Newsletter - Association for Recorded Sound Collections

Newsletter
Association For Recorded Sound Collections
We’re Jazzed About ARSC in New Orleans!
The 44th annual ARSC conference will be held on May 19-22, 2010, and
if you haven’t been to New Orleans in recent years – or ever – this is an
opportunity to experience one of the most culturally vibrant and welcoming
cities in America. Members of the Board and Local Arrangements Committee checked out the venue and surrounding area in October and came away
amazed at what the city has to offer today. Our conference site will be the
historic and atmospheric Chateau Bourbon hotel, a pre-Civil War landmark
that originally housed the city’s largest department store. Located in the
historic French Quarter, it borders Canal Street on the east and lively Bourbon Street on the south, and is also near the trolley line. A block of rooms has
been reserved at the special conference rate of $129 single/double, and the
rate is available for several days prior to the conference if you want to come
early.
In addition to a full and varied conference program (still being assembled)
attendees will be able to experience all the delights of the city, many within
walking distance - the historic architecture and party atmosphere of the
French Quarter, the eclectic culture of the Arts District, or nearby Congo
Square, now the site of Louis Armstrong Park and the Mahalia Jackson
(Continued on page 4)
ARSC 2009 Preservation Grant Award Winner
Announced
Number 121 • Fall 2009
Events
May 19 - 20, 2010. 44th Annual ARSC
Conference, New Orleans, LA. http://
www.arsc-audio.org/
March 21 – 24, 2010. Music Library
Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/
May 2 – 5, 2010. Joint Technical Symposium
2010, Oslo, Norway. http://www.JTS2010.org
May 14 – 15, 2010. British and Irish Sound
Archives (BISA) Training Day, Bothwick Institute
for Archives, University of York. http://www.
bisa-web.org
May 20 - 23, 2010. 128th AES Convention,
London, UK. http://www.aes.org/
August 10 – 15, 2010. SAA/COSA Joint
Annual Meeting, Washington DC. http://www.
archivists.org/
November 1 – 6, 2010. AMIA/IASA Joint
Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. http://www.
iasa-web.org
Please send notices of events to the editor.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The ARSC Preservation Grants Committee is pleased to announce the
recipient of the Grant for Preservation of Classical Music Historical Recordings. The program for these grants was founded in 2004 by Al Schlachtmeyer
and the ARSC Board of Directors, to encourage and support the preservation
of historically significant sound recordings of Western Art Music by individuals and organizations.
The orchestra was awarded $10,000 for its Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Archives Audio Preservation Project.
This project assists in preserving and re-housing the historical recordings
of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, the project helps make
these recordings accessible to scholars and members of the public.
(Continued on page 3)
Contents
2010 ARSC Conference
ARSC Preservation Grant President’s Message
ARSC Awards Copyright News
News from Institutions
ARSC NY Chapter Update
Press Releasses
Collector Profile
Obituaries
ARSC News
New ARSC Members
pages 1, 3-4
pages 1, 3
pages 2-3
pages 5-7
pages 8-9
pages 10-11
page 11
pages 12-13
pages 14-15
pages 16-17
pages 18, 20
pages 21–23
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
President’s Message/Important Notice About
Dues
For the past five years ARSC has passed deficit budgets. On average, our projected deficit has been about $10,000. Due to better than
expected conference attendance and contributions from members we
typically have erased this deficit by the end of the year, but nonetheless, ARSC has an ongoing structural deficit--our budgeted expenses
exceed our expected income every year. ARSC is financially healthy,
but as President of the Association, ensuring the long-term fiscal health
of the organization is one of my duties. We are a small organization
and it is a mistake to repeatedly pass deficit budgets with the expectation that conferences will always make money and erase this deficit.
ARSC is a membership organization that charges dues to carry out
a variety of programs that help accomplish our educational mission of
furthering the study and preservation of recorded sound. ARSC dues
are not a $36 journal subscription. The journal is a component of fulfilling the ARSC’s mission, but the organization is what the members
bring to it, not what we get in the mail every few months. The dues
should reflect the real expenses of the activities that the organization’s
members want ARSC to be engaged in and we are no longer able to
pay for that with the current dues rates.
ARSC revised its bylaws this summer partially to give the Board
more flexibility in setting the Association’s dues. At the Spring membership meeting the members asked to be consulted before the board
voted on a dues increase. The bylaws were changed to incorporate a 60
day comment period for any dues increase. (In the past, a due increase
had to be voted on by the membership.) In accordance with the bylaws,
the board is now asking for feedback on a possible 2010 dues increase,
to be voted on at the end of January.
The year I joined ARSC in 1998 was the last time that ARSC raised
its dues to the current $36. Our expenses have risen since then. Postage, printing and administrative costs continue to rise. We now offer
travel grants to promising young members to attend the conference.
We have successfully led a lobbying effort in Washington for copyright
reform. Our conference sessions for the past two years are all available
online for free. The first 25 years of the journal are available online,
again for free. All of this costs money and it has been largely paid for
by donations and conference profits.
ARSC dues are remarkably affordable for an organization that
accomplishes as much as we do. But they must keep pace with our
expenses for us to continue to function as a strong organization. At our
fall meeting, the ASRC Board voted to propose a new dues rate of $40
for individuals and $65 for institutions to the members. Of course, we
ARSC Newsletter
Issue 121
Fall 2009
The ARSC Newsletter is published three times
a year, in June, October, and January. Submissions
should be addressed to the editor. Submissions by
email are encouraged.
Editor
Corinne Forstot-Burke
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco, CA 94102-6011
[email protected]
Telephone: 415-503-6256
Fax: 415-503-6299
Board of Directors
David Seubert, President
Vincent Pelote, Vice President/President Elect
Tim Brooks, Second Vice President/
Program Chair
Marsha Maguire, Secretary/Editor,
ARSC Bulletin
Steven I. Ramm, Treasurer
Peter Shambarger, Executive Director
Sarah Cunningham, Member-At-Large
David Giovannoni, Member-At-Large
Claims or other notifications of issues not
received must be sent to:
Executive Director
PO Box 543
Annapolis, MD 21404-0543
[email protected]
Special thanks to Jill Breedon for copy editing the
ARSC Newsletter.
(Continued on page 3)
ARSC Newsletter
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Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
President’s Message
2010 ARSC Conference:
Call for Presentations
(Continued from page 2)
are concerned about losing members by raising the dues.
In particular, attrition from institutional members (libraries) who may not see the membership as anything more
than a journal subscription may be a problem. $40 and
$65 are the currently proposed rates, but we will be considering all of your feedback to set the most appropriate
dues rate when the Board meets via conference call at
the end of January.
Proposal deadline: January 4, 2010
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections invites
proposals for presentations at its 44th annual conference,
to be held May 19-22, 2010, in one of the most fascinating
cultural centers in America, New Orleans, Louisiana. The
conference will take place at the historic Chateau Bourbon,
located in the heart of the French Quarter.
Please send me your feedback by January 30. What
are your dues worth? What do you want to see ARSC accomplish over the next few years? Please do not hesitate
to email me at [email protected] or call me at
805-893-5444.
ARSC welcomes presentations on the preservation
and study of sound recordings in all genres of music and
speech, in any format, and from any period. The enthusiastic audience will be drawn from our community of collectors, historians, musicians, preservationists, and archivists.
I’m looking forward to you input on this important
matter.
In general, we give preference to demonstrations, papers,
and panels that are informative, well organized, and include
compelling audio and visual content, presented by people
who display a passion about their subjects. Presentations
may deal with technical issues such as preservation and
archives management or with content-related topics such as
discography, repertoire, and artist profiles. This year we especially welcome presentations that showcase New Orleans
and the surrounding area and their rich recording heritage.
David Seubert, ARSC President
([email protected])
2009 ARSC Preservation Grant
Awarded to DSO
(Continued from page 1)
The deadline for receiving presentation proposals is
January 4, 2010. Receipt will be acknowledged by e-mail.
Presenters will be notified of acceptance by January 31,
2010.
The preservation project will begin with audiotape
recordings of broadcasts made in the 1950s, which are
in danger of deterioration because of age and former
storage conditions. The collection includes many performances involving African-American composers and
performers, and documents the work of Music Directors
Paul Paray, Sixten Ehrling, and Antal Dorati.
For more information and the Call for Presentations form, visit: http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/
pdf/2010call.rtf
General conference information can be found at: http://
www.arsc-audio.org/conference/
With in-kind contributions from the Symphony and its
Annual Fund, Save America’s Treasures, and the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, the
project forms part of the strategic plan of the orchestra’s
new Music Director, Leonard Slatkin.
Tim Brooks, ARSC Program Chair ([email protected])
For more information about the Grants for Preservation of Classical Music Historical Recordings, visit
http://www.arsc-audio.org/preservationgrants.html .
The deadline for receipt of applications for the next
grant cycle is December 15, 2009.
Number 121 • Fall 2009
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ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
The conference kicks off Wednesday, May 19th with
a workshop on Disaster Planning and Recovery for
Audio Materials. Morning sessions include a discussion
on lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, a presentation on choosing vendors for recovery work, and a
lively roleplay debate between collection managers and
cost-conscious administrators. In the afternoon session
participants will get their hands dirty learning basic triage and assessment of damaged audio media, equipment,
and related materials.
2010 ARSC Conference
(Continued from page 1)
You’ll want to stay as long as possible to allow for eating, sightseeing, and soaking up the local music - in addition to the excellent presentations that will be offered
during the conference. We hope you will all make plans
now to join us in New Orleans.
ARSC Program Chair, Tim Brooks, in Congo
Square at Louis Armstrong Park, October 2009.
Submitted by Brenda Nelson-Strauss (bnelsons@
indiana.edu ) and Kurt Nauck ([email protected]), CoConference Managers
Performing Arts Center, which hosts both popular and
classical artists. Also nearby is Faubourg Treme, home to
Storyville and one of the oldest black neighborhoods in
the U.S. This is where many of New Orleans’ early musicians like Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong,
Jellyroll Morton and King Oliver were nurtured. A short,
inexpensive trolley ride away is the beautiful garden
district, with its gracious nineteenth-century homes and
tree-lined boulevards, and Tulane and Loyola universities. A free ferry ride across the Mississippi brings you to
Algiers, with more historic homes, a jazz walk of fame,
and levees overlooking New Orleans in the distance. Of
course New Orleans also has a rich recording history,
beginning in the 1890s and flourishing in the 1940s and
‘50s.
“The Restoration Preamp” TM (Model 4010)
New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine. During
our recent visit we sampled many of the city’s gastronomical delights, including a breakfast of beignets and
café au lait at the famous Café du Monde, muffulettas and po-boys for lunch, and a dinner at Muriel’s on
Jackson Square, where a visit to the séance room on the
second floor was one of the highlights of our visit. There
are many dining options in the neighborhood, and of
course the nightlife is always in high gear.
Very low noise design – Stereo In, Mono Out
52, 56 or 60 dB m aximum gain
Mode: Left, Right, L+R, L-R, LR Blend
More than 120 equalization settings
Rumble Filter: Bypass, 20, 40, 70 and 120 Hz
HF Filter (Lowpass): 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22,
and 24 kHz
For Cylinders, Vertical-cut, 78s, 45s & Early LPs
Complete specifications, User Guide, reviews and price at:
http://ww w.tdl-tech.co m/data 401 0.htm
Hosts for the 2010 conference include Tulane University, the Louisiana State Museum, and the Historic New
Orleans Collection. We are working to arrange special
tours of these sites, including the Hogan Jazz Archive at
Tulane. Collectively, they preserve the legacy of European, African and Caribbean cultures that formed the
city’s fabulous musical heritage.
ARSC Newsletter
TDL® Technology, Inc.
5260 Co chise T rail
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88012 USA
Phone 575-405-7996 – FAX 575-382-8810
Manufactured in the USA
4
Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
2009 ARSC Awards for Excellence
Best Research in Recorded Blues, Gospel,
Rhythm & Blues, or Soul Music
The ARSC Awards Committee is pleased to announce
the winners of the 2009 Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. Begun in 1991, the
awards are presented to authors and publishers of books,
articles, liner notes, and monographs, to recognize
outstanding published research in the field of recorded
sound. In giving these awards, we recognize outstanding
contributions, encourage high standards, and promote
awareness of superior works. A maximum of two awards
is presented annually in each category—one for best history and one for best discography. Certificates of Merit
are presented to runners-up of exceptionally high quality; this year, there were many contributions that met this
standard, particularly in the areas of jazz and rock music.
The 2009 Awards for Excellence honor works published
in 2008.
I Got Two Wings: Incidents and Anecdotes of the Two
Winged Preacher and Electric
Guitar Evangelist, Elder Utah
Smith, by Lynn Abbott (Case
Quarter)
Certificate of Merit:
Texas Blues: The Rise of a
Contemporary Sound, by Alan
B. Govenar (Texas A&M
Press)
Best Research in Recorded Classical Music
Due to a veritable embarrassment of riches and a number of foreign or self-published works, selecting the winners and contacting authors and publishers took longer
than usual. All of the honorees have now been notified,
and certificates and one year memberships to ARSC are
being produced and distributed. The winners will also
be acknowledged at the awards ceremony at the ARSC
national conference New Orleans in May.
Best Discography:
Boston Symphony Orchestra:
An Augmented Discography,
by James H. North (Scarecrow
Press)
Best History:
A Charles Ives Omnibus, by
James Mack Burk (Pendragon)
2009 ARSC Awards Committee
Certificates of Merit:
Winners are chosen by the ARSC Awards Committee
which consists of five elected judges representing specific fields of study, the ARSC President, and the Book
Review Editor of the ARSC Journal. The members of the
Awards Committee are:
After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern
Performance, by Kenneth Hamilton (Oxford University
Press)
Sprechstimme in Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire:
A Study of Vocal Performance Practice, by Aidan Soder
(Edwin Mellen Press)
Robert Iannapollo (Awards Committee Co-Chair)
Roberta Freund-Schwartz (Awards Committee Co-Chair)
Brenda Nelson-Strauss (ex-oficio)
David Seubert (ARSC President)
Jim Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal)
David Hamilton (Classical Music Judge)
Kip Lornell (Judge-At-Large)
Dan Morgenstern (Jazz Music Judge)
William L. Schurk (Popular Music Judge)
Dick Spottswood (Judge-at-Large)
Number 121 • Fall 2009
(Continued on page 6)
Additional information about ARSC,
including lists of past ARSC Award
Winners and Finalists, may be found at
www.arsc-audio.org.
5
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
ARSC Awards (Continued from page 5)
Certificate of Merit:
Sound Media: A Theory of Live Journalism and Musical
Recording, by Lars Nyre (Routledge)
Best Research in Recorded Country Music
Best Research in Record labels
Linthead Stomp: The Creation of
Country Music in the Piedmont
South, by Patrick Huber
(University of North Carolina
Press)
Certificates of Merit:
Working Girl Blues: The Life and
Music of Hazel Dickens, by Hazel
Dickens and Bill C. Malone (University of Illinois Press)
Best Discography:
Montgomery Ward Records: A Discography, by Alan Sutton
(Mainspring Press)
Merle Haggard: Concepts Live…1968-1976, by Deke
Dickerson (Bear Family)
Best History:
Revolutionizing Children’s Records:
The Young People’s Records and
Children’s Record Guild Series, 19461977, by David Bonner (Scarecrow
Press)
Best Research in Recorded Folk, Ethnic, or
World Music
Mexican American Mojo: Popular
Music, Dance and Urban Culture
in Los Angeles, 1935-1968,
Anthony Macias (Duke University
Press)
Certificate of Merit:
The Edison Discography, 1926-1929,
by Raymond R. Wile (Mainspring
Press)
Certificate of Merit:
Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music
Lemko Folk Music on Wax
Cylinders and American
Recordings, 1901-1930, Bogdan
Horbal and Walter Maksimovich
(self-published)
Best Discography:
John Coltrane Reference, by Chris DeVito, David Wild,
Yasuhiro Fujioka and Wolf Schmaler; ed. by Lewis Porter
(Routledge)
Best Research in General History of
Recorded Sound
Best History:
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The
AACM and American Experimental
Music, by George E. Lewis
(University of Chicago Press)
Den Talande Maskinen:De Forsta Inspelade Ljuden I
Sverige Och Norden [The Talking Machine: The First
Recorded Sounds in Sweden and Scandinavia], by Tony
Franzén, Gunnar Sundberg, and Lars Thelander (Suomen
Äänitearkisto/Finlands Ljudarkiv)
ARSC Newsletter
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Number 121• Fall 2009
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Association for Recorded Sound Collections
Certificates of Merit:
Some comments from this year’s Awards for Excellence
winners demonstrate their significance to authors and publishers:
Backstory in Blue: Ellington at Newport ’56, by John
Fass Morton (Rutgers University Press)
Bogdan Horbal, co-author of Lemko Folk Music on
Wax Cylinders and American Recordings, 1901-1930:
Thank you very much for this excellent news. It’s an
honor to receive this Certificate of Merit. We are two enthusiasts of Lemko culture and history who do our research in
spare time. The book was privately published because no
mainstream publisher would ever publish any book on such
a narrow topic. Yet this is the topic that we explore and
deeply care about. We are very pleased to be among those
that have been awarded by such a prestigious organization.
Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life an Stories and
Photographs, by Milt Hinton, David Berger and Holly
Maxson (Vanderbilt University Press)
Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post
Bop, by Jeremy Yudkin (Indiana University Press)
Luck’s in My Corner: The Life and Music of Hot Lips
Page, by Todd Bryant Weeks (Routledge)
Delightfulee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan, by
Jeffrey McMillan (University of Michigan Press)
Patrick Huber, author of Linthead Stomp: The Creation
of Country Music in the Piedmont South:
Thank you for the great news. It made my week! I’m
honored to have my work recognized by the ARSC (of
which I’ve been a member now for around four years).
Monk’s Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in
the Making, by Gabriel Solis (University of California
Press)
Holly Maxson, co-director of the Milton J. Hinton
Photographic Collection and co-author of Playing
the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life an Stories and
Photographs:
David Berger and I are gratified that our work on Milt
Hinton and his legacy, in both recorded sound and photographs, has been recognized by an organization like yours.
We are looking forward to celebrating Milt’s Centennial during 2010, and this award continues to reinforce
our sense of his invaluable contributions to the history of
American jazz.
Best Research in Recorded Rock and
Popular Music
Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It
Was Forty Years Ago Today, by
Olivier Julien (Ashgate)
Certificate of Merit:
Mondo Exotica: Sounds,
Visions, Obsessions of the
Cocktail Generation, by
Francesco Adinolfi (Duke
University Press)
Anthony Macias, author of Mexican American Mojo:
Popular Music, Dance and Urban Culture in Los
Angeles, 1935-1968:
What wonderful news! Thank you so much. I am honored and, despite having written a nearly 400-page book, at
a loss for words!
So You Want To Be a Rock and Roll Star: The Byrds
Day-By-Day, 1965-1973, by Christopher Hjort (Jawbone
Press)
Jeffrey McMillan, author of Delightfulee: The Life and
Music of Lee Morgan:
Wow! I’m honored and thrilled at this news! Delightfulee was a labor of love that took many years of hard work
to complete and it gives me a great sense of fulfillment
to know that my work has been recognized for the ARSC
award. Thank you for this news.
Hot Burritos: The True Story of the Flying Burrito
Brothers, by John Einarson and Chris Hillman (Jawbone
Press)
Number 121 • Fall 2009
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ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
ship of the EU is controlled until mid 2010 by countries
opposed to term extension, so no action is expected before then. However at that time the record companies are
expected to renew their push for extension, and negotiations on a compromise bill (including a possible “use it
or lose it” provision) are ongoing.
Latest Developments in Copyright
Reform
The passage of ARSC-sponsored legislation last spring
has set in motion an official U.S. government study
into whether to bring pre-1972 sound recordings under
federal law. Among other things, this would establish for
the first time a public domain for the oldest recordings in
the U.S. The Copyright Office has two years to complete
the study and report to Congress, and has signaled that
it intends to conduct a thorough and impartial review. A
“principal author” for the study is expected to be named
shortly, and will establish the timeline for hearings and
public comment.
Much copyright expansion has been carried out under
the guise of “international harmonization” and it is
important for those promoting reform to coordinate as
well. As part of ARSC’s international outreach a paper
on our proposals was delivered at a conference at the
University of Salford, England, in May 2009. Audio of
the keynote address and panel on copyright held at the
ARSC Conference in Washington, DC, in May is now
available worldwide at www.arsc-audio.org/conference/
audio2009/index.html. Finally, an article on ARSC’s
efforts titled “Only in America: The Unique Status of
Sound Recordings under U.S. Copyright Law and How
It Threatens Our Audio Heritage” was published in the
Summer 2009 issue of American Music. It is available
on the Historical Recording Coalition website www.
recordingcopyright.org and on my own website. We ask
all members to spread the word about our efforts.
ARSC’s next major task will be to draft a thorough
and persuasive filing to submit as its comment. New
Copyright Committee member Bruce Epperson, an attorney, has offered to help with this. ARSC members
will also be welcome to submit their own comments. We
will let you know when a government website for that
purpose is established.
Congress has also asked the Library of Congress
develop a “National Recorded Sound Preservation Study
and Action Plan” and I am currently working with David
Seubert, Brenda Nelson-Strauss and several others on a
task force developing the copyright, preservation and access recommendations for that plan. This, along with the
Copyright Office study and several studies already completed by the National Recording Preservation Board, is
building the basis for action by Congress in this important area that affects us all.
Tim Brooks, Chair, Copyright & Fair Use Committee
([email protected])
Library Study Shows Arcane State
Laws Threaten Preservation of
America’s Aural Heritage
In Europe the strong drive by the international record
companies for copyright term extension there has stalled.
After having been defeated in their attempt to nearly
double the 50-year term in Britain in 2006, the companies, with the support of friendly politicians, attempted
to obtain term extension throughout Europe by lobbying
the European Union parliament in Brussels. However
opposition from both national archives and the public
was so strong that the idea has been shelved for the time
being. Ten European countries have announced their opposition and Sweden even elected a “Pirate Party” representative to the European Parliament. (The Pirate Party,
which calls for copyright and patent reform, is said to be
the third largest political party in Sweden; similar movements have been started in 33 countries, including the
U.S., the largest being in Germany). The rotating leader-
ARSC Newsletter
While U. S. lawmakers wrestle with monumental issues such as health care reform, the economy and two
wars, they are also tackling the problems caused by the
lack of a national copyright law to protect pre-1972
recordings. The absence of a federal copyright law is
inhibiting the preservation and accessibility of much
of America’s aural heritage because sound recordings
published before 1972 continue to be governed by a
confusing array of state laws, common law and judicial
decisions.
The Library of Congress announced today the release
of the fifth in a series of landmark studies commissioned
by the U. S. Congress and published by the Council on
Library and Information Resources (CLIR) that highlight the challenges facing archives, libraries and other
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Number 121• Fall 2009
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Association for Recorded Sound Collections
cultural institutions specializing in the preservation and
public access to historic recorded sound materials. The
report examines copyright laws in 10 U.S. states related
to sound recordings released before 1972. This is the
first in-depth analysis of individual state copyright laws.
www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub146abst.html and at the
website of the National Recording Preservation Board:
www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-clir.html. Established by the National Recording Preservation
Act of 2000 and reauthorized in 2008, the advisory
National Recording Preservation Board (www.loc.gov/
nrpb/) is appointed by Librarian of Congress James H.
Billington and consists of representatives from professional organizations of composers, musicians, musicologists, librarians, archivists and the recording industry.
Among the issues that Congress charged the board to
examine were access to historical recordings, the role
of archives and the effects of copyright law on access to
recordings.
“At a time when the responsibility for sustaining
America’s recorded sound history and culture is being
ever more rapidly transferred to publicly funded libraries and archives, it is vitally important that public policy
makers come to terms with the legal barriers that those
institutions face in meeting their obligations to preserve
and provide responsible public access, while also protecting the rights of copyright owners,” said Associate
Librarian of Congress for Library Services Deanna Marcum. Congress has recently directed the U. S. Copyright
Office to “…conduct a study on the desirability of and
means for bringing sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972, under federal jurisdiction.”
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. It seeks to spark
imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and
exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can
be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via
interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov. The Library’s collection of sound recordings
is preserved at the Library of Congress Packard Campus
for Audio Visual Conservation, its state-of-the-art preservation facility in Culpeper, Va., which was made possible through the generosity of David Woodley Packard
and the Packard Humanities Institute.
Titled “Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings under State Law and Its Impact on Use by Nonprofit Institutions: A 10-State Analysis,” the study was issued under
the auspices of the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB). It was undertaken for
the Library by the Program on Information Justice and
Intellectual Property at American University’s Washington College of Law, under the supervision of Professor
Peter Jaszi with the assistance of Nick Lewis.
In this study, Jaszi, Lewis and American University
students examine criminal and civil laws in 10 states, as
well as judicial decisions and common law, pertaining
to sound recordings produced before 1972. They provide a brief history of the formulation of these laws and
examine the laws and court cases that limit the extent
to which nonprofit institutions can preserve and provide
public access to pre-1972 sound recordings. As Jaszi
and his students note, state anti-piracy laws alone do not
define the legal uses of pre-1972 recordings. Legal uses
of these recordings are also affected by common law
copyright, unfair-competition laws, rights of privacy, and
federal copyright law related to underlying works, such
as musical compositions performed on the recordings.
The Council on Library and Information Resources
(www.clir.org) is an independent, nonprofit organization
dedicated to improving the management of information for research, teaching and learning. CLIR works
to expand access to information, however recorded and
preserved, as a public good.
The first two Library of Congress studies on sound recordings and copyright, both authored by Professor June
M. Besek of Columbia Law School, explored how the
morass of non-federal laws relating to pre-1972 sound
recordings adversely affect preservation and public access to these rich cultural and historical resources. This new study can be found online at the CLIR website:
Number 121 • Fall 2009
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ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
Indiana University Announces Media
Preservation Survey Report
The Joan and Elwood McKee
Collection at UMKC
Indiana University announces the release of a detailed
report on the more than 560,000 audio and video recordings and reels of film on its Bloomington campus. The
report not only examines the characteristics and condition of the recordings, but also analyzes their associated
preservation challenges. The 115-page report is the result
of a ten-month study by a team of archivists, funded by
the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. It is available for download at: http://research.iu.edu/resources/
media_preservation/index.html
The Joan and Elwood McKee 78-rpm and LP record
and reference books collection has now been donated
to the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. The records have been sent gradually to UMKC over the past several years. The last 1,900
78-rpm discs arrived in 2006. 4,200 LPs and 220 books
completed the donation in September 2009.
Joan and Elwood started collecting operatic records
in the late 1940s. They acquired multiple versions of all
the Giuseppe Verdi operas and concentrated on performances by great musical artists. They lived in Germany
for ten years and were able to obtain a large number
of operas and recitals made in the Soviet Union. Joan
expanded their collection by more than 500 piano and
ballet recordings after their return to America. Their
holdings included biographies of musical artists and
discographic works in seven languages. The McKee collection significantly enhances the archives opera holdings, which includes the Fred Calland and Phil Rochlin
collections.
The Media Preservation Survey report explores
degradation and obsolescence issues with many of the
51 analog and physical digital formats held by 80 units
on campus. It presents a strong case for the urgent need
to digitize audio and video holdings in the near-term as
well as immediately secure appropriate storage of motion picture film. The report also highlights the research
value of the university’s holdings and suggests concrete
steps towards the development and implementation of a
university-wide preservation plan.
The findings and analysis in the survey report may be
useful to universities and other types of organizations
with media holdings. Consultants for the report were
David Francis, former Chief, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of
Congress; Dietrich Schüller, Director Emeritus, Vienna
Phonogrammarchiv; and Chris Lacinak, President, AudioVisual Preservation Solutions.
The McKees have been active members of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) since
1977. They participated in three large ARSC research
projects and Elwood has reviewed books and CD reissues of historic vocal records in the ARSC Journal.
The Marr Sound Archives are located at UMKC’s
Volker Campus in the Miller Nichols Library, the university’s largest library and home of the general collection,
Music/Media Library, and LaBudde Special Collections.
For information contact Chuck Haddix.
Further information is available on the survey website
at the url provided above.
Mike Casey, Associate Director for Recording Services,
Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University
Chuck Haddix ([email protected])
ARSC Newsletter Submission Deadlines
No. 122, Winter 2010 – February 10, 2010 (advertising, February 1, 2010)
No. 123, Summer 2010 – June 10, 2010 (advertising, June 1, 2010)
No. 124, Fall 2010 – November 10, 2010 (advertising, November 1, 2010)
ARSC Newsletter
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Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
Thomas Edison NHP MARC catalog
on-line
ARSC NY Chapter Kicks Off
2009-10 Season
In October the National Park Service (NPS) Library
Program loaded the Thomas Edison National Historical Park (TENHP) MARC-format database of recorded
sound holdings into the NPS Voyager catalog. The NPS
Voyager catalog is available for public searches on-line
at http://www.library.nps.gov/ .
The New York Area Chapter of ARSC has kicked off
its 2009-2010 season by moving to a new home – The
Sonic Arts Center of the City College of New York (part
of the City University system).
The chapter’s first program on October 22nd featured
a presentation by Paul Kozel, the founder and director of
the Sonic Arts Center, an undergraduate program designed to educate future audio producers and engineers.
Kozel and the Sonic Arts Center are planning to create
a program in Audio Archiving, thanks to a bequest from
long-time ARSC member and CCNY alumnus Gary
Thalheimer.
ARSC members toured the various classrooms and
studios that make up the center, and listened to student
projects including an album by Richie Havens being
produced by one of the Sonic Arts Center undergrads.
Group of six experimental brown wax cylinders, each
cut with a 400 threads-per-inch long-play groove,
circa 1896.
The TENHP database in Voyager includes MARCformat data for the 10,000 cylinder records and 28,000
disc records preserved at Edison’s Laboratory in West
Orange, New Jersey. The majority of the phonograph
records in the collection are Edison recordings made between 1888 and 1929. The collection also includes some
Edison-era recordings made by competing companies.
The project to create the MARC-format database began
in 1995 and completed in 2005.
The November 18th program featured part two of “An
Evening With R. Peter Munves” hosted by Seth Winner.
Munves discussed his long career as a classical producer,
including his work with such greats as Bruno Walter,
Leopold Stokowski, and Leonard Bernstein, and his
famous productions of seminal albums such as Switched
On Bach (by Walter, later Wendy Carlos) and his discovery of Tomita.
To limit a search in Voyager to the TENHP records
only, follow these steps:
The December meeting and holiday gathering, scheduled for Thursday December 17th, will feature Leah
Biel’s documentary “For The Record”, which made its
debut at the 2009 ARSC National Conference in Washington, D.C.
• Go to the NPS Library Information center, on-line at
http://www.library.nps.gov/
• Under “NPS Voyager Catalog”, click on “search.”
• Choose “Basic Search”.
Proposed programs for the spring include Sara Fishko
of WNYC Radio speaking about the Jazz Loft archive
project and public radio series, talks by the audio archivists for the Grateful Dead and Phish, and much more.
• Click on the list titled “Optionally limit to major NPS
library.”
• Choose TENHP, listed under “Major Park Libraries.”
For more information, visit the ARSC NY Chapter page
at http://www.DaveNolanAudio.com.
Jerry Fabris, Museum Curator, TENHP
([email protected])
Number 121 • Fall 2009
11
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
UNESCO launches new logo for
World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
CCAHA Debuts Its New Online AV
Media Preservation Video Series
UNESCO is pleased to announce the new logo for the
World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, which was chosen
from an impressive number of proposals submitted by
designers and those interested in audiovisual heritage.
The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
(CCAHA) premiered its new audiovisual media preservation video series on October 27, 2009 to coincide with
UNESCO’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Based
on CCAHA’s national professional development program A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual
Media, this video series will provide an ongoing webbased preservation resource to those who are responsible
for heritage audiovisual collections but were unable to
attend the live conferences. The videos will be available
for free on CCAHA’s website at http://www.ccaha.org/
education/videos.
© UNESCO
The winning design,
which was submitted by Mr
Achilleus Coronel of the
Philippines, was chosen by
a Jury comprising members
of the Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives
Associations (CCAAA).
Preservation leaders George Blood, President, Safe
Sound Archives, Philadelphia, PA; Alan Lewis, Consultant in Audiovisual Archives, Washington, DC; and
Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager, Smithsonian
Institution Archives, Washington, DC; present timely
and thorough audiovisual media preservation information in the following video segments:
The design represents cellulose film stock that forms
an adorned box symbolizing collected media in its traditional state. The two arrows to the right are the universal
symbol of the ‘forward’ button and represent archiving
of media for future generations. These arrows also form
a stack of boxes or an icon that can stand for a database
or hard-disk storage. When combined, this symbol typifies forwarding media to a hard-disk or simply ‘save’.
• Audiovisual preservation basics
Mr Coronel is a self-taught artist who started doing
computer graphics at the age of 12, and lost a significant
portion of his digital works (saved on floppy disks) due
to dust when Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1992 as well as
to computer viruses. He is, therefore, very much aware
of the fragility of documentary heritage.
• Film Preservation
• Audio Preservation
• Video Preservation
• Contracting for Reformatting
Audiovisual heritage in particular is extremely vulnerable. In 2005 UNESCO’s General Conference proclaimed 27 October as the World Day for Audiovisual
Heritage in order to raise public awareness of these
documents as integral components of national identity
and to spearhead efforts for their protection. Unlike
some other types of heritage, its deterioration is often not
rapid, but rather a slow fade to blank. This fading away
can be slowed, and this year theme of the World Day for
Audiovisual Heritage seeks to encourage global community to take measures that will save precious collections
from disappearing.
The entire A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual Media video series will be a permanent online
resource available at http://www.ccaha.org/education/
videos after its October 27, 2009 debut. These videos
were made possible though funding from the Gladys
Krieble Delmas Foundation with additional support from
the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For additional
information, contact CCAHA at 215-545-0613 or email
[email protected].
Kim Andrews ([email protected])
While a tremendous task in raising public awareness of the significance of audiovisual heritage still lies
ahead, the oriental adage ‘A journey of a thousand miles
began with a single step’ is quite pertinent. With this new
logo in place, the first steps in the task of preserving the
world’s audiovisual heritage are being taken.
ARSC Newsletter
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Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
IASA TC04 Second Edition Now
Available
The Second Edition of the
IASA TC04, Guidelines on
the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio
Objects, was officially
launched at The British
Library’s Unlocking Audio
2 Conference in London in
March 2009.
Already an accepted
authority in the sound
archiving field, the second
edition is a thoroughly
revised and updated publication with substantial new
information and chapters.
Call for Papers
Joint Technical Symposium
2010, Oslo, Norway,
Digital Challenges and Digital Opportunities in Audiovisual Archiving
We welcome presentation proposals on any aspect of
media archiving. Please send abstract of approximately
1/2 page to the program committee, to [email protected] or
[email protected]
The preliminary deadline is Dec. 1st 2009, and the final
one on Feb. 1st 2010. This means that a preliminary program will be presented late 2009.
• guidance in metadata, thoroughly explained with
examples
The JTS will be held in the Klingenberg Kino in Oslo,
which we expect to be equipped with 70mm and 35mm
projection, as well as digital 4K projection. Presentations
in high resolution are therefore welcome. If it is decided
to publish proceedings in printed form, speakers should be
ready to supply their presentation in article format by the
time of the symposium.
• an entirely new structure on digital repositories which
follows the OAIS guidelines
The symposium will offer simultaneous translation in
English, French and Spanish.
• an extensive amount of new information
Sunday May 2 will be the opening night, a social and
formal event for both JTS and FIAF participants.
The second edition now also contains:
• guidance on small scale storage solutions
Visit the JTS 2010 website here: jts2010.org
• advice on out-sourced approaches.
No sound archive or audio collection manager should
be without this publication as it forms the cornerstone of
our work in the digital age.
The IASA-TC 04 2nd Edition is available as a bound,
hard copy publication, priced at €15 plus €8 postage.
Order form
The IASA-TC 04 2nd Edition has been generously
sponsored by:
Memnon Archiving Services
Cube-Tec International
NOA Audio Solutions
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
National Library of Norway
British & Irish Sound Archives (BISA)
A date for your diary: the 2010 British & Irish Sound
Archives (BISA) meeting will take place at The Borthwick
Institute For Archives, University of York, on 14 and 15
May 2010. The conference will once again offer a great
opportunity to learn from and share experiences with colleagues from national institutions to smaller non-specialized repositories, on any aspect of audio archiving.
BISA invites proposals for papers and presentations on
any and all aspects of audio archiving, and particularly
welcomes proposals addressing issues of common interest across the spectrum of archival experience. Please send
proposals to [email protected] by 31 January 2010.
BISA: www.bisa-web.org
National Library of Australia
Number 121 • Fall 2009
Borthwick Institute: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/bihr/
13
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
of “gray areas” of themes that may or may not be for
children, depending on who is making the judgment. At
the end of the day, who is to definitively say ‘what is a
child’? And what is to be said of “the child within us”
who will enjoy many of these records at any age?
Archives of our Own
Collector Profile: Peter Muldavin
• Broadway musicals
• Opera & Operettas (e.g. Gilbert & Sullivan)
• Marches and parade songs (e.g. Sousa)
• Christmas songs and carols
• Cowboy / Western songs
• Patriotic songs
• Folklore and Myths
• Poetry
• Folk songs; ballads; minstrel songs
In our little collector’s corner this issue we have a
terrific interview with vintage children’s record collector & discographer Peter Muldavin. Peter controls
one of the largest concentrations of kiddie shellac in
the world, and maintains a great website (http://www.
kiddierekordking.com/index.html) about it too (you
can spend hours looking at all the illustrations he’s
reproduced). His discography/price guide is the gold
standard for this genre, and it will presumably just
get better with every edition. Peter lives in New York
City.
• Dance music (see also children’s section)
• Novelty and comedy songs
• Adult movie, radio, TV themes
• Religious themes: hymns, Bible stories and songs
• Songs of the Service (Armed Forces)
Given you’ve picked a somewhat finite collecting area
(if one sticks to U.S. issues), is it reasonably possible
to some day have them “all”? Perhaps you already
do!
Even though I have what is considered the largest
collection of “kiddie 78s” in the world, I know for a fact
that it would be virtually impossible to ever have them
all, at least in my lifetime. I have about 16,000 US listings, but own maybe 14,000 of them. And then there is
the collecting of non-US records, which is an immensely
challenging endeavor.
First an obvious one. Do you still have any of your
records from when you were young?
I had about 30 or 40 records from my childhood. I
don’t have any of the actual physical records from that
collection, but I have ‘re-collected’ all of them.
What are some of the difficulties of defining a
children’s record? I can imagine a gray area in areas
like school & church productions, humor/novelty,
or Christmas/holiday themes. And of course there
are many records made by children that are not
necessarily for children.
It’s interesting that you use the word “difficulty” in
this context. I would say it is more of a “challenge”,
or maybe even a somewhat arbitrary categorization.
Records can be specifically for children, but enjoyed by
people of all ages), or be targeted for general audiences
and yet be “suitable” for children. Following is a list
ARSC Newsletter
What are some of the issues involved with collecting
children’s records? I can imagine condition is very
important, and finding “new stock” is the only way
to avoid chewed-up, drool-stained, crayon-scribbled
Frisbees.
Finding new stock, as ideal as it may sound, is not
something you can count on. How often do you see
people finding “nos” (new old stock”) of any vintage
children’s collectibles from 50 or more years ago?
Hardly ever. I always say to collectors and prospective
14
Number 121• Fall 2009
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Association for Recorded Sound Collections
collectors that if they see something available on their
“want lists”, grab it in whatever condition (if the price is
right), because you never know when another one will
turn up.
(Collector Books, 2007). This book, as you know from
being at the banquet, was the ARSC 2008 award winner
for Best Research In The General History Of Recorded
Sound. I am so grateful for this recognition by my peers.
Are the artists who created the often amazing
graphics generally known, and is there much
information available about them?
Of the hundreds of contributing artists in my archives,
I may have been in contact with perhaps a dozen, mainly
the families and/or heirs of same. I would imagine
some of the better-known artists (mainly as cross-over
to children’s books and comic books) such as Eloise
Wilkins and Ruth Krauss have been widely curated and
researched; however, the vast majority is fading into the
twilight and darkness of time, sad to say.
There must be an endless number of thematic
subgenres; cowboy/western, space exploration,
animals, clowns & circus, etc. Is there one in
particular that’s your favorite?
To be honest, I cannot put my finger on any one
theme or topic, which is my favorite. I have several
favorite records, mainly those that I had as a kid—but
this list would cover several different themes. Any comment on the children’s record industry today…will
it be going to download any time soon? Just as late
manufacture of 78s was largely in children’s records,
will the last compact discs also be for kiddies?
How do children’s records fit in with your other
collecting interests?
As you implied, I do have other collecting interests,
as I am a ‘collector by nature’. At the time I started my
kiddie record collection (about 1990), I was actively
collecting (“re-collecting, actually, those items I had
and loved as a child) in several categories: Golden Age
comic books, sports and non-sports cards, juvenile series
books, Big Little Books, coins, stamps, paper currency,
vintage magazines—to name most of them. But shortly
after getting involved with the records, all of the other
collecting activity became dormant (to the great relief of
my wife!).
Even though I am far from any kind of expert on this
topic, my read on this is that any kind of successful
marketing of recorded children’s music will have to have
a major component of downloadable files.
Now that your discography’s been out for a while, do
you have enough new material to consider a second
edition?
From my side, I believe I have enough material for a
second edition, especially if one considers that I know
have extensive listings of kiddie records from other
countries, none of which were catalogued in the first edition of my book.
What kind of research processes are involved to
learn about the recordings? Is it important to know
old-time radio, early television, etc.? Do you study
sound effects production, or try to identify studio
musicians?
My interest in and pursuit of information in these
aspects is rather limited—both in terms of my interest in
them as a collector and in my book project. I see myself
as mainly a list creator (all kiddie 78s ever made is my
goal). In this sense, I am truly a “discographer”, as this
would entail researching information about the recording
sessions, the artists, and other ancillary areas of knowledge. But even the limited area I have chosen required
10 years to come out with the first edition of my price
and identifications guide: “The Complete Guide To Vintage Children’s Records: Identification and Value Guide”
Number 121 • Fall 2009
If you have any comments or suggestions for future
articles, please pass them along to [email protected].
15
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
Donald R. Hodgman
8 September 1926 - 13 November 2009
Don Hodgman was a good listener, which is probably
what made him a good attorney. “As a person, Don never
forced himself into the conversational spotlight,” recalled
Larry Holdridge, “but made his thoughts and opinions
known in a gentlemanly manner”. His appearance and conduct always marked him as a gentleman. His helpfulness
and generosity were legendary. Dave Canfield remembers
how “oftentimes, if he knew I was looking for a particular
disk, he’d just go to his shelf, pull it off, and send it to me.
I can’t begin to relate how many times that happened. I
struggled futilely to repay him whenever I could, but I always felt in his debt. I know that many others received the
same treatment, and felt the same way I did”.
The ARSC Directory says that he began collecting in
1945, but 1940 seems likelier. He encountered records
initially in his family home in San Marino, California. His
mother, a music teacher, saw to it that both Don and his sister took piano lessons (he discounted his accomplishment
but was good enough to play Beethoven’s Appassionata)
and his deep love of musical performance began around the
same time. He remembered seeing Otto Klemperer conduct
the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the thirties and how that
tall man’s arms would fly around somewhat threateningly.
After high school, he attended Occidental College, where
he completed his undergraduate work in three years, earning Phi Beta Kappa, after which he joined the Navy. Studies at USC Law School followed his discharge. In 1953, he
joined O’Melveny and Myers as a specialist in municipal
bonds, becoming a partner in 1967 and, in 1986, relocating
to New York to assist in establishing its offices there. He
joined ARSC in 1976.
Don was married to the former Nancie Bailey in 1955.
They became the parents of two daughters. Nancie remembers that when they were first married Don had only “a
small rack” of records which grew steadily, occupying first
a small shelf then successively larger ones until they took
up an entire wall. At its largest, the collection may have
ARSC Newsletter
www.arsc-audio.org
totaled 400,000 items. When she was young, his daughter
Donna created a pseudo-medical document that diagnosed
a “terminal case of recorditis.” Friends used to speak of
Hodgman’s Disease: “the need to acquire every record in
existence, in duplicate.” It was spoken only in jest, but
he was diligent and persistent in enriching his collection,
which centered on performers, extending from vocal (his
first independently purchased disc was a Chaliapin 78) to
instrumental and orchestral recordings. He was as avid a
concertgoer as he was a collector and his taste was highly
sophisticated. He acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of
hundreds of singers, instrumentalist and conductors. He
eagerly acquired as many examples as he could of favorite
artists, both commercial releases and “non-commercial”
concert and broadcast recordings. When historical recordings began to be issued on Compact Disc, he generously
loaned rare recordings from his collection. Without Don’s
willingness to do so, many of those reissues simply would
not have been possible
After his retirement in 1988, he remained of counsel and
commuted regularly to OMM’s Manhattan offices from his
home in Riverside, Connecticut. In later years, he and Nancie wintered in Palm Desert, California. The greater leisure
he enjoyed made it possible for him to assist ARSC, and he
served as Chairman of its Finance Committee from 1994
until his death.
Don loved to eat well. After becoming a vegetarian, he
explored the many cuisines of Asia and Africa that offered
such dishes, especially if they were hot and spicy. When he
discovered that I shared his interest in hot cuisine, we used
to explore the ethnic restaurants of whatever city where
the annual ARSC conference was held. We usually managed to find at least two. We roomed together at the conferences from 2002 until last spring. In the past few years
Don had grown increasingly frail, which those who attended our Washington, D.C. conference last May could not
have failed to notice. A series of falls over the succeeding
months led to his final hospitalization and peaceful death
from pneumonia. He was cremated and his ashes will rest
near a family cabin on the shore of Lake of the Woods in
southern Oregon. The family hopes to schedule a memorial
service in New York next spring.
During the 2010 Conference in New Orleans, a group
of ARSC members plan to hold a memorial dinner in his
honor at a local restaurant. Anyone who wished to say
something about Don would be encouraged to do so. ARSC
members wishing to attend should notify Seth Winner via
e-mail ([email protected]) by January 15, 2010.
Dennis D. Rooney ([email protected])
16
Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Allen George Debus
16 August, 1926 - 6 March, 2009
Allen George Debus died peacefully at his home
in Deerfield, Illinois on March 6, 2009 at the age of
eighty-two. He was a longtime member of ARSC and
an internationally recognized authority on early sound
recordings and is known for his research into the pioneer
recording artists of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Professionally, he was an internationally recognized authority on the history of chemistry and medicine. He was
the founding director of the Morris Fishbein Center for
the History of Science and Medicine at the University of
Chicago and one of the pioneers in the institutionalization of the history of science in the United States.
Allen Debus was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of
George Walter William and Edna Pauline Schwenneke
Debus. Raised in nearby Evanston and educated in the
Evanston public schools, Debus nurtured - in the museums in and around Chicago and with the encouragement
of his parents and his beloved great aunts - boyhood and
ultimately lifelong interests in history, paleontology,
Egyptology, early recorded music, and science.
After earning a B.S. in chemistry in 1947 from Northwestern University, he followed his history professor,
John J. Murray, to Indiana University and earned an
M.A. there two years later for a thesis on “Robert Boyle
and Chemistry in England 1660-1700.” At least part of
the die was cast; the history of early modern chemistry
defined the thrust of Debus’s research from this point on.
A year at work as a salesman in his father’s business,
Modern Boxes, Inc., was followed by a return to Indiana
for what would have been a second Master’s degree in
chemistry. Debus married fellow chemistry graduate
student, Brunilda López Rodríguez, on August 25, 1951,
and the newly married couple left Indiana for jobs as
research chemists at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago
with Debus just one course shy of finishing his degree.
Five years later Debus entered the doctoral program in
the history of science at Harvard, and completed a Ph.D.
Number 121 • Fall 2009
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
thesis in 1961 that would eventually become his first book,
The English Paracelsians (Olbourne Press, 1965).
Also in 1961, the Debus family, which now numbered
five—sons Allen, Richard, and Karl had been born in 1955,
1957, and 1961, respectively—made the shift from graduate student life at Harvard to professorial life at the University of Chicago where he taught in and led the history of
science program for the next 35 years.
Outside of his academic life, Debus was equally at home
in the flea markets of the Midwest, feeding his interest in
the history of early recordings and where he amassed an
impressive and remarkably complete collection of popular
acoustic 78rpm and cylinder recordings as well as phonographs and sheet music. He began serious research into the
early decades of recorded sound particularly vaudeville,
minstrelsy, musical theater and popular song. He had longrunning correspondences with pioneer artists including Jack
Norworth, Al Bernard, Joe Belmont, Gus Van, and Will
Oakland and attended at least one John Bieling Day—and
thus visited with Billy Murray, Irving Kaufman and others.
He was longtime friends with Jim Walsh and wrote guest
columns in Hobbies Magazine beginning in the 1940s and
later had his own column, “Current Collectors’ Records.”
Together with Brian Rust, he published The Complete
Entertainment Discography: From the Mid-1890s to 1942
(Arlington House Publishers, 1973; 2d ed., Da Capo Press,
1989), and, in 1979, the Smithsonian Institution brought
out a three-record boxed set in its Smithsonian American
Musical Theater series of the Music of Victor Herbert
drawn from Debus’s extensive collection and with his
annotations, programming notes, and a 16-page booklet
entitled The Early Victor Herbert: From the Gay Nineties
to the First World War. More recently, Debus had been collaborating with fellow ARSC members Richard Martin and
Meagan Hennessey of Archeophone Records to preserve
and bring out in compact disc format the works of such
early 20th century American entertainers as stage greats
Bert Williams, Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, and Eddie
Morton. Several papers Debus delivered at ARSC conferences became the springboards for projects with Archeophone, including the CDs Monarchs of Minstrelsy: Historic
Recordings by the Stars of the Minstrel Stage and Elsie
Janis, Sweetheart of the A.E.F.
Allen is survived by his wife of almost fifty-eight years,
Bruni, by sons Allen and Karl, and by grandchildren, Sara,
Kristen, Lisa, Kathleen, Allison, John, and Jennifer.
Adapted from an Eloge in the Journal ISIS by Dr. Karen
Parshall, University of Virginia with contributions by
David Seubert and Richard Martin.
17
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
For further details, guidelines, and application instructions, visit: http://www.arsc-audio.org/preservationgrants.html
ARSC Preservation Grants Program
Deadline for receipt of applications:
December 15, 2009
Questions about the Preservation Grants Program
should be directed to Mr. Warren at richard.warren@
yale.edu
The ARSC Program for the Preservation of Classical Music Historical Recordings was founded by Al
Schlachtmeyer and the ARSC Board of Directors to
encourage and support the preservation of historically
significant sound recordings of Western Art Music by
individuals and organizations. (This program is separate
from the ARSC Research Grants Program, which supports scholarship and publication in the fields of sound
recording research and audio preservation.)
Full-Text ARSC Journals Available
Free Online
The ARSC Journal is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed
publication that serves to document the history of recorded sound and includes original articles on many aspects
of research and preservation. Back issues of the Journal
are available -- free of charge -- as full-text PDFs.
The ARSC Program for the Preservation of Classical
Music Historical Recordings will consider funding:
Over 5,000 scanned pages contained in the first 25
volumes (1967 through 1994) can be accessed at: http://
www.arsc-audio.org/journal.html
• Projects involving preservation, in any valid and
reasonable fashion, such as providing a collection
with proper climate control, moving a collection to
facilities with proper storage conditions, re-sleeving
a collection of discs, setting up a volunteer project
to organize and inventory a stored collection, rescuing recordings from danger, copying recordings from
endangered or unstable media, etc.
To get started, just click the link to the Online Index,
a searchable database of the contents of ARSC Journals
through 2008.
(Full text of issues since 1994 are available online
through a variety of subscription services including EBSCO Host and IIMP Full Text.)
• Projects promoting public access to recordings.
• Projects involving commercial as well as private,
instantaneous recordings.
• Projects involving collections anywhere in the world.
(Non-U.S. applicants are encouraged to apply.)
ARSC Conference 2009: Audio
Content Available Free Online
The program is administered by an ARSC Grants
Committee including the chairman, a member of the
ARSC Technical Committee, a member of the ARSC
Associated Audio Archives Committee, and an expert on
classical music.
Audio recordings of presentations delivered during the
2009 ARSC Conference in Washington, DC are freely
available online in M3U and MP3 formats at: http://
www.arsc-audio.org/conference/audio2009/index.html
Grant amounts generally range from $2,000 to
$10,000. Grant projects should be completed within 24
months. Written notification of decisions on projects will
be made approximately three months after the submission deadline.
In a few cases, PowerPoint slides and other supplementary materials are included.
For those who joined us in Washington, DC, we hope
you’ll enjoy this chance to relive the memories, and to
catch up on the sessions you missed.
Send completed applications to: Richard Warren Jr.,
ARSC Grants Program, Historical Sound Recordings,
Yale Music Library, P.O. Box 208240, New Haven, CT
06520-8240, USA. Grant applications must be received
by December 15, 2009.
ARSC Newsletter
For anyone who has yet to attend an ARSC conference, here’s a good opportunity to find out some of what
you’re missing.
18
Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
ARSC SUSTAINING MEMBERS
According to the ARSC Bylaws, any “Regular Member who voluntarily contributes an additional amount at least equal
to the prescribed annual dues shall be recognized as a Sustaining Member during the year for which dues are being paid.”
This means that a current Sustaining Member is one who has contributed at least $36.00 or more above the cost of the Annual Dues. The Bylaws also state that these members are to be recognized in the final ARSC Newsletter of the year. So at
this time, we would like to recognize the following who qualify as Sustaining Members for 2009:
David Annett
Marc Bernstein
Grezell Cathnott
Virginia Danielson
Peter Eisenberg
Richard Figone
Gary A. Galo
David Hall
Marian Himmelreich
Eric Jacobs
Walter R. Keevil
John W. Lambert
Kenneth Lyons
Janet McKee
Brenda Nelson-Strauss
Diane Ota
Glenn Riquito
Bonnie Schurk
Steve Smolian
Dave Stout
Barbara Tancil
Peter Uehara
Paul W. Worth
AudioArchive.com
Todd Biedermann
Paul Charosh
Robert A Davis
Encore Consultants
Karen Fishman
David Gilbert
Lewis Morris Hall
Donald Hodgman
Matt Jaro
William Kenney
Richard LeSuer
Alexander Mcgoun
Sharon McKinley
David Nolan
Joe Pearce
Dennis Rooney
William Schurk
David Sommerfield
Suzanne Stover
Mimi Tashiro
Bruce Vermazen
Jeffery Bacich
David Breninger
Nadine Cohodas
Michael Devecka
David Englemann
Frank Forman
David Giovannoni
A.L. Henrichsen
Lawrence Holdridge
Warren Keats
Walter M. Krause
Jim Long
Richard Markow
John B. Milmo
James H. North
Arthur Pfeffer
Stephen Ruffin
Nancy Seeger
Louise Spear
Konrad Strauss
James W. Tolly
Seth B. Winner
Sybil Barnes
David Budd
Barrett Crawford
Charles N. Dowen
Milton T. Erickson
Jeffery Friedman
Edward Goldstein
William Himmelreich
Samuel Ingham III
Jane Keefer
Frederica Kushner
James Lyons
H. Ward Marston
Andy Moyer
Osiris Studio
Jack Raymond
Henry Schmoll
Burton J. Shapiro
Richard Spottswood
Robert Summers
Ben H. Tongue
Steven L. Wolfe
ARSC DONOR MEMBERS
The following members have contributed at least $200 to ARSC for 2009 qualifying them as Donor Members:
Rob Bamberger
Sam Brylawski
Peter Rabinowitz
Gary Thalheimer
Richard Benson
Patrick Loughney
David Seubert
Keith Bossert
Karl Miller
Gail Sonnemann
Garrett Bowles
Bob Norton
Robert Teller
ARSC PATRON MEMBERS
The following members have contributed at least $500 to ARSC for 2009 qualifying them as Patron Members:
Tim Brooks
Roger Snape
Thomas Liebert
Chris Strachwitz
Roderic Moore
Al Schlachtmeyer
ARSC BENEFACTOR MEMBERS
The following members have contributed at least $1000 to ARSC for 2009 qualifying them as a Benefactor Member:
Paul Charosh
Bill Klinger
We wish to thank these and all other members who have made financial gifts to ARSC during the year. Your contributions help ARSC continue with its programs and undertake new activities which would be difficult if we depended on our
modest dues alone.
Peter Shambarger, Executive Director, ARSC
Number 121 • Fall 2009
19
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
ARSC Research Grants Program
ARSClist
Deadline for receipt of applications: February 28, 2010
The ARSC Research Grants Program supports scholarship and publication in the fields of sound recording research and audio preservation. (This
program is separate from the ARSC Preservation Grants Program, which
encourages and supports the preservation of historically significant sound recordings of Western Art Music.) Project categories eligible for consideration
include: discography, bibliography, historical studies of the sound recording
industry and its products, and any other subject likely to increase the public’s
understanding and appreciation of the lasting importance of recorded sound.
ARSC encourages applications from individuals whose research forms part
of an academic program at the master’s or doctoral level.
ARSC members and non-members alike are eligible for grants in amounts
up to $1000. Grant funds can be used to underwrite clerical, editorial, and
travel expenses. Funds may not be used to purchase capital equipment or recordings, to perform operations on sound recordings, to reimburse applicants
for work already performed, or to support projects that form part of a paid
job. Grant recipients must submit documentation of their expenses before
reimbursement. All grant funds must be disbursed within eighteen months of
the grant award.
Grant recipients are required to submit brief descriptions of their projects
for publication in the ARSC Journal, and are encouraged to submit articles
about their projects, for possible publication in the Journal.
Research Grant Applications shall include:
• a summary of the project (one page maximum), with samples of the
work, if possible;
• a budget covering the entire project, highlighting the expenses the
ARSC Grant will cover (one page maximum);
• a curriculum vitae; and
• an indication of the prospects for publication or other public dissemination of the project results.
Applications should be sent in the form of four paper copies to:
Grants Committee Chairman
Richard Warren, Historical Sound Recordings
Yale University Library
P. O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
U.S.A.
Applications for the next grant cycle must be received by February 28,
2010.
For more information, visit: http://www.arsc-audio.org/researchgrants.html
The Online Discussion
Group of ARSC
“Ask a question and you’ll get
answers from some of the best in the
business.”—Tim Brooks
Since 1999, the Association for
Recorded Sound Collections has sponsored an unmoderated mail reflector to
facilitate the exchange of information
on sound archives and promote communication among those interested in
preserving, documenting, and making accessible the history of recorded
sound. The list is sponsored by ARSC
as a service to its members and the
archival community at large.
Subscribing
To subscribe to the list, send an email
message to:
[email protected]
Leave the “Subject” blank. In the first
line of the body of the message, type
“subscribe arsclist [your name]” and
send the message normally.
To post to the list, send an email to:
[email protected]
Only subscribers can post to the list.
You may also subscribe to the list
via the Library of Congress website at
http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/arsclist.
html
ARSClist Archives
The complete ARSClist archives
are kept on the Conservation OnLine
(CoOL) site maintained by Stanford
University at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/arsclist/.
Once archived, messages become part
of the historical record of discourse in
this field and will not be removed from
the archives. Current archives are also
maintained by the Library of Congress
on the above website.
Questions about the Research Grants Program should be directed to Mr.
Warren at: [email protected]
ARSC Newsletter
20
Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
New (and Returning)
ARSC Members:
Names and Addresses of new ARSC
members are not available in the online version of the newsletter.
Number 121 • Fall 2009
21
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
www.arsc-audio.org
New ARSC Members
(Continued from page x)
ARSC Newsletter
22
Number 121• Fall 2009
www.arsc-audio.org
Number 121 • Fall 2009
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
23
ARSC Newsletter
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
PO Box 543
Annapolis, MD 21404-0543
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Draft Your Slacker Records!
“Now for some music: Draft your slacker records.
They will go to camp or overseas through The National
Phonograph-Records Recruiting Corps.” World
War I poster (1917) showing a soldier unpacking a
phonograph record as another looks on. Falls, C. B.
(Charles Buckles), 1874-1960, artist.
Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division.