Folkways collection in line for digital makeover

Edmonton has a unique affinity for folk music. The annual Folk Music Festival, dedicated independent radio stations like CKUA as well as record labels like Stony Plain Records make for a community rich with diversity. Now, an agreement between the University of Alberta and the Smithsonian Institute will add new depth to a local treasure: the Moses and Frances Asch Collection.

Consisting of the entire catalogue of recordings made by the Folkways music label, the collection was donated to the U of A by Moses Asch, who founded Folkways and created a rich sprawling tapestry of recordings. Asch recorded every aspect of life, from the earliest works of activist-musician Pete Seeger, to speeches and religious ceremonies. During trips here to visit his son Michael, now a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, the senior Asch grew fond of the city, impressed by its vibrant music scene. He was so impressed he donated the entire Folkways catalogue to the U of A.

"This is really the very first complete collection of music from everywhere," said Dr. Regula Qureshi, director of the Canadian Centre of Ethnomusicology at the U of A. "These records were donated by Moe Asch himself, who wanted us to have it. He loved Edmonton and its progressive musical community."

Under a memorandum of understanding signed last month between the U of A and Smithsonian Folkways, which holds copyright on the Folkways recordings, the university could build on Smithsonian's digital library of the Folkways recordings, adding liner notes, documents and text related to the lable and its recordings to an elaborate research database.

Michael Frishkopf, a U of A professor in ethnomusicology, says the agreement could lead to the creation of an unparalleled research library.

What we're trying to do is create a kind of museum and research lab centred on the collection," said Frishkopf. "What people could do for example, if they were doing research on laments around the world, is do a database search which pulls up all the tracks from the collection that are laments."

The project will transform the stacks of records into a powerful research tool, allowing a fast search for sound and text, incorporating the Folkways records and eventually the entire ethnomusicology collection. Currently, the records are catalogued in the U of A library database, but individual tracks are not listed. With a multimedia database, it will no longer be necessary to pull records off the shelf and onto a turntable.

"You could cue up a whole bunch of tracks, all on laments, and you could juxtapose them. Psychologically or cognitively, this is very useful," said Frishkopf.

"Since it's on computer, you could add the ability to do a kind of analysis, like a spectrographic analysis of sound, for example, the sense of timbre. Or you might be a linguist looking for a certain quality of speech.

"This is very science fiction-y at this point, but it is conceivable that you could develop an algorithm for searching for music, like if you whistle a tune and it'll find a song. This is where the computer science research comes in. The research is to develop the tools, applications for analysing music, like something that could pull the melody out of a recording."

"This will add to the quality of research already being done at the Centre for Ethnomusicology, and it gives the centre the profile it deserves," said Dr. Gary Kachanoski, Vice President (Research).

The purpose of the agreement was "to create an infrastructure that allows us to build on the expertise and resources that already exist, but it goes well beyond research, it also connects us to the multicultural community in Canada through the research done on their music, and by preserving and capturing and adding value to that music."

The senior Asch was a pioneer in sound recording and radio technology, but as a young man turned his attention to recording music, especially American folk music but also music from all over the world, spoken word and, really, any form of human expression he decided was worth recording.

"When he was studying in Germany in the 1920s he was challenged by some of the European students who said that 'America has no culture'. So in Paris, he found a book by John Lomax called American Ballads and Folk Songs to prove that America did have a folk culture of some kind," Michael Asch said of his father.

"My father decided to be a sound engineer, and he was involved in the development of radio. That was probably how he got involved with music."

During the ensuing 40 years, Asch recorded 2,200 LPs of material ranging from American folk, jazz and blues artists to the works of famous poets, speeches and ethnographic recordings of various traditions. In 1985, he donated a collection of LPs, the Moses and Frances Asch Collection, consisting of the entire Folkways catalogue, to the University of Alberta.

Michael Asch, a member of the board of advisors for Smithsonian Folkways, says Folkways, as a label, is unusual in that none of the records are allowed to go out of print. Asch believes this reflected his father's inclusive ideals and sense of social justice, and his determination to create a complete representation of all of humanity's voices.

The electronic makeover planned for the collection is beyond anything the Folkways founder could ever have imagined.

"He had a catalogue system where he had a series in the 2,000s, a 3,000 series and so on, each devoted to one aspect of the collection, for example, American music or spoken word. It was more like a card catalogue. He was actually painting a single canvas and he had 8,000 slots. He had a long way to go," said Michael.

For years, the LPs have been a valuable resource for research and education in music and sound. But the collection, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, is undergoing a high-tech makeover.

The archiving and research will be done in partnership with the Smithsonian, and Qureshi and her colleagues are understandably excited. "Arts research has been outstanding at the U of A," she said. "This collection has been with us since about 1985, and things have been increasing incrementally with the number of grants and books published. The University of Alberta is so well known for scientific research, so something like this is a beacon that points to the dynamic research culture that includes the Fine Arts."