British Library Sound Archive
Encyclopedia
The British Library Sound Archive (formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound) in London
, England
is one of the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music
, spoken word and ambient recordings.
It holds more than three million recordings, including over a million discs and 200,000 tapes. These include commercial record releases, chiefly from the UK
, but with some from overseas, radio broadcasts (many from the BBC Sound Archive
) and privately-made recordings.
should have a collection of audio recordings of poets and statesmen. The Gramophone Company started donating metal masters
of audio recordings in 1906 (on the basis that records would wear out), with a number of donations being made up until 1933. These recordings included some by Melba
, Patti
, Caruso and Tamagno, and others of Lev Tolstoy, Ernest Shackleton
, Herbert Beerbohm Tree
and Lewis Waller
. A number of shellac pressings
were also donated in the period 1920-50.
In 1955, Patrick Saul
founded the British Institute of Recorded Sound, after realising that material was in danger of being lost as the British Museum did not maintain a comprehensive archive. The Institute was located in a property owned by the British Museum in Russell Square
(with rent and rates guaranteed by Robert Mayer), and supported by a donation from the Quaker trust in Birmingham. A public appeal resulted in the donation of thousands of shellac discs, which started off the collection.
The British Institute of Recorded Sound became part of the British Library
in April 1983. It was later renamed the British Library Sound Archive. The metal masters originally collected by the British Museum were transferred to the Archive in 1992.
s of wildlife sounds can be made to order. The Archival Sound Recordings
service provides free online access for UK higher and further education institutions to over 45,000 rare recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments. 50% of these recordings are also accessible for general public listening online.
offers training workshops and events in oral history and wildlife sound recording, as well as audiovisual archiving internships.
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...
, England
England
England 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...
is one of the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, spoken word and ambient recordings.
It holds more than three million recordings, including over a million discs and 200,000 tapes. These include commercial record releases, chiefly from the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, but with some from overseas, radio broadcasts (many from the BBC Sound Archive
BBC Sound Archive
The BBC Sound Archive is a collection of audio recordings maintained by the BBC and founded in 1936. Its recordings date back to the late 19th century and include many rare items including contemporary speeches by public and political figures, folk music, British dialects and sound...
) and privately-made recordings.
History
The history of the Sound Archive can be traced back to 1905, when it was first suggested that the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
should have a collection of audio recordings of poets and statesmen. The Gramophone Company started donating metal masters
Metal Masters
Metal Masters is a fighting game released in 1993 for the Nintendo Game Boy and the Amiga. The game was not commercially successful.-Gameplay:...
of audio recordings in 1906 (on the basis that records would wear out), with a number of donations being made up until 1933. These recordings included some by Melba
Melba
Melba may refer to:* Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano opera singer* Melba , a 1953 film directed by Lewis Milestone* Melba Montgomery, a country music singer* Melba Moore, an American R&B singer and actress...
, Patti
Patti
Patti may refer to:* Patti , including people with this name* Patti, Sicily* Patti, Punjab, India* Patti, Uttar Pradesh, India* Patti caste, a group of people* Patricia, a given name...
, Caruso and Tamagno, and others of Lev Tolstoy, Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
, Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
and Lewis Waller
Lewis Waller
William Lewis Waller was an English actor and theatre manager. His father was a civil engineer.Born in Spain, he first appeared on the London stage in 1883, at Tooles, and for some years added to his reputation as a capable actor...
. A number of shellac pressings
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
were also donated in the period 1920-50.
In 1955, Patrick Saul
Patrick Saul
Anthony Patrick Hodgins Saul OBE was an English sound archivist.Known as Patrick Saul, he was the founder of the British Institute of Recorded Sound, which later became the British Library Sound Archive. His own favourite recording in the archive he created was of the mating call of the...
founded the British Institute of Recorded Sound, after realising that material was in danger of being lost as the British Museum did not maintain a comprehensive archive. The Institute was located in a property owned by the British Museum in Russell Square
Russell Square
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. To the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row...
(with rent and rates guaranteed by Robert Mayer), and supported by a donation from the Quaker trust in Birmingham. A public appeal resulted in the donation of thousands of shellac discs, which started off the collection.
The British Institute of Recorded Sound became part of the British Library
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,...
in April 1983. It was later renamed the British Library Sound Archive. The metal masters originally collected by the British Museum were transferred to the Archive in 1992.
Collections
The specialist collections are:- Classical music
- DramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and literatureLiteratureLiterature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources... - Oral historyOral historyOral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
- Moving images
- Popular musicPopular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and jazzJazzJazz 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... - Radio recordings, Spoken languageSpoken languageSpoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...
and dialects - WildlifeWildlifeWildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
and other nature soundsNature SoundsNature Sounds is a record label based in Brooklyn, New York, specializing in hip hop and reggae music.-Discography:*Ayatollah - Fingertips *Ayatollah - Live From The MPC 60 *Ayatollah - Cocoon... - WorldWorld musicWorld music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
and traditional musicFolk musicFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
Printed Materials
The Sound Archive holds an extensive reference collection of printed materials relating to recordings. The collection includes books and periodicals from around the world, a wide-ranging collection of discographies, and one of the largest collections of commercial record catalogues dating back to the early 1900s.Services
The Sound Archive provides a range of services. The Sound Archive's online catalogue of over 3 million recordings can be viewed at http://cadensa.bl.uk, and it is updated daily. Recordings may be listened to free of charge in the British Library Reading Rooms. Copies of recordings can be purchased subject to copyright clearance and spectrogramSpectrogram
A spectrogram is a time-varying spectral representation that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds, to analyse the cries of animals; they were also...
s of wildlife sounds can be made to order. The Archival Sound Recordings
Archival Sound Recordings
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...
service provides free online access for UK higher and further education institutions to over 45,000 rare recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments. 50% of these recordings are also accessible for general public listening online.
Educational Services
The British LibraryBritish 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,...
offers training workshops and events in oral history and wildlife sound recording, as well as audiovisual archiving internships.
Publications
Playback, the bulletin of the British Library Sound Archive, was published free of charge from 1992-2010. All 44 issues are available online. A range of British Library CDs are available covering nature sounds, world music, historical speeches and recordings of famous poets, playwrights and authors.See also
- Theatre Archive ProjectTheatre Archive ProjectThe Theatre Archive Project is an ongoing project to reinvestigate British theatre history from 1945 to 1968, from the perspectives of both the theatregoer and the practitioner. The project is a collaboration between the British Library and the De Montfort University, and is funded by the Arts and...
Oral History strand. - Archival Sound RecordingsArchival Sound RecordingsArchival 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...
service for UK higher and further education, funded by the JISC. - Peter CopelandPeter CopelandPeter Michael Copeland was an English sound archivist.From an early age he had a deep interest in collecting old gramophone records and in sound recording. In 1961 he joined the BBC World Service as a Technical Operator in the Control Room at Bush House, doing recording operations on disk and tape...
Conservation Manager of the National Sound Archive/British Library Sound Archive from 1986-2002. - 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...
, an independent charitable trust within the Oral History section of the British Library.