The Northern Ireland Music Archive is a digital
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
of materials related to music from
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. It is based on a publicly accessible computer system situated in the Music Library at
Belfast Central Library
Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland.
A competition for the design of the building was won by architect Wi ...
,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
. The archive has been funded and developed by the
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Irish: ''Comhairle Ealaíon Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster-Scots: ''Airts Cooncil o Norlin Airlan'') is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, as a successor to ...
.
History
The first materials for the archive were provided by
BBC Northern Ireland and were collated and
digitised from 2003 onwards, with input and assistance provided by the
Sonic Arts Research Centre and Belfast Central Library.
The archive was officially launched on 30 March 2006,
with a day of music from numerous contemporary performers including the
Brian Irvine Ensemble. At its launch, it contained approximately 400 recordings and a number of scanned
sheet music of pieces by
20th-century and
contemporary/classical composers born or settled in Northern Ireland.
The Arts Council planned to enlarge this collection in the future, with the hope of expanding into other genres of music such as folk, rock and pop.
In 2007, a selection of
folk and traditional materials were incorporated from a sizeable collection of tapes bequeathed by local folk promoter and journalist,
Geoff Harden.
This set of materials was digitised with additional assistance from the
City of Belfast School of Music. The new additions were profiled at an official event at the library, which featured live music from local traditional musicians and a speech and song from veteran folk/traditional singer,
Len Graham.
Materials
The Northern Ireland Music Archive features digitised materials of numerous formats:
Audio recordings
* Live performances of classical/contemporary compositions by composers from Northern Ireland
* Interview footage of composers from Northern Ireland
*
Radio documentaries on composers and the Northern Irish classical/contemporary music scene
* Live performances by folk/traditional musicians recorded in Northern Ireland
Recordings date from the 1960s up to the present.
Visual articles
* Sheet music of pieces by composers from Northern Ireland
* Programme notes from
premiere (or otherwise notable) performances of pieces by Northern Ireland composers
* Publications relating to the Northern Irish folk scene, including issues of Ulster Folk News
*
Photographs of composers and musicians
Access
The archive is housed on a
computer server
In computing, a server is a piece of computer hardware or software (computer program) that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called " clients". This architecture is called the client–server model. Servers can provide vario ...
in the Music Library, 2nd Floor, Belfast Central Library. The computer is free to browse at any time during library opening hours; the materials are available for reference only.
References
External links
Northern Ireland Composers- Arts Council of Northern Ireland web site, providing listings of the contemporary/classical materials held in the Northern Ireland Music Archive.
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Archives in Northern Ireland
Music archives
Music organisations based in Northern Ireland