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British Library puts huge sound archives online
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 7 September 2009
The British Library has made 28,000 rare recordings available for free via its website, which is rather exciting. The 2000 hours of recordings make up just a fraction of the library’s extensive sound archives. Among the recordings made available, according to the BBC, are a rendition of ‘Any Old Iron’ recorded in Birmingham and performances by Ugandan royal musicians.
Commenting on the new audio section to the library’s website, curator Janet Topp Fargion told the Beeb: “It’s more than putting the flesh on the bones, there are recordings that don’t exist in any other form. They give you sound, they give actual events. We are being transported all over the world, back in time to different places, different cultures, different peoples”.
Children’s skipping rhymes, music hall ballads, soldiers’ songs, folk tales and rowdy pub singalongs all appear in the collection, with numerous genres from around the world covered, from African rumba to calypso and blues.
