1987 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL: METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AUDIO LOG SHEETS

About the Project

Audio documentation has played a crucial part in capturing the many stories, performances, exchanges, and demonstrations that have taken place on the National Mall as part of the Festival of American Folklife (now Smithsonian Folklife Festival). For each program, documentation volunteers generated detailed "class style" notes to accompany audio recordings which often include presenter and participant names, subject keywords, song titles, and brief descriptions of the events taking place in real time. These notes are often the richest (or only) source of information about who was present and provide key references for understanding and interpreting the recorded content. While the styles, formats, and spelling accuracy vary across logs, they nevertheless serve as fundamental link between what actually took place and what is documented in audio, photo, and, video formats. The 1987 program gave special emphasis to music among Washington's communities. People mark what they feel is distinctive and valuable through the use of music, frequently accompanied by dance and ritual. For instance, various Asian communities of Washington have maintained some of the seasonal ceremonies of their homelands, such as Lao or Chinese New Year's celebrations. In this urban milieu Hispanic, Caribbean, and African musicians constantly create new urban performance forms by drawing fragments from known repertoires and styles and transforming them into new expressions through the use of new harmonies, updated texts, and changes in tempo, rhythmic configurations, or performance style. More information about the program including participant names can be found here: https://sova.si.edu/details/CFCH.SFF.1987#ref26

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Completed!

Project Progress (details)
213 pages completed
Difficulty
4 out of 5
(details)

94

Contributing
members

213

Total
pages