Composers Forum tapes, continued

We've completed transferring the information from the card file index of the Composers Forum tape reels to a spreadsheet. Using that sheet, we've now gone back to the shelf, and determined that there are several reels that still need indexing, starting from the 1970s, when the card file index was apparently abandoned.

So, our next step is to go through the physical reels on the shelf, and record any information that we can from the reels themselves. We spot-checked several reels a couple weeks ago, and some had folded programs contained in the reel boxes. We're hoping that this will be true for as many reels as possible, as otherwise we won't have more information than the date and composers names, which are generally on the outside of the box.

After this information is collected, we'll have as complete an electronic index as we can construct for now. Further information may be gathered at the point of digitization.

One interesting feature of these tapes which has emerged is that Virgil Thomson is said to have served as moderator for many of the composer discussions documented by these tapes. This adds an additional layer of historical interest to these reels, and contributes to a snapshot of the musical culture of that time.

Resource for "Gravesaner Blatter"

Kees Tazelaar has shared this great resource which documents the "Gravesaner Blatter", which I mentioned in an earlier post. He has provided both a listing of the articles from this periodical, as well as mp3 files of the content of most of the accompanying recordings. This very useful resource is at:

http://www.keestazelaar.com/gravesaner.html

Thanks for sharing this, Kees!

Migrating the card file index to the Composers Forum recordings

It's been a while since the last post, but, work has been happening. The latest work involves migrating a card file, which indexes some of the contents of the reel-to-reel tapes of the Composers Forum concerts, from the mid-1950s to the 1970s or so.

We've been inputting the data from the index cards into a spreadsheet. The card index is organized by composer, and it references numbers that are assigned to the tape reels. Thankfully, someone had the foresight to do this numbering!

Migrating the card file to an electronic listing will allow us to reconstruct, at least partially, the contents of individual tape reels. This is important because many if not most of the reels lack any contents notes (the reel pictured above is a lucky example), and are usually just labeled with composers' names and a date. The index cards provide information about titles, performers, movements, timings, venues, and technical details, although there is a wide range of how complete the information is.

Work is coming along nicely, and it seems reasonable to expect that we'll be able to make this available in electronic form by the end of spring 2009.

Babbitt correspondence, Composers Forum recordings - some progress

Now that the valiant Angela Perez has been assisting with the processing work, we've finished putting most of the Babbitt correspondence in folders, and will begin work on the finding aid for this material soon. We'll provide detail to the folder level for this correspondence, but more general description for the other materials in the collection (such as administrative records, equipment manuals, etc.).

On a separate note, we're hoping that we may focus on a sub-section of the recordings, the Composers Forum concert recordings, on reel-to-reel tapes. The Composers Forum was established in 1935, with funding from the WPA, to present the work of American composers. It was active initially in New York; when the WPA ended, it continued briefly in San Francisco under private patronage, went on hiatus during the war, and then was revived under the joint sponsorship of the New York Public Library and Columbia University in 1947.


The reel-to-reel tapes in the archives here represent recordings from this later phase of the Composers Forum. The Electronic Music Center's involvement here appears to have been to record the concerts, which were held at several locations around New York. Most if not all of the works appear to be acoustic, rather than electronic, works. Pril Smiley, a former director of the Center, described to me hauling a large Ampex reel-to-reel recorder and mic to Midtown to record a concert (and these machines weighed a ton!).

There is an existing card file index to this material, which is arranged by composer. If transferred to electronic format, it would allow people to also search to see what the contents of a particular reel is, or to browse the recordings chronologically, for example. This is one concrete step towards improved access that we hope to undertake soon, since the necessary preservation work is a more long-term proposition.

A significant feature of the Composers Forum concerts was the inclusion of a discussion period, where composers would discuss their works. This aspect appears to be well-represented on the reels in this collection, with many labeled to indicate "discussion" or "comments". Besides the obvious value of the musical works recorded on the tapes, we think that the discussion material will be of value and interest to researchers interested in American art music from this period.

News update

Due to a staff vacancy in the Music & Arts Library, where I work, there hasn't been much news lately. However, I hope to soon resume work on the archives.

I've had a kind offer of assistance from an interested colleague, so we are presently brainstorming what work we can undertake to improve information access to these materials. Likely candidates are continuing to work on the personal papers contained in the collection, and getting a finding aid for the collection up on the web. Check back for new developments!

BBC story highlights "earliest" computer music

The BBC has an interesting story up on their web site, which describes what is said to be the earliest recording of music by a computer. An amusing audio clip, beginning with a computer rendition of "God save the Queen", is included. The recording was generated by the Ferranti Mark I, called the "... first commercially available general purpose computer".

Audio survey tool

I'm currently using an audio survey tool, developed by the Preservation Division of the Columbia University Libraries, to conduct a survey of a controlled sample of the recordings in the collection. A similar tool is also offered by the Sound Directions project at Harvard.

As can be seen from many of the images that I've been posting on the blog, the recordings in this collection are in poor environmental conditions, and are showing signs of damage. I'm hoping that the data generated by this survey will provide some baseline data for advocating for future preservation. I will survey a 350-item sample from the total of 5,569 recordings.

The survey tool is built on an Access database, and it is designed for use by non-specialists in recording media. It features many drop-down menus in fields that enable quick and consistent data entry. That said, it also contains many fields that can capture advanced technical details of the items being surveyed. The accompanying manual is clear and detailed, and I've found it easy to use.

However, there were a few hurdles. Firstly, it's Windows only. I use a Mac laptop, so my options were to get Windows up and running on my Mac (by using something like Parallels Desktop), or, to gather the data needed by hand, and then input the data when I had access to a Windows machine. I chose the latter.

In practice, I have a feeling that gathering data by hand may be easier and quicker for most people, but, your mileage may vary. Since surveying the materials often means clambering into hard-to-reach corners and upper shelves, I wouldn't want to be running back and forth, and the space I'm working in doesn't have a comfortable place to sit down with a laptop!

So, my solution was to mock up a paper sheet with the important fields, following the order given on the program's input form, and then use abbreviated codes to gather data by hand on the sheet on a clip-board. I know, not very high-tech! If you wanted to be more space-age, you could perhaps try to get the program up and running on a hand-held PDA or something.

All in all, it seems like quite a useful tool. I've learned some new things about audio formats, and the various forms of damage you might find, such as "cupping", "windowing", and "non-library wind" (if you really want to know, you can find some detailed imaged in this document).

I'll be posting the results of the survey here, as it is completed.