3
RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES Author(s): Dietrich Lotichius Source: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1978 Januar-März), pp. 85-86 Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506235 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 09:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fontes Artis Musicae. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:04:28 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES

RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVESAuthor(s): Dietrich LotichiusSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1978 Januar-März), pp. 85-86Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506235 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 09:04

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) is collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fontes Artis Musicae.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:04:28 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES

Commission Reports and Papers given at their Meetings 85

Libraries and Bibliographical Research indicated that the idea deserves a great deal of consideration. We hope to be able to discuss the question in Lisbon.

From other questions which were asked in between the items of main discussion, I may select the one on ordering music directly from the publisher. This happens in some music libraries of my own

country and probably also in other countries. There may be various reasons: the country itself does not have large publishing houses as in Germany, Great Britain, France, USA, etc.; service from the music dealer is not terribly efficient, or a professional music dealer simply does not exist in a particular town; orders may take considerable time to be carried out; the amount of discount is either nihil or very low indeed. As might be expected, the music publisher just cannot do without his dealers, who are his main clients. Dealing with music libraries is all right so long as they do not expect exorbitant discounts or in

any case not larger discounts than will be allowed to the dealer himself. Dr. Hanser-Strecker agreed to mention and explain the problems discussed in Mainz whenever the

next international congress of music publishers takes place. Charlotte van der Pot, Secretary

Public Libaries Commission

RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION

The Commission held three public and one closed working session. The first public session was devoted to literature on sound recordings. Work was begun during the session on an annotated bibliography of printed materials related to sound recordings, expected to be completed by the Lisbon 1978 meeting. The first draft of the anticipated bibliography was discussed. The membership of IAML has been asked to contribute to this final bibliography.

The second public session (and the working session leading up to it) was on the topic of an International Standard for Discographic Citations. This was the third annual meeting at which public working sessions have been held on this topic (the topic was also discussed in 1975 and 1976 at Montreal and Bergen). A list of the basic items of information necessary to be included in a dis

cographie citation was agreed upon, even though there was more discussion and varying opinion at this conference than at either of the previous two meetings. The standard, with appropriate prefatory remarks, will be offered to Fontes and, following that, to the various publications dealing with this topic (IASA's Phonographic Bulletin; BIRS's Recorded Sound; ARSC Journal; Schallarchiv; etc.)

The third session was a joint meeting of IASA and the Commission on preservation and storage of new recordings. This consisted of a brief discussion of the most desirable means of storing and playing these materials from a preservation standpoint; a paper by Dietrich Schüller on an alternative means of

making these recordings available for public use; and a lengthy discussion and exchange of ideas on the

topic. Gerald D. Gibson, Acting President

RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES

The Subcommission held one meeting on Thursday, 15 September, attended by 46 delegates representing 15 countries. The session was overshadowed by the sudden death of our friend and colleague Erich Breitwieser, Head of Sound Archives of Österreichischer Rundfunk Salzburg, which had occurred at Mainz the previous day.

Participants heard two papers to mark this year's centenary of the invention of sound recording, which had a tremendous impact on the profession of sound archivists and the work done by radio sound archives everywhere in the world to-day. Ulf Scharlau (Head of Sound Archives, Süddeutscher

Rundfunk) spoke about "Athanasius Kircher - or Some Aspects of Acoustical Developments in the 17th Century", throwing light on early thoughts and ideas which might be seen as important elements for the later invention of sound recording and allied equipment such as the phonograph.

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:04:28 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: RECORD LIBRARIES COMMISSION, SUBCOMMISSION RADIO SOUND ARCHIVES

86 Commission Reports and Papers given at their Meetings

Irmgard von Broich-Oppert (Head of Sound Archives, RIAS Berlin) and Wilfried Zahn (Chief Engineer, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Frankfurt) presented a joint paper called "From the Talking Machine to the 'Kunstkopf ", covering the history of one hundred years from the invention of Edison's phonograph to the latest results of technical progress in the field of sound recording and sound reproduction.

Both talks were illustrated by pictures and by sound recordings, old and contemporary, including the most modern "Kunstkopf' technique. The text of the talks appears directly below.

Dietrich Lotichius, Chairman

ULF SCHARLA U (STUTTGAR T)

Athanasius Kircher (1601—1680), or Some Aspects of Acoustical

Developments in the 17th Century

This year we celebrate the centennial of the invention of sound recording. With this

ingenious act Thomas Alva Edison fulfilled an ancient dream of mankind. The thought of

listening for example to a record of Xerxes' maledictions when he lost the battle of

Salamis, or to the sermons of Jesus Christ, or to the proclamation of Jerusalem's libera tion by Bernhard of Clairvaux, or to Martin Luther defending his convictions before

Emperor and Reichstag in Worms, or to Beethoven playing his piano sonatas is hardly imaginable. Would it be disappointing if we could hear them today? Who can tell?

One cannot imagine Edison and his invention without the preparatory work of genera tions of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers before him. Today we shall deal with an epoch which is important for the history of acoustics and therefore also for the pre history of sound recording: the Baroque, a period in which the idea of divine harmony within world and universe is combined with the new philosophy of rationalism. The most famous representatives of rationalism — René Descartes, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — were philosophers, mathematicians and natural scientists at the same time. The work of a contemporary of those three men, the Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher, was not of equal importance with the other really ingenious men; but just because his work and thinking were not unusual, but typical for his time, he is interesting too. Beyond that Kircher has indeed made some important observations on the acoustical field.

Athanasius Kircher was born in Geisa/Thüringen in 1601. His father Johannes Kircher, who had been a professor of theology, educated his son in music, Latin and geography. When Athanasius was ten years old, he was sent to the Jesuit college in Fulda, where he studied mathematics, Greek and Hebrew. In 1618 Kircher joined the Societas Jesu in Paderborn, and in 1620 his scientific education began in all the subjects which were important for a scholar in those days. At first he studied logics, physics and philosophy, later on continuing with oriental languages. In 1624 he began studying theology in Mainz, where he was ordained a priest in 1628. The following year he became a professor of

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:04:28 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions