The British Library launches new traditional and world music collections online at
http://sounds.bl.uk. Featuring unique field recordings, live performances and out-of-print commercial releases, this latest addition to the JISC-funded Archival Sound Recordings website provides a sample of musical traditions across the globe - offering a glimpse of cultural experience around the world.
Source is BL press release as below:
Highlights include:
Traditional music in England – ranging from rowdy pub sessions to the intimate settings of musicians' homes and slickly produced radio programmes, this collection provides a unique insight into traditional English music, including popular ballads, children's skipping songs, music hall, soldiers' songs and folk tales, for example:
* A sing-along of 'It's a long way to Tipperary' medley in the Boldon Lad public house in Newcastle accompanied on banjo and spoons (1979).
* A rousing rendition of 'Any old iron' recorded in the Nautical Club in Birmingham (1986).
* Lament of the organic gardener in Gloucestershire (1988).
* WWI soldier, George Coppard, sings "If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind" and "Tickler's jam" (a jam supplier to the army), talks about the songs and speaks on his experiences of the war.
* One of the last Black Country chainmakers, Lucy Woodall, sings work songs such as 'Chainmaker lad is a masher' and talks about her life and work.
Music in India – devotional songs, Vaishnava prayers, Buddhist ritual music and healing songs from remote rural areas of India, recorded as part of a collaborative project between ethnomusicologist Rolf Killius, the Horniman Museum and the British Library, including:
* Monpa dung-khar conch shell duet in the Tawang monastery, Arunachal Pradesh (2001).
* Sora ancestor song with fiddle and flute in Tame Gorjang village, Orissa (2001).
* Cettia Vadyam – an ancient percussion music ensemble featuring the centa and thappe drums and the ilatalam cymbals in Edakkunny village, Kerala (2002).
* Sutuli stone flute played on a harvested rice field in the Upper Katoni village, Assam (2002).
George Kingsley Roth Fiji Collection – recorded in the 1950s during Roth's stint in the Fijian Colonial Administrative Service, this collection includes the sounds of dance gongs, stamping tubes, nose flutes and songs from the islands of Fiji and Tonga, for example:
* A selection of songs to accompany three Tongan dances: the lakalaka, the tafi and the ma'ulu'ulu.
* Ceremonial chants that accompany the drinking of yangonna (the traditional drink of Fiji made from the powdered root of Piper methysticum) which once formed the backbone of Fijian society and culture and would have been drunk at every event.
* Songs from Rakiraki accompanied by stamping tubes and wooden gongs.
* Examples of wooden gong signals that are used to order the men to protect the village from attack, warn of fire, announce a prohibition on making noise in the village, or alert villagers that a body has been brought in for eating.
* Examples of nose flutes and shell trumpets.
Decca West Africa Recordings – music recorded in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and possibly Togo, encompassing a wide range of popular genres of the time including highlife, rumba, calypso, blues and early Nigerian jùjú as well as some more traditional performances. Highlights include:
* Famous Scrubbs and his band from Sierra Leone play 'Poor Freetown Boy'.
* Somuah’s band from Ghana sing 'Auntie Christie'.
* Ma Felreh and her Susu Jolly Group (probably from Togo) sing 'Kingsway Bairie'.
These commercial recordings come from the British Library's holdings of the Decca West Africa yellow label series, issued on shellac disc between c.1948-1961. The collection features recordings by some more well known artists, such as Kwaa Mensah, Kwashi Gatse, Famous Scrubbs and Spike Anyankor, but it also includes many more obscure artists – many of whom have long since passed away - thus providing a detailed picture of the musical scene in West Africa in this post-war period.
Other traditional and world music collections which can now be accessed online at
http://sounds.bl.uk include:
African recordings from: Arthur Morris Jones Africa Collection; Kenneth Gourlay Uganda Collection; Klaus Wachsmann Uganda Collection; Peter Cooke Uganda Collection; Hans-Joachim Heinz Botswana Collection; Giles Swayne Senegal Collection.
Klaus Wachsmann making field recordings in Uganda 1949 (credit Philip Wachsmann)
Asian recordings from: Colin Huehns Asia Collection; James Kippen North India Collection.
Australasian recordings from: Simon Seligmann Kiribati Collection.
English recordings from: Desmond and Shelagh Herring Collection; Keith Summers Collection; Nick and Mally Dow Collection; Reg Hall Archive; Roy Palmer Collection; Steve Gardham Collection; Terry Yarnell Collection; Bob Davenport Archive.
Ethnographic wax cylinders from England, Scotland, Wales, India, West Africa and the Torres Strait Islands.
Source:
For press information, interviews and broadcast quality audio extracts, please contact
Julie Yau, Arts Press Officer, British Library
+44[0]20 7412 7237 / julie.yau@bl.uk
