British Library Sounds (previously named Archival Sound Recordings) is a
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
service providing free online access to a diverse range of spoken word, music and environmental sounds from the
British Library Sound Archive
The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...
. Anyone with web access can use the service to search, browse and listen to 50,000 digitised recordings. Playback and download of an additional 22,000 recordings is available to Athens or Shibboleth users in UK higher and
further education
Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
. The service was originally launched with funding by the
Jisc
Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector.
History
T ...
.
There are over 20,000 hours of rarely heard audio material available online. Images and transcripts are also available for some recordings to further enrich the content.
Recordings may be searched by keywords or browsed by collection types, dates, languages, performer names and subjects. Several collections can be browsed using a map interface.
Content currently available
The British Library Sounds website covers a broad range of content:
* Accents and dialects of spoken English, including extracts from the
Survey of English Dialects
The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before loca ...
, the Millennium Memory Bank of personal oral histories, the Berliner Lautarchiv of British
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
prisoners, crowdsourced public contributions of accents, BBC Voices project and a 1940s
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
phonetics research collection.
* Arts, literature and performance includes
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...
, London – Talks, 1981–92 and early spoken-word recordings (including
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
,
Christabel Pankhurst
Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bord ...
,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
and Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
); and the
St Mary-le-Bow public debates.
* Classical music: recordings of Canonical Classical Repertoire 1926-1956 (including all recordings held from the repertoire of
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
,
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
,
Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
, and
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
on 78rpm shellac discs together with early long-playing vinyl discs); a large collection of Chopin performances, and Dutch String Quartet, the London Trio and the
Philharmonic Quartet
The Philharmonic Quartet was an English string quartet musical ensemble founded during the period of the First World War and remaining active until the early 1940s, by which time none of the original members were present in the group.
Original ...
and other chamber music performers, and experimental music.
* Environment and nature, including hundreds of examples of British wildlife sounds, historic wildlife recordings and amphibians sounds, recordings of East African wildlife, and sounds of weather and urban sounds including the pioneering Soundscapes of Canada collection.
* Jazz and popular music has skiffle music, interviews of recordings of British jazz musicians and the complete set of programmes from arts broadcaster Touch Radio.
* Oral history including
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
Survivors' Centre interviews, the collection of
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
pioneer
George Ewart Evans
George Ewart Evans (1 April 1909 – 11 January 1988) was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and prod ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
Listening Project collection,
Oral History of British Science and collections created by
National Life Stories
National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...
.
* Sound recording history including scans of rare early record company catalogues, more than 400 images of historic playback equipment and 100 interviews charting the history of
sound recording
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...
.
* World and traditional music: a wide range of musical styles from around the world. These range from the
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
West Africa "Yellow Label" Series and
music of India
Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk (Bollywood), rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over ...
collected by
ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
Rolf Killius to Traditional Music in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, a vast collection of 20,000 recordings of popular ballads,
children's skipping songs
A skipping rhyme (occasionally skipping-rope rhyme or jump-rope rhyme), is a rhyme chanted by children while skipping. Such rhymes have been recorded in all cultures where skipping is played. Examples of English-language rhymes have been found ...
, customs,
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
, soldiers' songs, folk tales and interviews.
Selected highlights
African Writers' Club
Over 250 hours of radio programmes about African literary, social and cultural affairs. Made at the Transcription Centre in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, the recordings were broadcast throughout
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and sometimes on the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
. Ranging from radio dramas to magazine programmes, from politics to poetry, as well as music, this collection provides a view of Africa in the mid-1960s. Contributors include
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...
,
Dennis Brutus
Dennis Vincent Brutus (28 November 1924 – 26 December 2009) was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games due to its racial policy of apartheid.
...
,
Lenrie Peters Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters (1 September 1932 – 28 May 2009) was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, poet and educationist.
Biography
Peters was born in 1931 in Bathurst (now Banjul) in The Gambia. His parents were Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kez ...
,
John Pepper Clark
John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo (6 April 1935 – 13 October 2020) was a Nigerian poet and playwright, who also published as J. P. Clark and John Pepper Clark.
Life
Born in Kiagbodo, Nigeria, to an Ijaw father and Urhobo mother, Clark received his ...
,
Richard Rive
Richard Moore Rive (1 March 1931 – 4 June 1989) was a South African writer and academic, who was from Cape Town.
Biography
Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class Coloured residential area District Six of Cape To ...
, Raymond Kunene,
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
,
Kofi Awoonor
Kofi Awoonor (born George Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor-Williams; 13 March 1935 – 21 September 2013) was a Ghanaian poet and author whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict A ...
,
Cosmo Pieterse
Cosmo George Leipoldt Pieterse (born 1930 in Windhoek, Namibia) is a South African playwright, actor, poet, literary critic and anthologist.
Education and career
Cosmo Pieterse went to the University of Cape Town and taught in Cape Town until lea ...
,
Ama Ata Aidoo
Ama Ata Aidoo, ''née'' Christina Ama Aidoo (born 23 March 1942) is a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and academic. She was the Minister of Education under the Jerry Rawlings administration. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation to ...
,
Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes,
Dudu Pukwana
Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana (18 July 1938 – 30 June 1990) was a South African saxophonist, composer and pianist (although not known for his piano playing).
Early years in South Africa
Dudu Pukwana was born in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth, S ...
, and
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...
.
Art and design interviews
Intimate encounters with the life and work of British painters, sculptors, photographers and architects. Interviewees include sculptors
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...
and
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art.
Early years
Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March 1 ...
; painters
Terry Frost
Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...
,
Paula Rego
Paula or PAULA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Paula, in video game ''EarthBound''
* Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show''
* Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003
Film and television
* ''Paula'' (1915 film), a si ...
and
Michael Rothenstein
William Michael Rothenstein (19 March 1908 – 6 July 1993) was a British printmaker, painter and art teacher.
Early life
Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist, Sir W ...
; photographers
Grace Robertson
Grace Robertson (13 July 1930[Ms Grace Robertson, OBE](_blank)
Debret ...
,
Mari Mahr
Mari Mahr (born 1941) is a Hungarian-British photographer. She was born in Santiago, Chile where her Hungarian Jewish parents had fled during World War II. After the war, the family moved back to Budapest. Mahr was inspired to study journalism by ...
and
Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypic ...
; and architects
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie ('' née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his ...
,
Ralph Erskine,
Edward Hollamby
Edward Ernest Hollamby (8 January 1921 – 29 December 1999) was an English architect, town planner, and architectural conservationist. Known for designing a number of modernist housing estates in London, he had also achieved notability for h ...
and
Patrick Gwynne
(Alban) Patrick Gwynne (1913 – 2003) was a British modernist architect with Welsh roots, best known for designing and building The Homewood, which he left to the National Trust in 2003.
Early life and work
Gwynne was born in Portchester, Hamps ...
.
David Rycroft Africa recordings
South African-born linguist and musicologist David Rycroft made many field trips to villages, townships and settlements around
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
between the 1960s and '80s. Fascinated by the relationship between oral traditions and musical structure, Rycroft focused on unaccompanied choral singing, songs composed for indigenous musical instruments, and urban music.
Klaus Wachsmann Uganda recordings
Klaus Wachsmann Klaus Philipp Wachsmann (8 March 1907 – 17 July 1984) was a British ethnomusicologist of German birth. Born in 1907 in Berlin, he is considered a pioneer in the study of the traditional musics of Africa. His studies in Germany (on pre-Gregorian ...
made roughly 1,500 unique recordings of indigenous music in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
, most of which have never been published before. This collection dates from the late 1940s, when Wachsmann was curator of the Uganda Museum in
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...
, and includes field recordings and performances at the museum.
Oral history of jazz in Britain
An informal and anecdotal history of the music, venues and people that defined
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
in the UK. Through interviews with musicians, promoters and label owners, this collection focuses on some of the less well known aspects of
British jazz
British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British ...
– including the impact in Britain of overseas musicians, British developments in free improvisation in the 1960s, jazz outside London, and the contribution of women to the music.
Oral history of recorded sound
This teaching package reflects in sound, image and text the cultural and economic impact of developments in recording technology over the 20th century. It also features oral history interviews with significant figures in the worlds of music, radio, and the recording industry – with a focus on backroom innovators who have rarely enjoyed the limelight.
Sound Maps
A series of interactive maps allowing browsing and listening of accents and dialects, nature sounds, oral memories and traditional music.
Soundscapes
The word "''
soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...
''" was coined by composer
R. Murray Schafer
Raymond Murray Schafer (18 July 1933 – 14 August 2021) was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book ''The Tuning of th ...
to identify sounds that “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place” This selection draws together mechanical and industrial sounds (including transport and fog-horns), soundscapes of the natural world across continents, urban soundscapes, and wildlife sounds from around the globe.
St Mary-le-Bow public debates
At one o’clock every Tuesday lunchtime for fifteen years (1964–79), Joseph McCulloch, the Rector of
St Mary-le-Bow Church in the City of London, invited a well-known public figure to debate an issue of the day. Popular among city workers, guests included
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
on race,
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 193810 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series '' The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in '' On H ...
on single parentage,
A. J. Ayer
Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) ...
on moral responsibility,
Edna O’Brien on fear, and
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
Specializing in English and women's literatu ...
on free will.
Syliphone record label recordings from Guinea
More than 7,800 recordings of music from Guinea were originally released on the Syliphone record label. It includes many unique recordings not previously heard outside of Guinea. A large proportion has not been broadcast in over 20 years, as it was politically sensitive and subject to censorship. The list of artists and musicians represented in the collection is a who's who of Guinean and African music. There are many unreleased recordings by major stars such as Kandia Sory Kouyaté,
Bembeya Jazz National
Bembeya Jazz National (originally known as Orchestre de Beyla) is a Guinean jazz group that gained fame in the 1960s for their Afropop rhythms. They are considered one of the most significant bands in Guinean music. Many of their recordings are ...
, Fodé Conté, and Kadé Diawara, in addition to hundreds of unreleased recordings by Guinea’s national and regional orchestras, troupes and ensembles. There is also a wealth of material by famous Guinean artists who, as they were never commercially recorded, are virtually unknown outside of Guinea, including Farba Tela (an inspiration to
Ali Farka Touré
Ali Ibrahim "Ali Farka" Touré (31 October 1939 – 6 March 2006) was a Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist, and one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians. His music blends traditional Malian music and its deriv ...
), Mama Kanté, Binta Laaly Sow, Koubia Jazz, and Jeanne Macauley. The collection also features thousands of traditional songs from all of Guinea’s regions and ethnic groups.
[Counsel, Graeme (12 June 2013)]
"Syliphone - an early recording label from Guinea"
''Endangered archives blog'', British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
.
References
External links
British Library Soundshomepage
Map interfacefor selected British Library Sounds
World and traditional musicon British Library Sounds
British Library Sound ArchiveJISC: The Joint Information Systems CommitteeRelated list of JISC funded projects
{{Authority control
British Library
Sound archives in the United Kingdom
World music
Music archives in the United Kingdom
Oral history
Sound recording
Sound recording technology