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The bulletin of the British Library Sound Archive pla yb a ck SOUND Winter 2005 ARCHIVE p l a yb a ck

PLAYBACK is the bulletin of the British Library Sound Archive. It is published free of charge twice a year, with information on the Sound Archive’s current and future activities, and news from the world of sound archives and audio preservation. Comments are welcome and should be addressed to the editor. We have a special mailing list for PLAYBACK. Please write, phone, fax or email us, or complete and send in the tear-off slip at the end of this issue (if you have not done so already) if you wish to receive future issues through the post.

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Front cover photograph Robert Stephens as Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV Part 1 © Royal Shakespeare Company/Reg Wilson SOUND ARCHIVE WHAT’S HAPPENING

! A major new addition was made to the Sound Arc h i v e poetry reading; and there are also soundscapes, such The Etrick Shepherd, 1967 oil on canvas by John Bellany, who has website in July when ‘Listen to Nature’ went live – as a cheetah sleeping in the shade of a Baobab tree recently been re c o rded by Anna Dyke for Artists’ Lives. Repro d u c e d courtesy of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation and the artist a collection of 400 wildlife re c o rdings that can be and Muezzins practising voice projection in the acoustics b rowsed by location, animal group or habitat. The of a highway underpass in Cairo. selection includes the familiar sounds of our countryside, such as the Skylark, Blackbird and Fox; farm animals and ! A unique and hitherto unpublished 1907 re c o rding animals from zoos; and domestic cats and dogs. More by the celebrated Victorian physicist Lord Kelvin can exotic sounds include the cries of the O’o A’a, a bird now be heard for the first time. Following the success that became extinct in Hawaii in 1987, the chestbeats of ‘Voices of History’, the British Library has just of lowland gorillas in Gabon, and the bleating noises published a second set of historic spoken word of baby Siamese crocodiles. The site also contains an re c o rdings, entitled (in the best Hollywood tradition i n t roductory essay on bird communication, illustrated for sequels) ‘Voices of History 2’. This set contains with sounds and photographs. You can listen to nature 38 re c o rdings under the headings of arts, sports, air and at: www. b l . u k / l i s t e n t o n a t u re land re c o rds, exploration, media and communications, and sciences. Speakers include author Leo To l s t o y, composer Arthur Sullivan, pioneer aviators Charles A. L i n d b e rgh and Amy Johnson, explorer Henry Morton S t a n l e y, and a line-up of eminent scientists headed by Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford , Alexander Fleming and Francis Crick. The set of two CDs was released on 28 September and is on sale Anthony Eyton, and John Bellany, taking the total price £15.95, from the British Library Shop [see to 216 interviews in all. details opposite]. ! We have been delighted by the public response to ! The Sound Archive and the Music Department at an article in the Daily Te l e g r a p h on 5 February this year, K i n g ’s College, London, successfully bid for an Arts and written by David Derbyshire, the newspaper’s Science Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral C o r respondent. The basis of the article was an appeal Aw a rd. Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson at King’s and for obsolete equipment that resulted in more than 200 Timothy Day, the Sound Arc h i v e ’s Curator of Classical e-mails, 20 letters and several telephone calls. Equipment Graphic from Radio Freedom courtesy of Bill Nowlin Music, have made the award to Amy Carruthers, who o ff e red by Te l e g r a p h readers includes several Betamax ! Visitors to the public areas of the British Library have will be re s e a rching the live performances and bro a d c a s t s machines, wire re c o rders, tape machines, dictation a last chance to catch ‘Sounds of Africa’, an audio of conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. re c o rders as well as some obscure formats, and we exhibition that is running until 6 November. Janet To p p have accepted around 30 items for operational use. F a rgion, the Sound Arc h i v e ’s Curator of World and ! NLSC (the National Life Story Collection) organised Traditional Music, has selected over 100 sounds to re f l e c t a fundraising evening in aid of its ‘Artists’ Lives’ project ! Cheryl Tipp joined the Sound Archive, working as the rich diversity of Africa’s history and culture. A ‘world at the Fleming Collection with noted writer Mel support in the Wildlife Section, in May. Cheryl graduated music tree’ offers global music and re c o rdings relating to Gooding as keynote speaker. The ‘Artists’ Lives’ oral f rom Queen Mary, University of London with a degree politics, colonialism and traditional local issues; a ‘sound history project has recently added interviews with John in Zoology. Her particular interests lie in animal behaviour 2 t ree’ presents African Nobel Prize winners and political Hoyland, Janet Boulton, John Ward, Jane Dowling, and population dynamics. ‘THE ESSENTIAL SHAKESPEARE – LIVE’

For over 40 years the Sound Archive has re c o rded new imagined I would be able to experience.’ p roductions by the Royal Shakespeare Company at its The first of the extracts comes from the earliest London residencies, first at the Aldwych Theatre, then re c o rding to have survived, a production of C o r i o l a n u s at the Barbican. In that time over 200 productions of with Laurence Olivier in the title-role. ‘Listen to the first S h a k e s p e a re plays have been re c o rded, as well as RSC extract on this re c o rding,’ writes Gregory Doran, ‘and p roductions of plays by other writers, and this important you are transported back in time to a particular night in collection is one of the Drama and Literature section’s S t r a t f o rd - u p o n - Avon in 1959. Close your eyes and you most frequently consulted re s o u rc e s . feel you are there, among that excited audience listening Now the British Library and the Royal Shakespeare to the incomparable Olivier as C o r i o l a n u s snarling his Company have joined forces to publish a selection of curses on the people of Rome. The impact of its extracts from the collection for the first time. Pre p a r a t i o n immediacy is quite astonishing.’ of the 2CD set has taken almost two years and the British The set continues with some of the most celebrated Library and the RSC are very grateful to all the actors and p roductions in the RSC’s history: the now legendary d i rectors, composers and musicians, who have helped to Wars of the Roses f rom 1964 with Peggy Ashcroft as How to order CDs make this unique publication possible. Queen Marg a ret; David Warner contemplating existence ‘The Essential Shakespeare – Live’ includes 20 scenes as H a m l e t; Donald Sinden as a memorably fastidious The Essential Shakespeare – Live and speeches chosen by Gregory Doran, Associate Malvolio in the Letter Scene from Twelfth Night; 2CDs lasting 136 minutes D i rector of the RSC. The selection was a difficult task – D e rek Jacobi as Pro s p e ro abjuring his rough magic in with 116-page booklet but, he says, not an arduous one. As he remarks in his The Te m p e s t; and Bill Alexander’s high-spirited The Merry Release date: 26 October 2005 p reface, ‘I felt a sense of privilege at being able to listen Wives of Wi n d s o r, a production which transported the Price £15.95 plus postage to performances I had heard so much about, but never play forward to the 1950s with the merry wives gossiping ! In person under their hair driers. f rom the British Library Shop, 96 Euston As a rule full scenes have been pre f e r red to isolated Road, London NW1 2DB purple passages, so here is Janet Suzman’s Cleopatra haranguing the poor messenger; Patrick Stewart’s ! By telephone Cassius moving John Wo o d ’s Brutus to action in J u l i u s +44 (0)20 7412 7735 C a e s a r; Antony Sher’s R i c h a rd III wooing Lady Anne; ! By fax Ian McKellen and Francesca Annis in the balcony scene +44 (0)20 7412 7172 of Romeo and Juliet; and Judi Dench teasing a confession of love from Claudie Blakley’s re l u c t a n t ! By e-mail Helena in A l l ’s Well That Ends We l l. But there are also b l - b o o k s h o p @ b l . u k some famous speeches – Robert Stephens as Falstaff , ! O n l i n e Alan Rickman contemplating the Seven Ages of Man in f rom the British Library Online Bookshop As You Like It, and Paul Scofield as King Lear in Peter w w w. b l . u k / b o o k s h o p / B ro o k s ’s celebrated production of 1964. The British Library Online Bookshop also ‘ T h e re is no such thing as a definitive Shakespeare sells British Library books, CD-ROMs, performance’, writes Gregory Doran, ‘just those which videos and a wide range of other print strike a chord, or reveal a particular insight for a particular publications and gifts 3 Ian McKellen and Francesca Annis in Romeo and Juliet time. All these did just that.’ ! Drama and Literature donated unique interviews with John Le Carré, Kingsley November in which Sir David Willcocks, Robert Tear Live theatre re c o rdings added to the collection during Amis, Simon Raven and Eric Ambler. and Dr. John Potter will talk about ‘“The most famous this period include, at the National Theatre, the revival Newly acquired commercial items included Stephen choir in the world”: tradition and two individual talents’. of Sam Shepard ’s Buried Child, Antony Sher’s one-man Fry reading five Harry Potter books over 67 CDs, all show P r i m o, Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Fix Up, and Nicholas housed in a yellow metal container, and, no less ambitious ! Oral History H y t n e r ’s critically acclaimed production of Henry IV – Parts in its own way, a 2-CD set issued to celebrate the 85th We received an important collection of over 50 1 and 2, with Michael Gambon as Falstaff. Also at the birthday of Glasgow poet Edwin Morgan, comprising interviews conducted by Kenneth Owen with people National: Lindsay Anderson: A Personal Remembrance re c o rdings made by 85 diff e rent people from all walks connected to the design, building and operation of by Malcolm McDowell, star of Anderson’s 1968 film I f . . .. of Glasgow life, each reading a poem by Morg a n . the Concorde supersonic airliner (C1153), including re c o rdings made between 1979 and 2001 with the ! Classical Music chief engineer, design dire c t o r, test pilots, and staff In a bequest to the Sound Archive Mr Bayly, Patron f rom the Ministry of Aviation, the Department of of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Trade and Industry, Rolls Royce and British Airways. S o c i e t y, left any items we wished to select from his The Oral History of the Wine Trade (C1088) was collection. The bulk of the collection was pre-First Wo r l d completed with over 40 in-depth re c o rdings deposited War Music Hall re c o rdings, but there were also some very covering every aspect of the UK wine trade: from the important classical music discs including three pre - Wo r l d cellar man under the arches at London Bridge working War I Russian re c o rdings of Schubert, Gounod and for family merchants catering for a niche market, to the O ffenbach; an American V-disc of Toscanini; and two supermarket wine buyers who now dominate the rise r a re Pathé classical 78s containing performances by the in post-war wine consumption and the shift from old to English clarinettist Haydn Draper (1889-1934) and the new world wine. The project was made possible thro u g h F rench soprano Ninon Vallin. a partnership with the Vintners’ Company and the The former BBC Controller, Music, Robert Institute of the Masters of Wi n e . Ponsonby, has loaned us tapes for copying of a handful Journalist and arts writer Andrew Graham-Dixon of broadcasts which neither the BBC nor the Sound deposited an interesting series of 24 re c o rdings with Kwame Kwei-Armah’s fix-up Archive preserved, including the first performance b e t t e r-known artists, including Ron Muek, Howard At the Royal Court Theatre a significant highlight was of John Cage’s 30 pieces for 5 orchestras in 1981 and Hodgkin, John Hoyland, Rachel Whiteread, Wo l f g a n g My Name is Rachel Corrie, a dramatization by Alan works by Gordon Crosse and Dallapiccola, as well as Tillmans, Richard Hamilton, Patrick Caulfield, Gillian Rickman and Katherine Viner of the writings of the 23 a 1992 Dutch radio broadcast of Delius’s Mass of Life. Wearing and Jeff Koons. year old peace activist who was killed when she was There are also interviews he recorded with conductors Following negotiations stretching back over a crushed by a bulldozer on the Gaza Strip. The post-show such as Raymond Leppard, Sir Colin Davis, Bernard decade, the National Trust Sound Archive has finally talk with the director and members of Rachel Corrie’s Haitink, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Pierre Boulez, which arrived. At over 1500 items this is one of the larg e s t family was also re c o rded. Other Royal Court re c o rd i n g s were used for a World Service series on conducting. collections we have ever received and it will be included new plays by Kevin Elyot, April De Angelis and One particularly large recent donation has been some time before the collection is accessioned, David Eldridge, Harold Pinter in conversation, and a one- ‘The Brian Head King’s College Cambridge Collection’ – catalogued and ready for public access, though man show by John Mortimer. over 170 CDs, of which 100 contain off-air re c o rdings we are being assisted by specially-trained Tr u s t Royal Society of Literature events included To m of programmes by and about the Choir of King’s College, volunteers. Recordings were made from the 1970s S t o p p a rd and Ronald Harwood on writing for films, Zadie Cambridge. In addition, there are over 50 hours of private o n w a rds with owners and staff at many of the Smith on Nabokov, and Don Paterson reading a selection re c o rdings made live in the chapel by an underg r a d u a t e Tr u s t ’s properties, as well as with Trust staff tasked of his poems and aphorisms. Talks by performance artists friend of Brian Head between November 1955 and with managing and curating the houses, their contents Raimund Hoghe, Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis were August 1959 when he was a choral scholar in the choir. and gardens. More details are expected to emerge re c o rded at the Courtauld Institute. Writer Michael Barber The collection will be highlighted at a Seminar in as we get to grips with this enormous arc h i v e . 4 YOUR ACTUAL MUSIC The Bob Cobbing archive by friend and fellow poet Ulli Freer

‘Visual poetry is the plan, sound poetry the impulse; under his own Writers Forum imprint in 1964. visual poetry the score and sound poetry your actual A performance of this poem sequence was later m u s i c .’ – Bob Cobbing b roadcast by the BBC, with electronic eff e c t s courtesy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. By 2002, Writers Forum had published the In March 2005, through the good auspices of Jennifer staggering figure of over 1000 books in total, Cobbing, the complete personal tape archive of sound with Cobbing’s own work exceeding 250 titles. poet Bob Cobbing was added to the Sound Archive. It is a catalogue that can be read as an The collection comprises over 300 open reel tapes and alternative history of innovation in poetry. includes live performances, workshops, radio bro a d c a s t s , As manager of Better Books in Charing home re c o rdings and works-in-pro g ress. The tapes C ross Road, Cobbing could hardly have been f e a t u re not only Bob Cobbing solo and in collaboration better placed to contribute to London’s with other poets and musicians but also friends and b u rgeoning counterc u l t u re. Important not just as contemporaries such as Pete Brown, Michael Horo v i t z , an artist but as a catalyst, he instigated re a d i n g s , J e ff Nuttall, Sten Hanson, John Oswald, François Dufrêne, happenings, and screenings of underg round films. Åke Hodell and many more. These screenings led directly to the formation of Bob Cobbing (1920-2002) was a crucial figure in the London Film Makers Co-op. the British avant-garde of the latter half of the 20th C o b b i n g ’s voracious desire for collaboration – c e n t u r y. His influence ranged across painting, film, music, especially in performance – with other poets, musicians publishing, performance and poetry. He was instrumental and artists gave rise to a series of poetry-and-music in what has been termed the ‘British Poetry Revival’ of the g roups, beginning in 1971 with the vocal ensemble 1960s. The main focus of his energies was performance K o n k rete Canticle (Cobbing with poets Paula Claire and sound poetry, a pan-continental phenomenon whose Michael Chant, later with Bill Griffiths). There followed practitioners – notably Henri Chopin, François Dufrêne, the touring group abAna (with improvising musicians Ernst Jandl, and Bernard Heidsieck – would dispense with David Toop and Paul Burwell) and, latterly, Birdyak (with conventional poetic language and syntax more - o r- l e s s musicians Hugh Metcalf and Lol Coxhill, often with Bob’s e n t i re l y. For Cobbing, a graphic pattern, such as might wife Jennifer dancing). be created through artistic abuse of the photocopying The legacy of Bob Cobbing’s creative energ i e s p rocess, was as fitting a score for performance as a text. resides in the still active Writers Forum, which he insisted Born in Enfield, Middlesex, Cobbing’s significant continue after his death. The poets Adrian Clarke and involvement with the arts began in the 1950s with L a w rence Upton continue both the publishing and the Hendon Arts Together – a forum for both literary and workshop. Earlier this year Jennifer Cobbing co-curated visual arts. He co-founded the Hendon Writers Gro u p , a re t rospective exhibition of Cobbing’s work, held at which led to the Writers Forum workshops, where Bury Art Gallery. international experimental poets and the younger poets As a commentator, one is mindful that whenever of the British Poetry Revival would meet and perform Bob Cobbing noted a critic had reviewed his work, he their work. Cobbing’s bold exploration of new visual would rework the said article as the basis for his next and auditory concepts ABC in Sound was published sound poem. 5 THE COMPLETE TOOLKIT The John Fisher collection by Richard Ranft

John B. Fisher (1926-2004) was a well known and respected wildlife sound re c o rd i s t in the UK. His collection ( WA 2004/36) of some 300 tape reels re p resents John’s e n t i re wildlife re c o rding ‘career’, from his first re c o rd i n g s made in the 1960s, to his award-winning British re c o rdings as well as many others from around the globe. Born in Cheshire, John Fisher spent much of his working life as an electrical engineer in the Central Electricity Generating Board. Successful nature re c o rd i n g of course re q u i res a feel for and knowledge of natural history but, especially in the 1960s when equipment was still bulky and expensive, some technical ability. Most wildlife re c o rdists have a natural history background and while their field observations and skills enable them to reliably identify and locate elusive cre a t u res, the technical skills needed to capture a high quality re c o rding take a while to master. John Fisher was one of those re c o rd i s t s whose technical expertise was put to good use in obtaining high quality examples of sounds, although his identifications of less well-known sounds from overseas w e re sometimes questioned by experts. John Fisher played an important role in the early days of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society, providing much- needed technical advice as its Secretary and also turning the Society’s fledgling newsletter into a respected journal, Wildlife Sound. In 1978 he published Wildlife Sound R e c o r d i n g, one of the few books devoted to this craft. L a t e r, on his overseas travels, he favoured using the ‘Rolls He also re c o rded many species of birds, some insects and One of his early re c o rdings was that of a Swallow Royce’ of analogue compact re c o rders, the Swiss-made amphibians. Most of his re c o rdings were made in Britain, taped in 1964, which turned out to be surprisingly good Nagra SNN, a miniaturised re e l - t o - reel tape re c o rd e r but he also made re c o rdings in France (1970, 1976, despite being made with a ribbon microphone. The originally ord e red by President JF Kennedy for the CIA. 1978), Greece (1980), Spain (1981), Australia and New re c o rding machine was one of the early non-portable A few years ago he co-ordinated efforts to ensure that Zealand (1882-1985), Kenya (1985, 1888), and the USA tape re c o rders, a Ferrograph 5, used at the window of re p resentative examples of the wildlife re c o rdists’ toolkit (1993). A number of his re c o rdings may be heard on his house. He went on to use a number of portable tape w e re included in the Sound Arc h i v e ’s collection of the British Library’s audio CDs of British birds, avalable re c o rders, various Uher and Ta n d b e rg models, which had historical artefacts. t h rough the British Library Online Bookshop, and also become available by the 1970s, and parabolic re f l e c t o r s Among his notable re c o rdings now archived at the on-line on the new ‘Listen to Nature’ website: 6 and gun microphones to draw in distant sounds. Sound Archive are an extensive series on the Red Fox. h t t p : / / w w w. b l . u k / l i s t e n t o n a t u r e ! Popular music ! World and traditional music ! Wildlife

We continue to enjoy the goodwill of the UK re c o rd The focus of our acquisitions has recently been on our We acquired several collections from British industry and would like to take this opportunity ‘Cassette culture in Central Asia’ project, led by Isobel sound re c o rdists who are members of the Wi l d l i f e to acknowledge its continued support. The Sound Clouter and inspired by the section’s involvement in the Sound Recording Society. Among these are A rc h i v e ’s acquisitions department receives between British Library’s ‘Silk Road’ exhibition. The project was important collections of English nature sounds 2,000-3,000 items per month donated by UK a determined effort to acquire and make available music f rom Dr Alan Burbidge, of British and French companies of all sizes. that would otherwise only be accessible in Central Asian wildlife from Kyle Turner (WA 2005/06), and One new acquisition of particular interest to countries. Engaging the assistance of academics working Dr Philip Radford (WA 2005/25, WA 2005/20); Beatles fans is a new album from The Quarrymen. and travelling in the region, we received CDs and and soundscapes and bird sounds from Hungary A Japanese musician and producer has co-ordinated cassettes from Tajikistan, Iran, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and digitally re c o rded by Phil Riddett (WA 2005/08). this new re c o rding by four ex-members of the band Xinjiang province in western China. Two scholars, Saida We also received a large bequest of 202 five which was founded by John Lennon and at one point Daukeyeva and Federico Spinetti (working in Mongolia inch reels from Danish wildlife sound re c o rdist contained all of the Beatles except Ringo Starr. Hunter and Tajikistan respectively) have deposited their field L o renz Ferdinand. Davies relates in the booklet that he was amazed to collections with us as a result of our collaboration. P rofessor Jochen Martens from Mainz University, discover while on holiday in Cuba in 1998 a group F rom April 2005 our cassette culture focus then G e r m a n y, donated re c o rdings of a newly described called The Quarrymen and assumed that they must shifted to Africa, making a link with the ‘Sounds of species, the Sichuan Leaf-Wa r b l e r, discovered in be a local ‘tribute’ group. But it turned out that the Africa’ exhibition. We purchased a set of 194 7” singles Shaanxi province, China (WA 2005/26), while British band consisted of original and authentic Quarrymen of west Kenyan popular music dating from the early ornithologist Paul Holt donated a large collection who had reformed and, while on a tour of Japan, had 1980s on Kenyan labels such as Melodica, Bana Moja of high-quality re c o rdings of bird sounds collected been approached with a view to making a new album. and Editions Mbonda. in China, India and South Korea (WA 2004/38). The result is ‘Songs We Remember’, issued in this We have also received, by kind donation, 1120 We also acquired a collection of 200 tape reels country by BMG UK. audio cassettes of a range of Indian music donated ( WA 2005/21) bequeathed by Danish ornithologist F rom Warner Music comes a superb 17CD set by Pat Payne, widow of John Payne, treasurer of Dr Lorenz Ferdinand, who specialised in re c o rd i n g covering the performances over the years at the Swiss the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia. wetland birds in Europe. M o n t reux jazz festival of guitarist John McLaughlin. A glimpse of the Indonesian local publishing scene P rofessor David Pye, Professor of Zoology This covers the period 1974 to 1999 and includes was provided with a donation of 8 VCDs from at Queen Mary and Westfield College since 1973, a stellar line-up of accompanying musicians, such the ethnomusicologist Philip Yampolsky. studied ultrasound in bats and has become a world l a rge Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea, L.Shankar, Other notable acquisitions include re c o rdings made renowned leader in his field. He is also a founder Zakir Hussein, Bill Evans, Trilok Gurtu and many others. by the musician, writer and sound curator David Toop d i rector of QMC Instruments Ltd, which produced M o re archive jazz material comes from Harkit in the early 1970s among the Yanomano people in l a rge numbers of commercial ultrasound detectors, R e c o rds, a UK independent, which has issued some Venezuela; music performed by fiddle players in mainly for biological studies. Among many other important unreleased live re c o rdings by the saxophonist Shetland (Lerwick area), re c o rded by Meghan Forsyth, findings he was the first to calculate the resonant Tubby Hayes, a great talent who died tragically young an ethnomusicology masters student from Cambridge pitch of the drops of water in fog and show that in 1973. Also from Harkit comes a CD of pre v i o u s l y University; and Isobel Clouter re c o rded a series of these coincide with the pitch of sounds used by bats u n released live re c o rdings made in 1963 & 1964 at ethnomusicology lectures entitled ‘Ethnomusicological for echolocation, suggesting that bats cannot navigate Ronnie Scott’s Club in London. studies of Muslim societies’ at the University of Oxford in fog. His studies also revealed that ultrasound plays Apollo Sound released their ninth volume of music Faculty of Music in collaboration with The Oxford an important part in the social behaviour of many to accompany the television test card transmissions C e n t re for Islamic Studies and featuring internationally insects and rodents. His collection (WA 2005/09) of yesteryear. Names such as Jan Plaszyn-Wroblewski, renowned speakers including Dr Regula Qureshi comprises re c o rdings of bats and insects made with Joze Privsek, and Jerzy Jarosik reveal the pre v i o u s l y (on Pakistan), Professor Martin Stokes (on Tu r k e y ) , specially modified instrumentation tape re c o rders unsuspected presence of lesser-known Polish composers P rofessor John Baily (on Afghanistan) and Dr Laudan and custom-made microphones to re c o rd sounds at work. Nooshin (on Iran). over 150 kHz. 7 USER PROFILE EVENTS ! Oral history training days 6 October, Gas Hall, Birmingham British Library over displaying or accessioning Museum and Art Gallery, my artwork. The Sound Archive picked up on 18 November, National Archives the importance of the work’s sound element and of Scotland, Edinburg h assisted in the compilation of family re c o rd i n g s 7 December, British Library, London f rom over a period of 40 years. Working with w w w. o h s . o r g . u k / t r a i n i n g a Sound Archive sound engineer, we produced ! Oral History Copyright and the We b a 28-minute sequence of sounds that spanned An Oral History Society/BL Sound four generations, from grandparents born in the Archive Wo r k s h o p 1 8 9 0 ’s to my first-born child crying, and this has 26 November, British Library been accessioned into the Sound Arc h i v e C o n f e rence Centre collection under catalogue re f e rence C1174. w w w. o h s . o r g . u k / c o n f e r e n c e s How important is the sound element to b e l i n d a @ e s s e x . a c . u k Paul Hope your work? ! THE SAUL SEMINARS The forced movement of people in slavery, Studies in Recorded Music 2005 Paul Hope is an artist whose most recent work together with voluntary migration from one is entitled 'Jam Packed Berth Place – A Final Tuesday 11 October 18.15 country to another, can extend the roots of What can historians of music in Passage'. Paul describes his artwork as being any family tree to breaking point and beyond. layered, a collage of sounds, words, pictures performance tell performers? My work seeks to consolidate family history, Colin Lawson (Royal College of Music) and a personal family passage on the journey b e f o re its loss becomes a ‘known unknown’. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood from slavery. In these circumstances the traditional linear (Royal Academy of Music) Where did you get the inspiration for ‘Jam re p resentation of a family tree does not easily Tuesday 8 November 18.15 Packed Berth Place – A Final Passage’? re p resent my fragmented history. The added ‘The most famous choir in the world’: The work has its origins in a cruise ship journey dimension of sound, linked with both words tradition and two individual talents I embarked upon to the islands of the West Indies and pictures, seems better able to describe Sir David Willcocks (Cambridge) in 2002, when I re c o rded an audio diary of the my particular family history. John Potter (York University) j o u r n e y, which included random soundings fro m How can sound help to preserve your family Robert Tear (London) local radio stations on the approach to each of the h e r i t a g e ? Tuesday 6 December 18.15 islands. My father arrived from British Guiana (now The re c o rdings used within the installation act A CHARM sampler Guyana) in 1952 and at some time after this he as a sound and time line into the past. These Nicholas Cook (Royal Holloway, worked for Philips and acquired one of their re e l - soundings are embedded into the artwork, University of London) t o - reel tape re c o rding machines. He mainly highlighting regional and cultural diff e rences Francis Knights (King’s College, London) re c o rded music of the day, but he also re c o rded his over generations, ranging from Guyanese David Patmore (University of Sheffield) own parents and children. These family re c o rd i n g s , ‘country’ and ‘town’ accents to those of childre n Renee Timmers (King’s College,London) akin to a social documentary, have become an born in South London. They enhance the power British Library Conference Centre i n c reasingly important part of my family history of the written word and the visual image. My 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB and have been woven into my work. Caribbean family history has its origins in Guyana, T +44 (0) 20 7412 7332 How did the Sound Archive become involved a country I have never visited, whose existence b o x o ff i c e @ b l . u k in the work? rests solely within my sound memory of spoken Admission by ticket: £6.00 I felt there was a need to have my minority ethnic w o rds and the folkloric stories recounted by my (concessions £4.00; free seats p resence and artwork embedded into the British f a t h e r. These preserved fragmentary re c o rd i n g s will be available on the night cultural heritage. To this end I approached the re p resent an important part of my family heritage. on production of student ID)