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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. For further information contact The British Library Sound Archive 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB T +44 (0)20 7412 7676 F +44 (0)20 7412 7441 [email protected] www.bl.uk/soundarchive 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 A unique and hitherto unpublished 1907 re c o rding animals from zoos; and domestic cats and dogs.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.