The British Library Archive of Recorded Sound

It's been a while since the last post, and I'm slowly going to try to blog more.

Yesterday I was reading about major updates to the online sound archives of the British Library. This is an amazing collection. Access to the collections varies according to geographic location; more files are available to residents of the United Kingdom, and even more to those who are associated with a UK institution of higher learning. Over 23,000 sound files are available to everyone.

The archive includes spoken word and musical recordings, and includes both field and commercial recordings. The files can't be embedded, so links are provided instead.

My favorite part of the collection is the archive of world and traditional music. Of particular interest are 952 recordings from Decca's West Africa yellow label series. These are commercial recordings, made between 1948 and 1958, and include many rare performances that are unavailable elsewhere.

Here are Adeolu and his Rio Lindo Orchestra from this series:

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-1CS0043775XX-0100V0.xml

The archive also contains 244 ethnographic wax cylinder recordings, made between 1898 and 1919. The sound quality is poor, but they are well worth hearing.

Here is the beautiful and disturbing "Death Wail", recorded in 1898 during the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait, which is located between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-C0080X1104XX-0100V0.xml

Mr. Seagalman calls horses, cows, sheep, and fowl. (UK, 1910)

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-C0037X1639XX-0100V0.xml

This is the blog for the Sound Archive, which features a Recording of the Week.

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/archival_sounds/


The archive also contains a collection of regional sounds and dialects from many locations in England, This recordings are interesting not only for their preservation of dialects, but because they are also oral histories, and provide a record of a way of life that no longer exists.

A resident of Cheshire discusses traveling through the area with his threshing machine. This was recorded in 1966. The speaker was 76 at that time.

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0011XX-0300V0.xml

Historic voices

Here are a few links to historic recordings of famous voices. .The first clip is from 1889, the others are from 1890, except for the Tolstoy clip, which is from 1907.

Robert Browning - This is barely audible, but there are subtitles.




Martin Lanfried - He plays the same trumpet he played to lead the Charge of the Light Brigade, during the Crimean War in 1854.




Edwin Booth - Shakespearean actor and brother of John Wilkes Booth, The sound quality, is pretty poor, but better then the one that's on the Internet Archive, which has the text of the soliloquy Booth is reciting.




http://www.archive.org/details/OthelloByEdwinBooth1890

Leo Tolstoy - from the book "Wise Thoughts for Every Day".




This is my favorite of these clips. Julius Block recorded several composers and musicians, including Tchaikovsky.



The story of the Block recordings is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/arts/music/26waki.html?_r=2




There are many other early recordings at


http://www.youtube.com/user/transformingArt