The José Maceda Collection and its digitisation

José Maceda (1917–2004), composer, ethnomusicologist and National Artist of the Philippines, was the pioneer of ethnomusicological research in the Philippines and South East Asia. From the 1950s onward, he systematically recorded traditional music in the region, thereby building up a collection of sound documents comprising around 2,000 hours of recordings on reel to reel tapes and cassettes. This collection is the main holding of the University of the Philippines (UP) Center for Ethnomusicology, founded in 1997 by José Maceda himself. Due to its universal significance, the collection was inscribed on the International Register of the Memory of the World Programme in 2007.

As a result, the José Maceda Collection was able to generate an initial allocation from the Philippine government to start the implementation of its long-standing plan to rehabilitate and digitise the sound archive, which has reached the end of its analogue lifespan and is in an endangered state of deterioration. In view of the international importance of the collection and its inherent instability, mainly due to the prevailing adverse climatic conditions, the Phonogrammarchiv has decided to use the Jikji Prize money to contribute to the safeguarding of this collection. Since the prize money of USD 30,000 would not have covered the entire costs of safeguarding the collection, UP succeeded in raising additional funds sufficient to secure the entire digitisation process, including the commitment from UP to take care of the further maintenance of the archival and access files of the collection after digitisation.

On the basis of a memorandum of understanding between the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of the Philippines, the Phonogrammarchiv became consultant in the digitisation project, assuming responsibility for the acquisition/adaptation of second-hand analogue playback equipment and the technical training of Filipino sound engineers David Guadalupe and Mark Laccay in Vienna.

The official start of the project took place in mid-October, on the occasion of Laón-Laón 2008, the annual meeting of experts from music research centres throughout Asia, attended by representatives from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and various archive and library institutions in the Philippines. The meeting finished with a workshop conducted by Dietrich Schüller and the Filipino digitisation team.

The team in Manila will keep in touch with the Phonogrammarchiv, so that in the event of unforeseen problems solutions can be found quickly and interactively (if necessary through on-the-spot support by Vienna specialists).

Training the Filipino sound engineers David Guadalupe and Mark Laccay in the Phonogrammarchiv:

Calibrating analogue tape machines

Discussion with Nadja Wallaszkovits

Workshop on the occasion of Laón-Laón 2008, October, Manila

Dodi Lucas, head of the digitisation team

Workshop Dietrich Schüller