This session consists of 3 presentations and a joint Q&A with the presenters. The session contains:
➺ Jaione Landaberea - The preservation of the Basque Country's Sound Heritage published online. An endeavour pursued by ERESBIL - Basque Music Archive over the last decade. (Long presentation)
➺ Marcello Ranieri, Angelo Pompilio - Connecting heterogeneous documents of performing arts from distinct collections. The case of opera (Short presentation)
➺ Gisa Jähnichen, Ahmad Faudzi Musib - Safeguarding the Sonic Heritage in Asian Communities: A Contextual Approach to Preservation (Long presentation)
**Abstracts:**
➺ The preservation of the Basque Country's Sound Heritage published online. An endeavour pursued by ERESBIL - Basque Music Archive over the last decade.
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Jaione Landaberea (Long presentation)
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The acquisition of our heritage sound collections is significantly conditioned by a multitude of factors, encompassing financial limitations, fluctuations in political environments, and, within the framework of a decentralized state like Spain, where the 17 Autonomous Communities possess full powers in cultural matters, by the modifications and implementation of legislation concerning bibliographic heritage and legal deposit at various levels.
Since the onset of the new millennium, the music industry has undergone a radical transformation in its market dynamics, profoundly affecting heritage centers entrusted with the preservation of sound collections. Presently, the predominant mode of music consumption is through streaming platforms.
This trend has resulted in a notable decline in the volume of publications in tangible format acquired through legal deposit. Concurrently, there is an enormous increase in the production and dissemination of digital music publications across various platforms. However, legislation concerning the legal deposit of online sound recordings remains unimplemented, thereby jeopardizing the preservation of these materials.
ERESBIL - Basque Music Archive is dedicated to collect, preserve, and disseminate the Basque Musical Heritage. Since 2000, it has served as conserving center for the legal deposit of tangible format sound recordings. Since 2015, concerned with the safeguarding of sound documents published online, Eresbil has been facing the challenge of searching, selecting, acquiring, cataloging, and preserving Basque sound recordings of cultural significance disseminated online, on its own initiative and outside the coverage of legal deposit. To this end, the archive has developed a series of strategies enabling the conservation of a substantial portion of Basque musical production across diverse genres, which would otherwise risk being lost.
➺ Connecting heterogeneous documents of performing arts from distinct collections. The case of opera
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Marcello Ranieri, Angelo Pompilio (Short presentation)
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Opera, as a performative art, is composed by many texts simultaneously. A literary text resides in the libretto, music is transcribed in music scores, and scenography or costumes are represented by sketches, among other elements. Collections bring together librettos, music scores, sketches and various other documents, including sound and audiovisual recordings, usually from different works. Normally, no information is provided regarding the section of the work to which a single item is related, or the available information is ambiguous. By way of example, according to cataloguing rules both the adagio and the cabaletta of Violetta’s aria in the first act are just part of Verdi’s “La Traviata” and simply cannot be distinguished from each other. An index would therefore be necessary to correctly reference a document to an identified position within a specific work.
Coherently with the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (and the Library Reference Model), we propose an index capable of mapping a document to the specific section of a work from which it originates. Furthermore, an authority file is created to precisely identify each extract of the work. This unifying approach facilitates the connection of distinct archives and collections across different institutions. The advantages for users are self-evident: the fragmented view is consolidated into a cohesive whole, ambiguity is eliminated, standardized search capabilities are enabled, and results can be enriched.
Examples from the collections of historical records housed within the Department of Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna will be suggested.
➺ Safeguarding the Sonic Heritage in Asian Communities: A Contextual Approach to Preservation
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Gisa Jähnichen, Ahmad Faudzi Musib (Long presentation)
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Sound preservation goes beyond intentional sounds. While intentional sounds are often the primary focus during collection, contextual sounds play an equally vital role. These sounds, surrounding the intended sound, may remain passive and unfocused due to their soft amplitude. Nevertheless, their existence is undeniable, as the ear perceives sound spatially through depth and distance.
The conventional method of relying on single sound recordings for preserving sonic heritage imposes limitations, hindering the capture of diverse events. This constraint obstructs the creation of a comprehensive preservation material that vividly portrays specific locations of indigenous groups, especially their social and environmental aspects. The study concentrates on two distinct cultural communities: the Bidayuh community residing in a longhouse, and the Zhuang community in Napo County, Guangxi, China, where singing Zhuang songs at a specific park is integral to their daily social interactions. Additionally, literature on this phenomenon is analysed.
By employing contextual sound preservation methods, this joint paper aims to expand the scope of sonic heritage preservation to definite practices. It underscores a multi-dimensional approach, condensing the chosen locations' social and environmental dimensions. The collection process prioritizes social dynamics and daily life interactions; thus offering a deeper understanding of soundscapes and incorporating dynamic social activities within different proximities. Additionally, the research endeavours to document the changes and evolution within these soundscapes over time, considering the broader context and environmental factors. This contributes to a more holistic understanding of preserving audio elements associated with the use of audio archives, answering the first question.
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