Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

World Music: the David Fanshawe World Music Archive

Two of our Performing Arts Librarians attended our professional association's Annual Study Weekend recently.  IAML (UK and Ireland) is the local branch of the International Association of Music Libraries.

A lot of different topics were covered, but one that might particularly interest some of our staff and students was a reminder about a very special archive of sound recordings - the David Fanshawe World Music Archive.  They have 3,200 stereo master tapes; 40,000 colour slides and 70 of Fanshawe's hand-written journals.


Of course, most people remember him for his epic piece, African Sanctus.  But he was an ethnomusicologist through and through, and this archive represents a lifetime's work collecting tunes from all over the world.  Scholars are warmly invited to visit the collections, which are curated by a sound engineer, a librarian and arts manager, and Jane Fanshawe herself, the manager of Fanshawe One World Music.

http://www.fanshawe.com/

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