This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. National Phonography Field Recording and Sound Archiving in Postwar Britain Tom Western Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music University of Edinburgh 2015 i Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis, submitted in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and the research within it is my own work, except where explicitly stated in the text, and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. _______________________ Tom Western 10 August 2015 ii iii Contents List of Figures v Abstract vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1. Locating National Phonography in the Literature 1.1 Recorded Music 21 1.2 Ethnomusicology, Technology, History 25 1.3 Defining Phonography 30 1.4 Applying this to Folk Musics in Britain 35 2. Delimiting the Nation: A Sound Picture of Great Britain 2.1 Introduction 41 2.2 A Sound Picture of Great Britain 42 2.3 Remapping Sonic Territory 45 2.4 Back to the Land 51 2.5 The Uses of Illiteracy 57 2.6 Noise Abatement 73 2.7 Technological Delegation 79 2.8 Conclusion 82 3. Producing Ancient Timbres: The Sound Archive at the School of Scottish Studies 3.1 Introduction 85 3.2 Founding a School 86 3.3 Sounding National Voices 92 3.4 Authenticating, Collecting 106 3.5 Sorting Things Out 110 3.6 Powering the Carrying Stream 121 3.7 Conclusion 133 iv 4. Securing the Aural Border: The BBC Folk Music and Dialect Recording Scheme 4.1 Introduction 137 4.2 The Stuff of Radio 139 4.3 Scheming the Nation 141 4.4 In the Field 150 4.5 On the Air 155 4.6 Unifying the Radiauds 163 4.7 Securing the Aural Border 165 4.8 Conclusion 170 5. ‘The Sound of Mankind’: The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music 5.1 Introduction 173 5.2 Folking and Primitivising 175 5.3 Making World Music 182 5.4 Format Errors 190 5.5 The Art of Field Production 200 5.6 Museum of Voice 206 5.7 Conclusion 211 6. Archival Silence 6.1 Introduction 213 6.2 The Archival Turn 214 6.3 Compressed Performances 217 6.4 Remediation 223 6.5 Archival Silence 233 6.6 Heritage and Ethnos 244 6.7 Conclusion 257 7. Conclusion 261 References 265 v List of Figures 2.1: IFMC Resolution Concerning the Preservation of Folk 65 Music 2.2: EFDSS ‘List of Suggested Songs to be Recorded’ 69 2.3: ‘Folk Songs and Dances on Gramophone Records’, for the 72 1951 Festival of Britain 2.4: Singing Englishmen, Workers’ Music Association (1951) 73 3.1: Memorandum submitted to Edinburgh University Court, 15 91 May 1950 3.2: Fred Kent copying tapes for archiving 113 3.3: Gillian Johnstone transcribing recordings at the School of 113 Scottish Studies 3.4: Voices on ethnology and the death of culture 127 3.5: Battery-operated recording machines, used by School of 131 Scottish Studies fieldworkers in the early 1950s 4.1: Peter Kennedy on fieldwork in Eastbridge, Suffolk, 1952 151 4.2: List of broadcasts for As I Roved Out, Series One, 1953-54 157 5.1: ‘Mr Lomax finds them – Tin Pan Alley plugs them’, Daily 185 Mirror, 1951 5.2: LP covers: Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol. IV: France (1955); Michel Legrand and his 209 Orchestra, I Love Paris, (1954) vi Abstract Vast numbers of historical field recordings are currently being digitised and disseminated online; but what are these field recordings—and how do they resonate today? This thesis addresses these questions by listening to the digitisation of recordings made for a number of ethnographic projects that took place in Britain in the early 1950s. Each project shared a set of logics and practices I call national phonography. Recording technologies were invested with the ability to sound and salvage the nation, but this first involved deciding what the nation was, and what it was supposed to sound like. National phonography was an institutional and technological network; behind the encounter between recordist and recorded lies a complex and variegated mess of cultural politics, microphones, mediality, sonic aesthetics, energy policies, commercial interests, and music formats. The thesis is structured around a series of historical case studies. The first study traces the emergence of Britain’s field recording moment, connecting it to the waning of empire, and focusing on sonic aspects of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the recording policies of national and international folk music organisations. The second study listens to the founding of a sound archive at the University of Edinburgh, also in 1951, asking how sound was used in constructing Scotland as an object of study, stockpiling the nation through the technologies and ideologies of preservation. The third study tracks how the BBC used fieldwork – particularly through its Folk Music and Dialect Recording Scheme (1952-57) – as part of an effort to secure the aural border. The fourth study tells the story of The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, produced by Alan Lomax while based in Britain and released in 1955. Here, recordings were presented in fragments as nations were written onto long- playing records, and the project is discussed as a museum of voice. The final chapter shifts perspective to the online circulation of these field recordings. It asks what an online sound archive is, hearing how recordings compress multiple agencies which continue to unfold on playback, and exploring the archival silences built into sonic productions of nations. Finally, online archives are considered as heritage sites, raising questions about whose nation is produced by national phonography. This thesis brings together perspectives from sound studies and ethnomusicology; and contributes to conversations on the history of ethnomusicology in Europe, the politics of technology, ontologies of sound archives, and theories of recorded sound and musical nationalisms. vii Acknowledgements This thesis wouldn’t have been possible without the help and generosity of many people. First, I would like to thank the archivists and scholars at various institutions who have been kind enough to facilitate access, share enthusiasms, and point me in the right direction: Jessica Hogg at the BBC Written Archives Centre; Janet Topp Fargion at the British Library; Laura Smyth, Malcolm Taylor and Nick Wall at EFDSS; Cathlin Macaulay, Caroline Milligan, Stuart Robinson and Colin Gately at the School of Scottish Studies. My thanks also go to Mary Lou Reker and Travis Hensley at the Kluge Centre of the Library of Congress, for helping me settle into the most productive and enjoyable four months I’ve ever known. And to the staff of the American Folklife Center – particularly Jennifer Cutting, Judith Gray, Nancy Groce, Bert Lyons, and, most of all, Todd Harvey – for their warmth and friendship, and for showing me the way. My research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank a host of scholars and colleagues for engaging with my work in various ways, whether reading chapters, offering feedback on conference papers, bouncing ideas around, sharing memories, or offering encouragement. In particular: Carolyn Birdsall, Philip Bohlman, Carlo Cenciarelli, Ruth Davis, Paul Harkins, Julian Johnson, Noel Lobley, Margaret Mackay, Deirdre Ní Chonghaile, Roger Parker, Benjamin Piekut, Goffredo Plastino, Nick Prior, Florian Scheding, Hylda Sims, and Jonathan Sterne. Ideas contained in this thesis took shape at a number of conferences, and earlier versions of two chapters have been published as articles. Material in Chapter Five was published as ‘“The Age of the Golden Ear”: The Columbia World Library and Sounding Out Postwar Field Recording’, Twentieth-Century Music, 11: 2 (2014), 275-300. A version of Chapter Four is forthcoming (at the time of writing) as ‘Securing the Aural Border: Fieldwork and Interference in Postwar BBC Audio Nationalism’, Sound Studies, 1: 1 (2015). Thanks to the editors and publishers of these journals. viii I feel fortunate to have been based in the music department of the University of Edinburgh. Particular thanks go to Adam Behr, Matt Brennan, Annette Davison, Elaine Kelly, Nikki Moran and Sean Williams, for their time, advice, and good company; to my fellow PhD researchers, battling through; and to the popular music studies seminar group, for providing a weekly dose of fun and stimulation. I owe my greatest scholarly debt to my supervisors, Simon Frith and Kath Campbell, for their unstinting generosity, moral support, guidance and encouragement. Finally, my thanks go to Rob St.John for getting me out of the library and keeping up my musicking; to Dad and Mandy, for the support and the visits and the good times; to my Mum, for being an inspiration; and, above all, to Stacey, for everything. 1 Introduction I’d like to start this thesis by returning to the time when I began working on it.