Archival Sound Recordings
Encyclopedia
Archival Sound Recordings is a British Library
service providing free online access to a diverse range of spoken word, music and environmental sounds from the British Library Sound Archive
. Anyone with web access can use the service to search, browse and listen to 24,000 digitised recordings. Playback and download of an additional 22,000 recordings is available to Athens or Shibboleth users in UK higher and further education
. The service was originally launched with funding by the JISC.
There are over 10,000 hours of rarely heard audio material available within Archival Sound Recordings. Images and transcripts are also available for some recordings to further enrich the content.
Recordings may be searched by keywords or browsed by collection types, dates, languages, performer names and subjects. Several collections can be browsed using a map interface.
Over 250 hours of radio programmes about African literary, social and cultural affairs. Made at the Transcription Centre in London
, the recordings were broadcast throughout Africa
and sometimes on the BBC World Service
. Ranging from radio dramas to magazine programmes, from politics to poetry, this collection provides a view of Africa
in the mid-1960s.
Art and design interviews
Intimate encounters with the life and work of British painters, sculptors, photographers and architects. Interviewees include sculptors Elisabeth Frink
and Eduardo Paolozzi
; painters Terry Frost
, Paula Rego
and Michael Rothenstein
; photographers Grace Robertson
, Mari Mahr and Helen Chadwick
; and architects Denys Lasdun
, Ralph Erskine
, Edward Hollamby and Patrick Gwynne.
David Rycroft Africa recordings
South African-born linguist and musicologist, Rycroft made many field trips to villages, townships and settlements around South Africa
between the 60s and 80s. Fascinated by the relationship between oral traditions and musical structure, Rycroft focused on unaccompanied choral singing, songs composed for indigenous musical instruments, and urban music.
Klaus Wachsmann Uganda recordings
Klaus Wachsmann
made roughly 1,500 unique recordings of indigenous music in Uganda
, most of which have never been published before. This collection dates from the late 1940s, when Wachsmann was curator of the Uganda Museum in Kampala
, and includes field recordings and performances at the Museum.
Oral history of jazz in Britain
An informal and anecdotal history of the music, venues and people that defined jazz
in the UK. Through interviews with musicians, promoters and label owners, this collection focuses on some of the less well known aspects of British jazz
– including the impact in Britain of overseas musicians, British developments in free improvisation in the 1960s, jazz outside London
, and the contribution of women to the music.
Oral history of recorded sound
This teaching package reflects in sound, image and text the cultural and economic impact of developments in recording technology over the 20th century. It also features oral history interviews with significant figures in the worlds of music, radio, and the recording industry – with a focus on backroom innovators who have rarely enjoyed the limelight.
Soundscapes
The word ‘soundscape
’ was coined by composer R. Murray Schafer
to identify sounds that “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place” (Wegstaff, G. 2000). This selection draws together mechanical and industrial sounds (including transport and fog-horns), soundscapes of the natural world across continents, urban soundscapes, and wildlife sounds from around the globe.
St Mary-le-Bow public debates
At one o’clock every Tuesday lunchtime for fifteen years (1964–1979), Joseph McCulloch, the Rector of St Mary-le-Bow Church in the City of London, invited a well-known public figure to debate an issue of the day. Popular amongst city workers, guests included Enoch Powell
on race, Diana Rigg
on single parentage, A. J. Ayer on moral responsibility, Edna O’Brien on fear, and Germaine Greer
on free will.
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
service providing free online access to a diverse range of spoken word, music and environmental sounds from the British Library Sound Archive
British Library Sound Archive
The British Library Sound Archive in London, England is one of the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word and ambient recordings....
. Anyone with web access can use the service to search, browse and listen to 24,000 digitised recordings. Playback and download of an additional 22,000 recordings is available to Athens or Shibboleth users in UK higher and further education
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
. The service was originally launched with funding by the JISC.
There are over 10,000 hours of rarely heard audio material available within Archival Sound Recordings. Images and transcripts are also available for some recordings to further enrich the content.
Recordings may be searched by keywords or browsed by collection types, dates, languages, performer names and subjects. Several collections can be browsed using a map interface.
Content currently available
The Archival Sound Recordings cover a broad range of content:- Accents and dialects of spoken English, including extracts from the Survey of English DialectsSurvey of English DialectsThe Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before local differences were to disappear...
, the Millennium Memory Bank of personal oral histories, the Berliner Lautarchiv of British World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
prisoners, and a 1940s University College LondonUniversity College LondonUniversity College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
phonetics research collection. - Arts, literature and performance includes Institute of Contemporary ArtsInstitute of Contemporary ArtsThe Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
, London – Talks, 1981–1992 and early spoken word recordings (including Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and Sir Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
); and the St Mary-le-Bow public debatesSt Mary-le-Bow public debatesThe St Mary-le-Bow public debates were recorded between 1964-1979 at the St Mary-le-Bow Church, London, and feature well-known public figures debating important issues of the time. The recordings were made every Tuesday lunchtime at 1pm, with the speakers invited by the rector of the church, Joseph...
. - Classical music: recordings of Canonical Classical Repertoire 1926-1956 (including all recordings held from the repertoire of BachBạchBạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms on 78rpm shellac discs together with early long-playing vinyl discs); and Dutch String Quartet, the London Trio and the Philharmonic QuartetPhilharmonic QuartetThe Philharmonic Quartet was an English string quartet musical ensemble founded during the period of the First World War and remaining active until the early 1940s, by which time none of the original members were present in the group.- Original members :...
and other chamber music performers. - Environment and nature, including hundreds of examples of British wildlife sounds, historic wildlife recordings and amphibians sounds.
- Jazz and popular music has interviews of recordings of British Jazz musicians and the complete set of programmes from arts broadcaster Touch Radio.
- Oral history including Holocaust Survivors' Centre interviews, the collection of oral history pioneer George Ewart EvansGeorge Ewart EvansGeorge Ewart Evans was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and produced eleven books of collections of these materials.-Life and career:Evans was born in a...
and collections created by the National Life StoriesNational Life StoriesNational Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork...
. - Sound recording history including scans of rare early record company catalogues, over 400 images of historic playback equipment and 100 interviews charting the history of sound recording.
- World and traditional music: a wide range of musical styles from around the world. These range from the Decca RecordsDecca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
West Africa "Yellow Label" Series and music of India collected by ethnomusicologist Rolf Killius to Traditional Music in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, a vast collection of 20,000 recordings of popular ballads, children's skipping songs, customs, music hall, soldiers' songs folk tales and interviews.
Selected highlights
African Writers' ClubOver 250 hours of radio programmes about African literary, social and cultural affairs. Made at the Transcription Centre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the recordings were broadcast throughout Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and sometimes on the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. Ranging from radio dramas to magazine programmes, from politics to poetry, this collection provides a view of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
in the mid-1960s.
Art and design interviews
Intimate encounters with the life and work of British painters, sculptors, photographers and architects. Interviewees include sculptors Elisabeth Frink
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink, DBE, CH, RA was an English sculptor and printmaker...
and Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
; painters Terry Frost
Terry Frost
Sir Terry Frost RA was an English artist noted for his abstracts....
, Paula Rego
Paula Rego
Paula Rego is a painter born in Portugal although she is a naturalised British citizen.-Biography:Rego was born in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was...
and Michael Rothenstein
Michael Rothenstein
William Michael Rothenstein RA was an English printmaker, painter and art teacher.-Early life:Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist, Sir William Rothenstein and his wife, Alice Knewstub.-Art:He was home schooled and studied...
; photographers Grace Robertson
Grace Robertson
Grace Robertson, OBE, is a Scottish photographer who was born in Manchester, England in 1930.After leaving school she looked after her mother who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Robertson's father gave her a second-hand camera in 1949 and the following year she had a photo story about her...
, Mari Mahr and Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick was a British conceptual artist.-Life and work:Chadwick studied at Croydon College of Art, The Faculty of Arts and Architecture Brighton Polytechnic and then at the Chelsea School of Art....
; and architects Denys Lasdun
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...
, Ralph Erskine
Ralph Erskine
Ralph Erskine is the name of:*Ralph Erskine , British-Swedish architect*Ralph Erskine , the 18th century Scottish clergyman...
, Edward Hollamby and Patrick Gwynne.
David Rycroft Africa recordings
South African-born linguist and musicologist, Rycroft made many field trips to villages, townships and settlements around South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
between the 60s and 80s. Fascinated by the relationship between oral traditions and musical structure, Rycroft focused on unaccompanied choral singing, songs composed for indigenous musical instruments, and urban music.
Klaus Wachsmann Uganda recordings
Klaus Wachsmann
Klaus Wachsmann
Klaus Philipp Wachsmann was a British ethnomusicologist of German birth. Born in 1907 in Berlin, he is considered a pioneer in the study of the traditional musics of Africa...
made roughly 1,500 unique recordings of indigenous music in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, most of which have never been published before. This collection dates from the late 1940s, when Wachsmann was curator of the Uganda Museum in Kampala
Kampala
Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District.-History: of Buganda, had chosen...
, and includes field recordings and performances at the Museum.
Oral history of jazz in Britain
An informal and anecdotal history of the music, venues and people that defined jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
in the UK. Through interviews with musicians, promoters and label owners, this collection focuses on some of the less well known aspects of British jazz
British jazz
British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in...
– including the impact in Britain of overseas musicians, British developments in free improvisation in the 1960s, jazz outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and the contribution of women to the music.
Oral history of recorded sound
This teaching package reflects in sound, image and text the cultural and economic impact of developments in recording technology over the 20th century. It also features oral history interviews with significant figures in the worlds of music, radio, and the recording industry – with a focus on backroom innovators who have rarely enjoyed the limelight.
Soundscapes
The word ‘soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
’ was coined by composer R. Murray Schafer
R. Murray Schafer
Raymond Murray Schafer is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World...
to identify sounds that “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place” (Wegstaff, G. 2000). This selection draws together mechanical and industrial sounds (including transport and fog-horns), soundscapes of the natural world across continents, urban soundscapes, and wildlife sounds from around the globe.
St Mary-le-Bow public debates
St Mary-le-Bow public debates
The St Mary-le-Bow public debates were recorded between 1964-1979 at the St Mary-le-Bow Church, London, and feature well-known public figures debating important issues of the time. The recordings were made every Tuesday lunchtime at 1pm, with the speakers invited by the rector of the church, Joseph...
At one o’clock every Tuesday lunchtime for fifteen years (1964–1979), Joseph McCulloch, the Rector of St Mary-le-Bow Church in the City of London, invited a well-known public figure to debate an issue of the day. Popular amongst city workers, guests included Enoch Powell
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...
on race, Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
on single parentage, A. J. Ayer on moral responsibility, Edna O’Brien on fear, and Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
on free will.
External links
- Archival Sound Recordings homepage
- Map interface for selected Archival Sound Recordings
- World and traditional music on Archival Sound Recordings:
- British Library Sound Archive
- JISC: The Joint Information Systems Committee
- JISC web page on Archival Sound Recordings 2
- Related list of JISC funded projects