Any member of the Brown community can use Josiah, the library's on-line catalogue, to browse the numerous sound selections and other documents for familiar subjects like the Delta blues to unfamiliar subjects such as Korean opera. Listening can be done using the library's state-of-the-art equipment.
In the basement of the Orwig Music Library, behind a pink door in a space no larger than a medium-size bathroom, is a collection of ethnic music that taps nearly every corner of the globe.
The James Koetting Ethnomusicology Archive features hundreds of traditions, ranging from Cajun dance hall tunes to Japanese bamboo flute music to Jamaican reggae to Hungarian folk songs. The archive, which totals more than 20,000 published and unpublished recordings, videos, photographs and field notes, supports teaching and research in the music department's ethnomusicology program.
The collection also serves as a resource to students and faculty members from other departments, says music librarian Carol Tatian. Any member of the Brown community can use Josiah, the library's on-line catalogue, to browse the numerous sound selections and other documents for familiar subjects like the Delta blues to unfamiliar subjects such as Korean opera. Listening can be done using the library's state-of-the-art equipment.
The collection honors James T. Koetting, a Brown music professor of ethnomusicology, who died in 1984. The collection was started during his tenure at the University.
Putting together such a vast collection has its challenges, says Tatian. "Until the late 1980s, it was very difficult getting music," she explains. "Ethnic music is the culture of neighborhoods and villages, and major record companies weren't recording it. `Mom-and-pop' operations in makeshift studios with limited distribution or academics conducting field research were doing the work."
But the rise in global awareness, international cultural exchanges and concerts have created a greater awareness, and artists as different as the City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band and Nigerian pop singer Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe now can find their recordings in collections like the Koetting, in retail stores, in mail-order catalogs and on the Internet. Even so, notes Tatian, "It's still difficult getting music from many remote regions of the world."
A substantial portion of the collection represents the ethnic music of North America, which features such musicians as Mahalia Jackson, Dolly Parton, B. B. King and Los Lobos.
"Gospel, Delta blues and country and western music is included in the archives since these genres have a connection to musical traditions that were passed down from one generation to another," says Sheila Hogg, a senior library specialist who maintains the collection. "Los Lobos, for example, is linked to the music traditions of the Norteno, Spanish-speaking immigrants of the Southwest, and Dolly Parton can trace her musical style to the Irish and English immigrants of Eastern Tennessee."
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African vocal ensemble, the Celtic group The Chieftains and Native American rock 'n' roll guitarist Robbie Robertson are some of the familiar names that can be found on the collection's shelves. But among the most unusual items are the Balinese chants known as the kecak. Performed by a chorus of men, kecak is a highly syncopated call-and-response style that includes clapping and choreography. The chants usually tell stories that reinforce religious beliefs.
The throat games and songs of the Inuit women of Northern Canada are another unusual style found in the collection. The guttural vocal groans and grunts are performed in competition. The winner is the woman who can produce the repetitive sounds for the longest period of time.
The collection is available during the summer from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.