Parallel Anthology
Background
The project takes as its starting point the 1952 release of artist, filmmaker and musicologist Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. The legendary album was a key influence for the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s and is subsequently enshrined in popular music mythology. The anthology was a compilation bringing together a selection of Smith’s personal collection of 78rpm records from the 1920s and 1930s. As such, it was effectively a bootleg and operated under the legal radar until it was digitised, re-mastered and fully licensed by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 1997.
The recordings featured on the anthology are from the beginnings of the record industry, a time which saw the establishment of a system that fixed collectively-authored folk lyrics and melodies to individual authors in an attempt to profit from controlling the flow of this previously fluid cultural material. Many of the songs featured on the anthology originate from the English folk tradition – passed on from one generation to the next while lyrics and melodies mutated as they travelled across the globe.
The Parallel Anthology project aims to collect together alternative versions of these folk songs – to collect, publish and distribute recordings, lyrics and music whose proprietary interests have expired, along with contemporary versions and remixes of the material collected. A body of research has already been undertaken: alternative public domain recordings, lyrics and music score collected. A number of remix and cover versions have already been recorded at project launch events at ArtSpace Sydney and at The Whitechapel Gallery by Meem, Leafcutter John, Karen Gwyer, Lucky Dragons, Beatrice Dillon and Patten.
Parallel Anthology explores processes of sharing and participation which persist from the peer-to-peer oral folk tradition to today’s digital social networking technologies. The project re-envisages Smith’s anthology as a series of nodes in a larger network and employs a kind of sonic virology – tracing songs across spatial and temporal distances. A parallel collection is proposed: a new collectively authored multimedia roots and future anthology, generating and distributing rich material that remains open for use and reuse.
Audio
Karen Gwyer - Uncle Rat Went Out To Ride 8.4Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
Leafcutter John - Our Goodman 7.1Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
Leafcutter John - No Sir 9.1Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
patten recordings coming soon . . .
Live sound engineering by Richard Johnson
Downloads
Uncle Rat Went Out To Ride (The Frog And The Mouse)
sung by Elizabeth Cronin
Recorded 7 August 1948 County Cork, Ireland
Our Goodman
sung by Thomas Moran
Recorded december 1954 Mohill Leitrim, Ireland
The Devil (The Farmer’s Curst wife)
sung by Jimmy White
Recorded 9 june 1954 Whittingham, Northumberland, England
The Cuckoo
sung by Bill Westaway
Recorded 26 may 1952 Belstone Devon, England
What Shall I Wear To The Wedding John?
sung by Aunt Fanny Rumble/Albert Collins
Recorded 6 October 1954 Tilshead, Wiltshire, England
No Sir (Oh No John!)
sung by Emily Bishop
Recorded 13 October 1952 Bromsberrow Heath, Herefordshire, England
Parallel Anthology events
Friday 30 July 2010, 8pm
Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX
Live Parallel Anthology sets by:
Leafcutter John, patten, Karen Gwyer
Superdeluxe@Artspace
The Gunnery Building
43–51 Cowper Wharf Road
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
Sydney Australia
with Meem
Saturday, 15 May 2010
7.30 pm – 12 am
FREE
Images
photos by Sally Mumby-Croft
Source Files
Uncle Rat Went Out To Ride (The Frog And The Mouse) 2.2Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Elizabeth Cronin
Recorded 7 August 1948 County Cork, Ireland
Our Goodman 3.1Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Thomas Moran
Recorded december 1954 Mohill Leitrim, Ireland
The Devil (The Farmer’s Curst wife) 3.8Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Jimmy White
Recorded 9 june 1954 Whittingham, Northumberland, England
The Cuckoo 1.6Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Bill Westaway
Recorded 26 may 1952 Belstone Devon, England
What Shall I Wear To The Wedding John? 4.8Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Aunt Fanny Rumble/Albert Collins
Recorded 6 October 1954 Tilshead, Wiltshire, England
No Sir (Oh No John!) 3.4Mb MP3 (right-click/ctrl+click to download)
sung by Emily Bishop
Recorded 13 October 1952 Bromsberrow Heath, Herefordshire, England
full res audio files available soon (email infoATopenmusicarchiveDOTorg for more info)
Video
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Lyrics
Credits
Parallel Anthology project was launched on the occasion of the 17th Biennale of Sydney
Researcher: Matthew White
Thanks: James Smith, Rebecca Page, Meem, Alyssa Moxley, Leafcutter John,patten, Karen Gwyer, Richard Johnson, Lucky Dragons
Recordings gleaned from BBC gramophone collection: 11989, 17794, 18678, 20606, 21493, 22029
Parallel Anthology CD duplication made possible through MIRIAD: Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design.
