NAADSAAGAR ARCHIVES

“An Ocean of Music”

 

Our involvement in the production of an international feature documentary film (which is currently being edited in London) with the working title of ‘Maestros of India’ rekindled our passion for doing something substantive towards preserving and propagating the cultural treasures of South Asia. Upon reviewing the existing archives in the region, we found that although some of them have very significant collections, accessibility of the material is an issue with all of them unfortunately. We felt the answer was to establish a truly digital archive, which, by definition, shall be accessible to everyone on the Internet.

We found that apart from connoisseurs, collectors and researchers, artists have significant untapped and non-commercial collections of their music on audio cassettes and other analog storage media. Therefore, if we offer them a high quality gratis digitisation service, most would be willing to donate their music to the archives. With this in mind we researched the various digitisation methods and equipment, and found that the optimal method was a portable solution. This is to say that all the equipment required for such an endeavour could be carried to an artist’s home, as they are usually reluctant to see their invaluable recordings leave their possession. We have since purchased professional portable cassette players and a digital recorder, both manufactured by a company called Marantz (an industry standard). We then put the equipment to test and have successfully digitised a complete collection of 20 audio cassettes containing the repertoire of yesteryear Agra gharana vocalist Pandit K. G. Ginde. This successful trial verified the digitisation method that we had chosen. Apart from recorded music, we would also collect any and all other memorabilia, such as photographs, diaries, notes, letters, instruments and other such personal belongings of the artists which have significant value as cultural items.

 

Apart from collecting these items for the archives, we also felt that we could make a significant contribution by extensively documenting as many artists as possible. There would be two main types of documentation. Firstly, we would make a high quality professional audio recording of the complete repertoire of the artist in a recording studio. This would be beneficial because the complete repertoire of an artist is always significantly larger than her/his commercially recorded repertoire and would thus be valuable reference material for the propagation of tradition. Secondly, we would make a high quality professional video recording of detailed conversations covering not only the artists’ music but also their life history narratives. This would go towards piecing together a social and cultural history which has escaped attention by the mainstream scholarship on issues related to these fields. We envisage offering monetary remuneration for these recordings to the artists who participate in such thorough documentation work.

 

Focusing on dissemination, we hope to release recordings from the archives on a regular basis ensuring that over 75% of the proceeds go to the artists or their legal heirs. We have taken a head start on this front having released a recording of senior dhrupad exponent Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Khan Dagar (available from www.underscorerecords.com) which was culled out of his private archives. The second one will be that of senior khayal exponent Pandit Yeshwantbua Joshi.

 

We visualize a wide range of users for the material which will be generated out of this process. Potential users will be musicians, students of music, musicology, ethnomusicology, folklore, linguistics, oral history, sociology, anthropology, aesthetics, social and cultural history, connoisseurs, film makers etc. As is evident, these diverse groups of people will be spread all over the world and will be able to avail of the material through the Internet.

Registered in Delhi under Society's Registration Act XXI of 1860.

Registration Number S/64685/2009.