Florida Atlantic University 78 rpm project

[Joel Bresler <joel.br...>]

Chevre,

I thought the list would like to know about this important work underway at 
the FAU in collecting, cataloging, preserving and disseminating Jewish 
music on 78-rpm recordings. Kindly copy the list on any replies that would 
interest us all, else just contact Mr. Tinanoff off-list at 
<faujewishmusic (at) yahoo(dot)com>

I will kick off the discussion by recapping some of the libraries we've 
mentioned in years gone by as having good collections of Jewish 78s. 
Corrections and additions welcome:

Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA
New York Public Library, NY, NY
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Jakob Michael Collection, Jewish National and University Library, Givat 
Ram, Jerusalem
Judah Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA
YIVO, NY, NY

I've heard that the HUC (Cincinnatti, OH) may have important holdings, too.

For LPs, I'd add in

Felicja Blumental Music Center & Library, Tel Aviv
Freedman Jewish Music Archive at the University of Pennsylvania's Library
Jewish Music Research Centre, also at the JNUL, Givat Ram
Widener Library's Judaica collection, housed at Harvard's Loeb Music Library.

Links and further information on some of these institutions are at 
http://www.jmwc.org/jmwc_libraries.html (Thanks, Judith!!)

Yours,

Joel Bresler

>Dear Friends:
>
>I am a volunteer at FAU and the Project Manager for the FAU Judaica Music
>Project (78-rpm records). I direct a group of 10 volunteers. A local
>cantor collected and donated a large number of Cantorial and Yiddish
>records over the past ten years, forming the core of the collection. Given
>that Southern Florida has the second largest Jewish population in the
>country (and a large concentration of elderly residents) we are
>concentrating on expanding our 78 holdings, including Sephardic material.
>
>Our goal is to index the collection (including normalizing the Yiddish
>song titles according to YIVO's transliteration rules),  clean the records
>physically, digitize the content (both music and high quality label scans)
>and then "clean" the recordings yet again with Sonic Foundry's Noise
>Reduction software. Our eventual goal is to make the music and label scans
>available on the Internet.
>
>I have a copy of YIVO's database of 78-rpm record and am also familiar
>with the Spottswood catalog and the Rigler Deutsch Index. I have added
>some fields to YIVO's original database, e.g., Language, Standardized
>Transliterations, Service, and as I have added our record collection into
>this base, I have corrected any errors that I find for records that we
>have.
>
>I am looking for individuals and institutions with similar collections of
>Jewish music on 78, especially those that would be willing to help us with
>cataloging information, offer  advice, or eventually trade records. (By the
>end of the year I will have a substantial list of duplicate Hebrew and
>Yiddish 78-rpm records for trade, well over 2,000.)
>
>I have also been trying to locate discographies that would provide
>additional information about the records I have, and other research
>information that would help us understand the universe of Hebrew,Yiddish 
>and Sephardic music. (78-rpms only).
>
>I am very appreciative of any help or suggestions you can provide. Please
>reach me at <faujewishmusic (at) yahoo(dot)com>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Nat
>Nathan Tinanoff
>Project Manager
>Judaica Music Project
>Molly S. Fraiberg Judaica Collection
>Florida Atlantic University
>Boca Raton, Florida, USA


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