Ark C21

Great music played by great musicians during the last century is in danger of being lost forever because a) various types of media are prone to deterioration; b) many tapes and matrices have been lost by broadcasters and companies as well as being held back doing nothing; c) lack of interest because a generation has passed without knowing what has been missed.
Our ARK initiative is to build a way of saving rare music from the rising tide of ignorance, especially as people cannot know if they like what they have never heard.

The easily accessible database* below is a small sample of just one body of music in process of formal archiving and is therefore a work in progress.
More details will be added and some sound samples will appear in a 'raw' form but we have access to professional remastering although some people reading this might be from institutions that have such equipment. This can have the dual use of saving the music as well as providing course material as there is nothing like working with precious rarities.

Academics and musicians know how urgent the task of conservation and preservation is but material rots while such august organisations as IAML-IASA try very hard to unify sound archives from too many separate places then fall foul of government grants being held up from year to year.

Our approach is to start with archives we have in private ownership and use a database format of the utmost simplicity but in a 'layered' form.
From experience we have found that many database formats put people off because they are difficult to navigate so ours is presented at a simple entry level to locate a composer, work, conductor, soloists etc with just a few notes.
We assume that 'classical' music is not just for who already know a lot and that is why we begin simply on the principle that gaining access to music causes people to want to know more - even if they only first heard a piece on a TV advert or film.

Those wanting more detail subscribe to a pass to Level 2 containing information set at approximately undergraduate level then the higher levels will contain greater scholarship and links with a feedback mechanism to and from users.
These charges are necessary to cover research.

The above is towards our main aim of delivering music to ears just as the composers intended before it is too late subject to standard copyright issues and permissions.

PLEASE HELP US TO BUILD OUR ARK. We need to hear from like-minded people who might help to sponsor us to launch matters but we have structures, machinery and contacts in place and it is waiting to be put to work for musical education.

IF you wish to be in at the start of something important please make initial contact with Stephen Hall by e-mail arkc21@eircom.net or drshall@eircom.net