Sound recordings selected for Shakespeare Off the Map 2016, a UK higher education videogame competition organised by the British Library and GameCity.

The winning entry for Shakespeare Off the Map 2016 was The Tempest by Team Quattro (De Montfort University): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lzpEFgpk3Y

Off The Map challenges budding designers to use collections from the British Library as inspiration to create exciting interactive digital media.

Shakespeare Off the Map

Sir John Conant recounts the beginning of his farming career in Rutland in 1949, including the importance of his wife Periwinkle. 
 
Interview with John Conant in 2019, An oral history of farming, land management and conservation in post-war Britain 
 
C1828/10, Track 1 [00:28:21-01:10:24] 
 
Copyright: The British Library Board 

https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-oral-history-of-farming

Sir John Conant Recounts The Beginning Of His Farming Career In Rutland

A group of five Carrion Crows in the trees, before roosting, during a blustery force 6 wind. Recorded in winter at Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire by Richard Margoschis.

British Library reference: 1CD0091587 D2 BD9

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/en/forest-sky-winter-landscape-r%C3%BCgen-584354/

Woodland In Winter

Scottish woodland at dawn recorded by Richard Margoschis. A chorus of several Chaffinches and Wrens singing, a Blackbird and Rooks, Woodpigeons singing, loud Crows and wing whirring from a Pheasant, a distant cockerel and Jackdaws.

British Library reference: 1CD0091587 D1 BD8

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/en/bluebell-wood-flowers-springtime-905626/

Woodland In Late Spring

Babbling brook recorded in Kynance Cove, Cornwall on 1st March 1996 by Paul Duck.

British Library reference: W1CDR0000199 BD11

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/en/water-drop-rain-falling-pouring-275938/

Babbling Brook, Cornwall, England, March 1996

Light rainfall recorded in Amacayacu National Park, Colombia on 1st September 1988 by Richard Ranft.

British Library reference: W1CDR0000524 BD5

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/en/water-priroda-drops-rain-815271/


Light Rainfall, Colombia, September 1988

Morning in an old forest in Gloucestershire at springtime recorded by Richard Margoschis. The shrill notes of a Wren and nasal calls of a Nuthatch, gentle cooings of Woodpigeons, Robin song, a Pheasant crowing and bees humming. Rooks cawing, scolding notes of a Jay, a Blue Tit calling and singing, drumming from a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Also the songs and calls of a Blackbird, Cuckoo, Willow Warbler and Coal Tit.

British Library Reference: 1CD0091587 D1 BD3

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/en/tree-support-tree-moss-forest-log-505041/

Old Forest In Spring

Originally written and recorded as 'Barrett's Privateers' by Stan Rogers

With permission from Fogarty's Cove Records (http://stanrogers.net/)

Performed live and adapted by British Library Writer-in-Residence Rob Sherman and Nick Henderson (http://twitter.com/NickJHenderson) at the British Library, 8th December 2015 

“In the mid-nineteenth century, arguably the brief 'Golden Age' of vernacular organology aboard British ships, Arkwright's Privateers was one of the most popular 'chanteys', or accompanied work-songs, amongst the general maritime population. Though it did encroach upon naval vessels, it was amongst merchant crews and private ventures that it displayed the greatest tenacity; these vessels were often crewed by Midlands men, whose bravery and Romantic fate this song handles. It is also a prime example of the esteem in which sailors from the county of Derbyshire were held, an almost-mythopoeic pedestal from which they have never descended, not even in the present day.

The tune was likely sung on deck to the simple beat of a drum, most often as a 'hand-over-hand chantey', used in the task of setting the jib and other repetitive hauling tasks. The key evidence of this designation is the call-and-response component of each verse's first line, followed by a repeated refrain which keeps a tight rhythm, allowing for methodic application to the task at hand.

Despite its regional appeal, and its reliance on knowledge of mid-English folklore regarding the 'Derbyshire Sailors' and their adventures, versions of it have been recorded by folklorists up and down both littorals of the Atlantic, even as far south as the Antilles.”

Dr. Mark Tollas, from his introduction to 'Hilo, Boys, Hilo: A New History Of The English Ululation'

Learn more about Rob's British Library residency, 'On My Wife's Back' at http://onmywifesback.tumblr.com/ 

Arkwright's Privateers

Where are the current trends in radio and online audio leading? What might radio sound (and look) like on its 2022 centenary? Some leading figures of UK radio come together for a discussion on radio today and tomorrow: Ruth Barnes chairs a panel featuring Matt Deegan (Folder Media/Next Radio conference), Helen Boaden (Director of BBC Radio), Femi Adeyemi (NTS Radio) and journalist/broadcaster Miranda Sawyer. Produced by Rosina Sound & Allanah Chance for the British Library, 16 September 2016.

The Future of Radio

The Copeland-Long restoration of the earliest known recording of computer music, recorded at Alan Turing's Computing Machine Laboratory in Manchester in 1951. Read Copeland and Long's fascinating blog account of the all-night programming session which led to its creation, and Turing's reaction on hearing it the following morning:  http://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2016/09/restoring-the-first-recording-of-computer-music.html

First known recording of computer music, 1951

A short stereo excerpt of a longer 8 channel work. This is a sonic investigation into community and gentrification in the London neighbourhood of Walworth. It has traditionally been a working-class neighbourhood with more recent residents coming from all over the world. The area has been subject to several contentious ‘regeneration’ schemes that have already caused the loss of 1100 socially rented homes of the Heygate Estate.

Elephant Endangered Stereo 1

Cataloging

One of the last Black Country chainmakers, Lucy Woodall, sings the worksong ‘Chainmaker lad is a masher’ and talks about singing. 

Recorded by Roy Palmer in Old Hill, Dudley, West Midlands, England. There was much iron and coal production in this area of England since the 1600s and chainmaking, centered around towns south of Dudley, was a flourishing business, now defunct. Songs like these are documents of our history and heritage. 

The full-length recording from the Traditional music in England collection is on British Library sounds: 
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Traditional-music-in-England/025M-C1023X0040XX-0100V0#

Chainmaker lad is a masher

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries. We hold over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents and 6 million sound recordings. Open to everyone, the Library offers events, temporary exhibitions and a Treasures Gallery that displays over 200 items, including Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible and lyrics by The Beatles.

Old Forest In Spring

The British Library

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