Scottish Studies Archive on Internet

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Maryrrf
Date: 22 Nov 10 - 11:14 AM

Just came across this - I can't wait to get home and browse through the site. Thanks for sharing it!

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 22 Nov 10 - 06:39 AM

Now fully available: see this announcement in The Scotsman and the site itself.

(Brought to my attention by a friend on Skye)
Richard

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: meself
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 10:41 AM

It doesn't work for me (literally). I push 'play', a little box comes up - and nothing happens. Is it only functional on the east side of the Atlantic?

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Vic Smith
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 09:22 AM

Well, well, well!

Vic Smith sings Johnnie Lad -
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/67140/1

Vic Smith sings The Cruel Mother
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/67142/2

Both recorded 37 years ago. I'll have to learn them!

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 08:56 AM

I can't get any of them to play on this machine (a laptop running Windows 2000 Pro with Firefox 2). What's the trick?

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Rozza
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 06:45 AM

There's an interesting account of how Jeannie Robertson was deserted in a London pub by Ewan MaColl and Hugh MacDiarmid at:
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/23498/1

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 06:43 PM

WOW!
What a time sink.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 02:48 AM

I looked in last night and spent an hour and a half listening, what a brilliant resource.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: LadyJean
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 11:18 PM

They ahva a lucky dip that produces a random recording. Fascinating!

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: GUEST,Folkiedave
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 03:54 PM

Not just the School's recording either. But I agree a great resource.

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 12:56 PM

This is a phenomenal resource already, even in its incomplete state!
For example, I searched for Arthur Argo (great-grandson of the collector Gavin Grieg) and 45 items came up. Several were a 16-year-old Arthur singing at a People's Festival Ceilidh in 1952/3?, hosted by Hamish Henderson (and set up as a counterblast to the official Edinburgh Festival, with more political content and ticket prices aimed at greater inclusivity) -- listen to his version of 'Lord Randal' to the tune of 'Villikins and his Dinah'! Sounds unlikely, but it really works because he believes in it.
Then there were tracks which Arthur had recorded from singers such as Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins and his own father, John Argo.
And an 'icing on the cake' moment came when I found 3 tracks of Hamish Henderson, recorded by Arthur in 1960, which must have been very shortly after he had written the song that so many of us regard as the aspirational song for our generation - 'The Freedom Come-all-ye', Hamish sings that song, and 'The Banks of Sicily' (which he wrote after accepting the surrender of Sicily in WW2 and before they moved on for the Allied push into Italy) as well as 'The Baron of Brackley', which has had a special place in my repertoire since about the same date.
And that's the result of only one search!

Subject: RE: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 05:47 AM

Looks like it's going to be a great resource!

Subject: Scottish Studies Archive on Internet
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 05:12 AM

Tobar an Dulachais is a prototype website which has been set up by the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University, to make its sound archive available for public use.

The site is at http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/ and the home page announcement says.

"This website contains thousands of oral recordings recorded in Scotland and further afield, from the 1930s onwards. The items you can listen to include stories, songs, music, poetry and factual information."

It also says that the full version of the site will go live in September, and invites people to report any problems they have with it.

This is the most important development I can remember in folklore archiving in a very long time, and it is to be hoped that anyone interested in Scottish folk tradition will make lavish use of it.