Early Recording Cultures in Spain, 1880-1905: Towards a Transnational History

The current project seeks to produce the first critical account of the early history of phonography in Spain, from1880 to 1905; in doing so, it aims to set the foundations of a transnational, context-sensitive understanding of the early history of musical recordings, fully integrating both local specificities and issues of national identity, memory, affection, mobility, modernity and others. The project addresses the research questions: How was the reception of early recording technologies in Spain informed by local practices and cultural specificities? What can we learn from the study of such practices and specificities to build the foundations of a transnational history of phonography which integrates context-specific developments with broader trends?
Even though the last decade has seen a surge of interest in early recordings as both documents of performance and cultural artefacts, the present project is relevant and necessary because most such studies have focused on industrially and technologically advanced countries fully integrated into the trade networks which made it possible for artefacts and discourses to circulate (the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany). Similarly, central to many such studies are repertoires regarded as central in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century musical canon (e.g. the Austro-Germanic symphony; Lieder; opera, etc.). This geographical and cultural focus tends to be implicit rather than explicitly acknowledged; what the current study aims to do is to bring to the forefront local practices, repertoires and attitudes to technologies in order to fully explain the early impact of recording technologies on listening and cultural practices at a global level and set the foundations for a transnational history of recorded music.
The research questions will be answered through interrogation of a number of audio-visual and textual primary sources: original recordings; their boxes, labels and other packaging; newspaper and magazine articles focusing on specific events or artefacts, or on the phenomenon of phonography more generally; photographs of phonographs or of events having to do with recorded music; advertisements, catalogues and commercial documents (commercial correspondence, etc.) of recording studios; passages from memoirs and private letters on the subject of recorded music; books from the period 1880-1905 about the contemporaneous developments in recorded music and on science, technology and understandings of modernity.
The results of the research will reach academic and non-academic beneficiaries through the following channels:
-A monograph and two articles in highly rated-journals, as well as at least two conference presentations.
-A symposium bringing together for the first time scholars of early recording in individual countries as well as archivists/librarians working with early recordings. Follow-up activities include a special issue of a journal.
-A Digital Humanities project, Stories of Early Phonography, presenting the results from the project under the form of an interactive map and fostering reflection among researchers, archivists/librarians, expert users and the general public about how narratives of early recorded music have been and are constructed, and the role of cultural specificities in both.
-A public engagement event at the Spanish Song and Zarzuela Festival in London consisting of a roundtable academic experts on Spanish music and representatives for institutions focusing on the promotion of Spanish music and culture abroad. The roundtable will discuss the challenges of promoting Spanish culture abroad and develop innovative ideas to do so will be brought up, with a view to developing at least some of them in future editions of the festival.

The project's impact strands fall under three main themes:
-Cultural awareness is central to the topic itself and the collaborative and dissemination activities: the project's main aim is to open up avenues for transnational perspectives to field of study which has thus far focused on a limited number of countries; and it is a project about Spain to be carried out at a British university and disseminated mostly in English-language venues to participants from outside the UK. It therefore constitutes a unique opportunity to encourage historical reflection on cultural awareness, its past and present relevance, and the role of academic research and collaboration in driving it forward.
-Curating historical sounds has gained in significance within the Digital Humanities in the last few years. The expert use I and other participants in the project will make of already available resources, alongside other sources, will inform conversations about how to improve access to early recordings as rich, context-sensitive artefacts, as well as problematize the boundaries between curation of resources and the formulation of research questions based on said resources (Dix et al., 2014).
-The main primary sources of the projects are documents of musical performance. Such documents have an obvious impact outside academia as resources for the performer or performance teacher; the project aims to increase such impact through appropriate contextualization and digital visualization of data pertaining to repertoires which are little-known outside Spain.
The main beneficiaries are as follows:
-Institutions dedicated to disseminating Spanish language and culture abroad, such as Instituto Cervantes and ILAMS (Iberian and Latin American Music Society), with which I have collaborated since 2014 as a member of the organizing committee of the Spanish Song and Zarzuela Festival.
-Public and private libraries and archives hosting collections of early recordings, both in Spain and elsewhere.
-Singers and students of singing, especially those interested in Spanish repertoires.
-The general public, particularly individuals interested in Spanish culture from a transcultural point of view (e.g. learners of Spanish, expatriates).
The following milestones will been put in place to ensure a) that impact activities are informed by previous research work, as well as having the potential to inform future research work; b) that relationships with beneficiaries are built progressively and followed up on:

Month 5:
The Early Recording Technologies in Context symposium will allow reflection from both archivists/librarians and researchers on the topic of Curating historical sounds. Seminar-style sessions on the relationship between curation and research of historical recordings will result in a list of guidelines and recommendations for future practice.

Month 11:
Stories of Early Phonography will be launched online and promoted among existing contacts (Instituto Cervantes, ILAMS, libraries and archives in Spain, the UK and beyond, performers, conservatoires, the general public).

Month 13:
Two events at the Spanish Art Song and Zarzuela Festival will address the themes of Cultural awareness and Documents of musical performance/Curating historical sound, respectively. The first event will bring together in a roundtable academic experts on Spanish music and representatives for institutions focusing on the promotion of Spanish music and culture abroad. The challenges of promoting Spanish culture abroad will be discussed and innovative ideas to do so will be brought up, with a view to developing at least some of them in future editions of the festival.
The second event will be a lecture-recital in which Stories of Early Phonography will be presented. The event will draw on the festival's ties with the Guildhall School of Music in London, and an effort will be made to promote it among singers and conservatoire students, and the general public