Chase completes typing of CMU. School of Music recordings

Chase Foster recently completed typing the list of 67 boxes of CMU School of Music (SOM) recordings. This is a major accomplishment. 

Back when the SOM was located in Powers Hall, I backed my little blue car to a window and loaded 29 cubic feet of mostly reel-to-reel recordings through the window and into my car and transported them, in multiple trips, to the Clarke in June 1997. I then did a quick box inventory and cataloged the collection. 

Chase with 2 stack sections of the older SOM recordings

The newer SOM building had a Music Resource Center (MRC), where students could listen to various recordings. Two springs ago, after the MRC ceased to exist, I took two students and we boxed and pushed carts of 37 cubic feet of cassettes, CDs, and DVDs of newer recordings to the Clarke. 

Chase with the second deposit, white boxes in two stack sections, of the newer SOM recordings. 

Since the second deposit of recordings is a continuation of the first set, this is archivally considered to be one collection. Because of COVID impacts I have fewer archival processing students now. CMU Main Libraries Acquisition and Metadata Services unit thankfully paid for Chase to type up the entire list. We proofed it together. 

Sometimes we found inconsistencies or inaccurate information on the cases or recording media. A number of the older reel-to-reel tapes have multiple sets of information on them which indicates to us that newer musical events were recorded over prior recording/s, sometimes several times. Most recordings had a program in the reel box or on the back of the CD or DVD case or wrapped around a cassette. Overall the recordings are in good condition. For a number of years someone wrote on cassettes in red ink pen which is now quite faded and difficult to read. 

The recordings include all kinds of annual and one off concerts, galas, student and faculty recitals, master classes, musical events and performances of CMU faculty, students, and various musical groups, as well as guest performers (individual and group) and instructors. One of my favorite recordings was by the Suspicious Cheese Lords, which I've already blogged about, but another was by a man who made music by playing his laptop!  Creativity knows no bounds.

Chase with reel-to-reel tape recordings. 

The SOM stopped making hard copies of recordings in early March 2020 when COVID closed campus at which point it switched to live streaming. So this collection documents the SOM in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Good job Chase! Now I must relabel, update the catalog record, create a finding aid and get it online.