Monash breaks ground in traditional musical arts preservation

About 200 items of traditional musical arts in Sumatra recorded over 40 years of fieldwork have been digitised for preservation and made accessible online through the Monash University’s ARROW Repository.

The collection captures 150 hours of recording by Professor Margaret Kartomi of the School of Music–Conservatorium made possible through two research grants from the Australian Research Council.

A specialist on the ethnomusicology of Indonesia and Southeast Asia and the world authority on the music of Sumatra, Ms Kartomi aimed to preserve traditional music that was slowly dying in these parts of the world by travelling and recording them.

The original recordings were in magnetic tape formats, including reel-to-reel, cassette and digital audio tapes. The digitisation was a collaborative undertaking involving the research team, the Library and the ARROW Repository, the Monash Large Research Data Store (LaRDS) and Music Australia.

The addition of the Kartomi collection into the ARROW Repository is an important milestone in the expansion of the repository’s digital content comprising open access research publications, digital theses and an expanding range of photographs, music film, and research data.

Cathrine Harboe-Ree, Monash University Librarian, has called the launch of the digitised collection a triumph for the University and the Library. “It honours Margaret’s work and it reaffirms the value of the repository in preserving and making scholarly material available to a wide audience,” she said.

The collection was recently launched at Monash University’s Clayton campus by Ms Kartomi and a few staff members of the Faculty of Arts and the Library. In her speech Ms Kartomi thanked Bronia Kornhauser, research officer and music archivist of the Conservatorium, and the ARROW Repository team. She also acknowledged her husband, Hidris Kartomi, who was recording technician, photographer and interpreter during her fieldwork in Indonesia.

The Kartomi Collection of Traditional Musical Arts in Sumatra can be accessed through the ARROW Repository and Music Australia.

28 April 2009

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A photograph included in the new collection shows the canang seureukeh, a wooden xylophone traditionally played by Acehnese women

Photograph: Hidris Kartomi, 1982