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发表于 2003-1-1 07:36:00
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There is a copper phonograph record floating in outer space. The record contains musical excerpts of Javanese court ,gamelan, Japanese shakuhachi and Bulgarian songs from the Nonesuch Explorer Series. The record, vvhich was shipped into outer space by NASA in 1977 in an aluminum container aboard a Voyager spacecraft is expected to last over a billion years. The real breakthrough for the Explorer Series was not its inclusion in this seemingly-infinite gesture for posterity, but the new standard it set for presenting the globe’s music to American audiences in terms of recording quality, written documentation. repertoire, and even cover artwork. This all at a time when much of this music had not been heard outside of its immediate surroundings.
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The record, which was shipped into outer space by NASA
in 1977 in an aluminum container aboard a Voyager spacecraft
is expected to last over a billion years.
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In 1972, David Lewiston – the producer of over a dozen of the Explorer releases from Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America—told The New York Times, “It’s only recently that it's been feasible to make really decent recordings in the field. In the thirties they would have to take record cutting machines out into the fields and very often the equipment would fail. I take two pairs of microphones. 20 hours of recording tape, camera and film. This with a change of clothes amounts to 70 pounds, much better than the previous 200 pounds people had to carry." Newly available equipment was not the onlv factor that spawned the Explorer Series.
The first of the recordings of the Nonesuch Explorer Series was released on vinyl in 1967. It was a time when Elektra Records had become successful with releases by folksingers Theodore Bikel, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, and Tom Paxton. Elektra founder Jac Holzman started Nonesuch in 1964 to delve into the realm of classical music, licensing works produced in Europe. Teresa Sterne, a classical concert pianist who appeared as a child soloist with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, began as coordinator for the new label. She applied the same high standards she set for classical recordings to the emerging international offshoot. Peter K. Siegel – a young; record producer, engineer. and banjo player who had done field work in Indiana and Kentucky; and had produced several old-time and Irish recordings – was engaged in several production tasks for Nonesuch's International Series. recording licensed from Europe which set the groundwork for the Explorer Series. Siegel had just retumed from the Bahamas where he and fellow musician/producer Jody Stecher recorded Brucie Green. Joseph Spence, and Frederick McQueen.
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"This was occuring at a time when many indigenous cultures
were disappearing or adapting their music rapidly to outside
influences heard on radio and records."
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It was a moment in time when the scholarship of classical recordings had reached a new high point and American musicians were interested in exploring roots music. Sterne and Siegel were aided in the quest for outstanding material by a number of leading ethnomusicologists and field specialists including Paul Berliner, Joe Boyd, Robert E. Brown, Giuseppe Coter, David Fanshawe, Robert Garfias, Peter ten Hoopen, Stephen Jay, Martin Koenig, Ethel Raim, John Storm Roberts, and Laxmi Tewari. Siegel made a conscious effort to combine high quaiity recordings of traditional music with accessible, comprehensive liner notes. Sterne monitored and ensured the quality of the record pressing, packaging, and artwork,
When David Lewiston returned from Bali with Music from the Morning of the World, Sterne felt they were entering uncharted waters and decided to give the series a new name and identity. For the first |
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发表于 2003-1-2 06:53:00
