RTA Music Archive | 2018

The aim of the project funded by the Federal Foreign Office is to preserve the Music archive of Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) in Kabul. 

The cooperation between the Afghanistan Music Research Centre (AMRC) and Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), which has been in place since the "Safar" project (2012–2016), aims to open up, make accessible and secure the still existing largest and culturally very valuable collection of RTA from the heyday of Afghan music for science and research. 

Securing and digitising the music archive 

Systematically archiving and making available the few collections that still exist offers the Afghan population access to aspects of their own identity that have been a central part of their cultural memory for generations. Archival projects can become an important pillar of a civil society. They represent an important cultural heritage of Afghanistan, which is, however, always at risk due to the security situation in Afghanistan.

Digitisation and metadata capture

In 2016, the FRANZ LISZT Weimar University of Music and the RTA broadcaster signed a Memorandum of Understanding on archival cooperation. The AMRC supports the RTA partners in digitising and capturing the metadata of the music archive's records, which are subsequently made accessible for research and scholarship on the DISMARC database (DIScovering Music ARChives). One of the project goals in 2018 was the optimisation and refinement of the metadata table for the RTA Music Archive to an international standard (based on the "Dublin Core Extended").

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Sponsors: Federal Foreign Office and Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Kabul
Partner: Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), Kabul (Afghanistan)
Supporters: see listing

GUZO | 2015–2016

The aim of the "GUZO" project, which is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, is to document Ethiopia's historical musical traditions and bring them into dialogue with the present.

GUZO

Together with one of Africa's best-known jazz pianists, the Ethiopian Samuel Yirga from Addis Ababa, the team of the Chair on Transcultural Music Studies went in search of the origins of an ancient music rich in tonal diversity in 2015 and 2016. Musicians and music researchers were accompanied by filmmaker Dirk van den Berg (Rome/Berlin). Yirga calls his life project "GUZO" (journey), a journey that will take musicians, music researchers and filmmakers through a breathtaking country with three climate zones and an altitude gradient of 5000 metres.

:::Film Cultural Preservation Worldwide: "GUZO" The Roots of Ethiopian Music::: (Project presentation Federal Foreign Office)

GUZO North

"GUZO North – The Origins of Music in Ethiopia: Gondar Region" is part of the overall "GUZO" project jointly developed by the contractual partners. In addition to the engagement with selected music masters and the cooperation with the Department of Culture of the University Bahir Dar, one focus was on the film documentation of the most important Timket (Epiphania) festival, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The scientific-artistic film documentation of the historical musical traditions of Ethiopia was made within the framework of the cultural preservation of East Africa. In the film "GUZO North", the team of international musicologists (Prof. Dr Tiago de Oliveira Pinto, Dr Getie Gelaye und Dr Timkehet Teffera) meets Azmari, Ethiopian "troubadours" in the Amhara region, who musically convey sometimes highly political content off the cuff, and experience the orthodox epiphany festival "Timket" in the old imperial city of Gondar.  

Sponsor: Federal Foreign Office
Partner: University Bahir Dar, Bahir Dar (Ethiopia)

:::More on the Cultural Preservation Programme of the Federal Foreign Office:::