On Tuesday 13th March the three of us (Clare, Naomi & Moira) had a meeting with Malcolm Taylor from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in Cecil Sharp House in London, home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. We were keen to ask for advice on a number of issues such as funding, the format of the audio files as well as methods of processing the material itself.
The main problem we identified was that we need to get performance release forms signed by individual performers in order to make the recorded material publically available. This means a lengthy process of following up all the contacts in the Folk Trail book and sending off many, many forms. We had originally thought that asking people’s permission verbally and their writing their names in the book was evidence enough of their permission but, as with everything these days, we need a form!
Mr Taylor was able to give us several contacts (including the British Library and the British Institute of Sound Archive) that would be able to offer advice on sound and video editing, as well as details of people who have been involved in processing archives similar to this before.
We were also able to discuss what would be an efficient and effective layout for the archive to be presented in. As yet no software exists which can incorporate both sound files and database information, so a cataloguing framework needs to be constructed for the song ant tune information, relating to the sound and video files on an indexical basis. Hopefully we can create a comparable framework to those already existing, making it easier for people to compare the information from different archives.
There are also still plans in the pipeline for the Folk Trail talk visiting festivals this summer – so keep an eye out for us in the programs!
Were you ever successful in getting permissions?
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