Preserving Australia's Sound Heritage (PASH)

Aim

To create a web-based research infrastructure in support of two major music archival collections: The Handa Collection (The University of Western Australia) and The Australian Archive of Jewish Music (Monash University).

Description

Important music archive resources at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Monash University are now available to researchers through the use of web-based methods of delivery.

Methodologies have been developed to solve archival issues relating to preservation, retrieval, rights management and delivery of two major collections: the Handa Collection and the Australian Archive of Jewish Music. The project output is universally and easily available through online access.

Scope

Through the School of Music’s Callaway Centre Archive, UWA has established infrastructure for the processing of key sections of the Handa Collection. The Handa Collection is a significant Australian music collection numbering more than 150,000 items. It was acquired in 2003 with the support of the Japanese philanthropist, Dr Haruhisa Handa. Especially important are audio materials of significance to Australian music research including performances by famed early-20th century Australian vocalists, instrumentalists and composers.

At UWA the collection resources are publicly accessible online as catalogue records and as digital objects, where the works are in the public domain and/or copyright cleared. Online access is through the Callaway Centre Archive catalogue, Libraries Australia and Music Australia. Materials not able to be shared publicly have been stored digitally and are available onsite for research purposes at the Callaway Centre Archive.

Information about the Monash project can be found through its website.

Duration

4 years, 2004 -2007 (Complete)

Key Personnel at the University of Western Australia 

• Emeritus Professor David Tunley (Chief Investigator)
• Dr Victoria Rogers (Chief Investigator)
• Kaye Hill
• Brian Dawson

Research Audience

Ethnomusicology, Australian studies, Vocal studies, Performance studies

Benefits

There are clear social and cultural benefits from this project:

• The project is about the reclamation of Australia’s musical heritage. This enriches musicological, socio-musical and historical accounts of Australian society
• The link to the National Library’s acclaimed music sharing resource Music Australia has ensured that the project outcomes are available to the broader community as well as to the community of scholars
• Access to this body of previously unavailable material will stimulate research and lead to a greater awareness of Australia's sound heritage

Outputs

At UWA, the Callaway Centre Archive has an online presence that will enhance researchers’ access to its collections and provide the infrastructure necessary to allow for future cataloguing and processing of its extensive collections.

Examples include:

• Callaway Centre Archive Catalogue 
• Handa Collection search page
• Handa Collection sound recording catalogue entry 
• Handa Collection Special List of digital sound object 
• Music Australia entry - Rosina Buckman sings Puccini’s "One Fine Day" from Madame Butterfly

Further Information

Technical information about the role of the Callaway Centre Archive in this project can be found through its website.   

Acknowledgements

This infrastructure was established through funding provided by the Australian Research Council's Linkage Infrastructure Projects (project number LE0453614  - Preserving Australia's Sound Heritage (PASH): creating a web-based research infrastructure of major music archives), The University of Western Australia's Research Matching Fund, and funding from Curtin University of Technology. Further support and expertise were provided by the National Film and Sound Archive, the National Library of Australia, and the library at The University of Western Australia. The Chief Investigators acknowledge and thank the above-mentioned organisations for their support.