07 February 2012
EAP132 Catalogue Online
Recordings of North Indian Classical Music digitised as part of the EAP132 projecthave been catalogued and can now be searched through the Library's Search Our Catalogue Archives and Manuscripts (SOCAM) pages.
Led by a team from Jadavpur University, the project digitised material from the University and from a number of private collections. The recordings consist of Hindustani and a small number of Carnatic performances: vocal performances of Alap, Dhrupad, Dhammar, Khayal, Thumri, Dadra (and cognate forms) and Ghazal; and instrumental performances upon the sitar, sarod, veena, sarengi, santoor, harmonium, violin, esraj, tabla and pakhawaj. Overall the project digitised 2,700 tracks by 254 performers, resulting in over 1,000 hours of music.
The project team - with the help of performers, experts and collection owners - were able to record detailed information about most of the tracks. Where possible each track description notes the performer and accompaniment, their respective Gharanas, and the raga, rhythm (taal) and composition (bandish) of the track. Authority files were created for each performer, and these were linked to relevant tracks, making it possible to use one search to view all the material associated with an artist across multiple collections.
Using the Advanced Search function in the catalogue allows you to make the most of this detailed metadata. For example, the following search...
... returns 9 results for artists of the Gwailor Gharana playing in raga Kafi and Kafi Kanada.
The material is now available for access via the British Library reading rooms. If you would like more information or to leave feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also log into SOCAM and add your own descriptions to tracks with the tag feature.
Alex