"Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings" now available
Submitted by Maureen Russell on August 23, 2019 - 3:15pm
The UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive* is pleased to announce the publication of Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings. Presenting 60 field collections held by the Archive, this diverse and comprehensive resource features thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, film footage, field notebooks, slides, correspondence, and ephemera from around the world. Produced in collaboration with publisher Adam Matthew Digital, and including material from ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias held at the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, the musical traditions, recordings and other source materials in this collection provide a unique view into the cultural and social lives of the represented communities.
Collections include:
Doreen Binnington (Native Alaska), Donn Borcherdt (Mexico, Chile, Armenian American), Jean Borgatti (Nigeria), Robert Brown (India), Tara Browner (Michigan, Ann Arbor Powwow), Peggy Caton (Iran), Sam Chianis (Greece), Logan Clark (Guatemala), Peter Crossley-Holland (Tibet), Harold Courlander (China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan), Martha Ellen Davis (Puerto Rico), Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Jamaica), Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Nigeria, Ghana), Lorraine Donoghue Koranda (Native Alaska), Nicholas England (Ghana, Nigeria), Robert Garfias (Laos, Thailand, Burma, Bali), Robert Garfias (Mexico, 1964), Robert Garfias (Korea), Robert Garfias (Philippines), Robert Garfias (Hong Kong), Robert Garfias (Mexico, 1967), Robert Garfias (Spain), Robert Garfias (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Mexico), Robert Garfias (Myanmar), Robert Garfias (Japan), Robert Garfias (Japan, manuscripts), Verna Gillis (Ghana, Benin, Togo, Suriname), Larry Godsey (Ghana), Oliver Greene (Belize), Richard Hawkins (Chile), Charlotte Heth (Oklahoma Cherokee), Mantle Hood (Java), Mark Humphrey (Kyrgyzstan), Donald Kachamba (Malawi), Robert Kauffman (Zimbabwe), Cheryl Keyes (Rap Music), Gail Kligman (Romania), Frederic Lieberman (Sikkim), Bernard Lortat-Jacob (Morocco), Emily Mayne (India), Jose Maceda (Philippines), Kevin Miller (Fiji), David Morton (Thailand), Linda O'Brien-Rothe (Guatemala), Lise Paret-Limardo de Vela (Guatemala), Ankica Petrović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croata, Israel, Montenegro, Qatar, Macedonia, Kosovo, Turkey, United States of America, Armenia, Serbia), Robert Reigle (Papua New Guinea), Timothy Rice (Bulgaria, Georgia), Gertrude Rivers-Robinson (Bali), Jim Rosellini (Burkina Faso), Anne Briegleb Schuursma (Romania), Emily Sene (Sephardic Music), Catherine Stevens (East Asia), Darius Thieme (Nigeria), Norman Track (China), Jessie Vallejo (Guatemala), Klaus Wachsmann (Uganda), Bonnie Wade (India), D.K. Wilgus (Appalachia, Bluegrass), Henry Yonan Assyrian Songs (Kurdistan).
In addition to the field recordings, the resource includes all new World Musical Instrument content created specifically for this publication. Photos were taken showcasing over 50 of the more than 1000 instruments from UCLA Ethnomusicology's World Musical Instrument Collection** and descriptions were created by the Director of the World Music Center and the World Musical Instrument Collection curator. We also recorded musical examples featuring master musicians, representing ten of UCLA Ethnomusicology's world music ensembles.
We encourage everyone to explore this amazing new resource. Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage is one of our primary missions, so the Ethnomusicology Archive is thrilled that 60 of our unique and diverse collections of field recordings are now accessible to a global audience.
This resource is available from all public computers in the Ethnomusicology Archive or UCLA Libraries or via UCLA's wireless networks. Current UCLA students, staff, and faculty can access it from off-campus by using the UCLA VPN or proxy server. Any institution that wishes to request a free trial should contact Adam Matthew Digital.
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to contact archivist Maureen Russell: mrussell[at]schoolofmusic.ucla.edu
*Established in 1961, the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive is a world-renowned research archive dedicated to the study of musical traditions from around the globe. The Archive’s collection of more than 150,000 audio, video, print, and photographic items documents musical expressions throughout the world and includes unique field recordings as well as rare commercial recordings. As part of UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology, the Archive preserves and makes accessible over 50 years’ worth of audio and video recordings of the department’s famed concerts and also of lectures by legendary scholars and performers, ranging from Mantle Hood to Ravi Shankar to Dizzy Gillespie. In addition to preservation and access, the Archive offers a wide range of research, outreach, and educational services. From international scholars to local community members and UCLA students and faculty, the Archive is recognized locally and internationally as an important center of ethnomusicological research and discovery.
**The UCLA World Musical Instrument Collection (WMIC) is part of the Department of Ethnomusicology, one of the oldest, largest, and most highly regarded programs in the field in the United States. Initiated in 1958 via a Rockefeller Foundation grant, the collection has grown to over 1000 items, including large instrument sets from West Africa and several Asian countries, and smaller Native American, Latin American, and East European sets. Some instruments are used for performance classes, while others are display items of historical value. Central to our teaching and research mission for nearly 60 years, the WMIC is also accessible to the public. It features constantly in community outreach and public education programs, exposing innumerable people to musical cultures from around the world.
Also, please save the date. November 1st, 2019, UCLA Ethnomusicology will be hosting a half-day symposium and evening concert in honor of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and the publication of Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings. The keynote speaker will be the internationally renowned Anthony Seeger, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UCLA and Director Emeritus, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
UPDATE: Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings was named an Outstanding Academic Title 2020 by Choice Reviews. Choice reviewers consider several criteria across some 6,000 published reviews over the course of the year:
- Overall excellence in presentation and scholarship
- Importance relative to other literature in the field
- Originality or uniqueness
- Value to undergraduate students
- Importance in building undergraduate library collections
In its February 2020 review, Choice called Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings “a rich, rewarding, expansive database."
Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings was also the Winner of Library Journal's Best Reference Database 2019.
Library Journal wrote: "Adam Matthew has compiled 60 global field ethnomusicology collections with material spanning the mid-20th to the early 21st centuries, with especially strong representation of West African, North American, Southeast Asian, and Caribbean cultures. The selection of primary sources is stellar, and search functions are seamless. This is a bonanza of information for anyone interested in the study of world music cultures, particularly non-Western ones."
"Sounding Board" is intended as a space for scholars to publish thoughts and observations about their current work. These postings are not peer reviewed and do not reflect the opinion of Ethnomusicology Review. We support the expression of controversial opinions, and welcome civil discussion about them. We do not, however, tolerate overt discrimination based on race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion, and reserve the right to remove posts that we feel might offend our readers.
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