1. 3. The method and results of sound elicitation
Recording and remembering the sounds of Africa
Ethnomusicology, sound archives and sound elicitation
Dr Noel Lobley, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
The Potential:
Rare beauty stored
Ethnomusicology archives contain some of the rarest, most beautiful and most threatened music in the world. From Ashanti elder masters drumming Ntumpane sacred histories
to young Xhosa girls whistling through the umrhubhe mouth bow, a glorious world of sounds has long been captured in the field and transported onto our shelves.
Africa is said to be the most recorded of all continents. Research institutions such as the International Library of African Music (South Africa) and the Pitt Rivers Museum hold important collections of African music, collected by musicologists throughout much of the past
century
2a. A Problem:
Who are the recordings for?
Sound archivists admit that non-specialists are often unaware of what archives contain, what purpose they serve, or that they even exist. Access is effectively limited to academic researchers and institutions. It is often the case, however, that field collectors intended their recordings to be of benefit to the very communities who were recorded
2b. Another Problem
How do they relate to local communities?
Recording and digitisation broaden audiences for local musics, but do not automatically confer benefits to
source communities.
How can sound archives serve the interests not just of the collector
but of the collected?
3. The method and results of sound elicitation
Playing recordings through local mechanisms
Ethnomusicological recordings should be re-connected with their source communities
so that they can serve as living resources in and out of the archive
ii. The use of local social mechanisms provides a powerful means to circulate recordings, particularly in communities with no access to digital files
iii. When plugged back into communities, field recordings can invigorate social debate,
elicit memories and physical responses, and
spur ideas for creative curation amongst young and old