Each compilation takes traditional music out of its original context and remixed with electronic beats. This recontextualization of the music gives it a fresh new sound. The song descriptions accompanying each album emphasize the ways in which electronic music can change the original version of a song. For instance, "Watsi Watsi" from Dance Planet is a song where "[h]umorous African voodoo chant and talking drums meet doof beat and sound tweaking." "The Prodigal Son" on Drumming Planet is an example of "[t]ribal rhythms, didgeridoo and a sweet melody appearing from the African bush [which] give a sense of the Orient." Another track, "En Afrique," which appears on Tribal Groove, is a "[d]ancing voyage into the deep forests where pygmies, elves and pink panthers move along drum, bass, guitars and flutes."
Although these descriptions are meant to help the listener understand the significance of the songs, they also raise issues of exoticism. Listeners should pay careful attention to the wording Music Mosaic has selected. Songs that feature "humorous African voodoo chant" and "tribal rhythms" are clearly meant to conjure up images of music and performers from exotic locations. Additionally, the "voyage into the deep forests" of "pygmies" seems reminiscent of the concept behind Deep Forest, the controversial 1990s world music fusion blending music of the Mbuti with techno music.
Unlike Deep Forest, which exploited the Mbuti, the Music Mosaic compilations succeed in promoting world music. All of the artists featured on these albums are either on Music Mosaic Records or appear courtesy of other labels including Oreade, New World, and Heaven & Earth. Thus, Music Mosaic has formulated legitimate collections of music fusions with traditional artists. Didgeridoo Trance Dance, Drumming Planet, Dance Planet, Groove Temple, Spice Groove, and Tribal Groove are all unique interpretations of electronic dance music fusions. They provide a glimpse of Australian contributions to the scene. Music Mosaic does an excellent job creating music that will undoubtedly appeal to diverse audiences. Therefore, they are fulfilling the goal of their record label, which is to remain "the pulse of global harmony."
Abimbola Cole is a second-year graduate student in the Ethnomusicology Department. Her musical interests include South African hip-hop, American hip-hop, and house music. She currently works in the Ethnomusicology Archive as a Graduate Student Researcher. Additionally, she is a DJ on the Archive's weekly radio program, "Sounds From the Vault," which airs on uclaradio.com.
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