The first commercial recordings of music in Aden (1935-1960) and their “digital patrimonialization”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15034711 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jean Lambert (0000-0001-9159-6126, corresponding author), Rafik al-Akouri |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Pages | 137-163 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Égypte/Monde arabe (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1110-5097 • E-ISSN: 2090-7273 |
| Publisher | OpenEdition (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4000/ema.13191 |
| OpenAlex | W3111276701 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The first commercial recordings of Yemeni music were made in Aden in the late 1930’s during the British colonial period. These 78 rpm records were first published by a foreign company, Odeon, then by several local companies, including Aden Crown, Jafferphon and Tahaphone. Thus, all the urban musical traditions of Yemen, San‘ânî, Lahjî, Hadramî, etc., were quickly recognized and disseminated throughout the country between 1935 and 1960. Consequently, to do the history of these records requires to make the history of the recording companies, and to understand how the Yemenite music was for the first time involved in a global market involving also European actors. These first recordings are estimated to be several thousand discs, but they are still very little known. It is difficult to establish a chronology, since the various documents available are rarely dated. Therefore, this research must try to patiently reconstruct a chronology, to delimit ranges of dates, periods and temporal correlations in an approximate way. As our first materials which were available in the Yemen Musical Heritage Centre are now endangered, it is time to archive them through a digital data base. At the same time, the current “wild patrimonialization” of this music on the Web, realized by many private actors, allows an easy access to many copies of these sound recordings on mainstream platforms, in particular YouTube. This represents a huge step forward for the inventory process, allowing the development of a sound database that can be shared by several researchers and institutions. It is from this first database that this article attempts to make a synthesis. But from the point of view of conservation, since this very random form of storage on the Web is not sustainable, it leaves the question of long-term conservation entirely intact
Archaeology · Art · Chronology · Geography · Mainstream · Musical · Political science · Visual arts · Archaeological Research and Protection · Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
| Highly cited | No |
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