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The Gramophone Records Museum of Ghana
Ghana's Highlife Music: A Digital Repertoire of Recordings and Pop Art
(Cape Coast, Ghana)
The Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana (GRMRC) was officially launched in 1994. Its goal is to facilitate access to the documents and audio-visual materials of its collection.
The GRMRC houses a unique collection of over 18,000 78 rpm records, 2,500 45 rpm records and several reel-to-reel oral history recordings, all of which were collected in Ghana. The collection is the result of field research conducted by Kwame Sarpong, the Museum Director, over the last thirty years. The core of the collection is the Ghanaian Highlife music records.
Ghana's Highlife Music: A Digital Repertoire of Recordings and Pop Art is based on the GRMRC collection. Through this project, the GRMRC will develop an interactive multimedia program to provide better access to its collection to a larger number of people.
Among the objectives of the project are the development of an interactive research tool based on the records in the collection, the inclusion of textual information, recorded music, and images from record sleeves (1) and labels. It also seeks to make this information accessible to musicologists, musicians, students, researchers, and all those interested in intangible culture via the Internet. In addition, it will create opportunities for young Ghanaian post-graduate students to become involved in a national and international project. Finally, the project will help to preserve the collection by limiting the use and handling of its historic documents.
The first phase of the project, extending from January 2003 to June 2004, involves the selection of 500 disks (1,000 song titles): the digitizing of the songs, labels and selected album sleeves, and the writing of discographies and biographies of artists and groups. Integrating information technologies into the database will provide access to archival material that would otherwise be difficult in the context of Ghana and West Africa.
In addition to supporting the project financially, the Foundation was involved in purchasing-with the help of the Audio Conservator of the National Library of Canada (Music Division)-the audio and conservation equipment for the Museum, and in coordinating the trip to Ghana by the Audio Conservator, whose services were lent by the Library in order to instruct the GRMRC staff on the use of the equipment, and on the processes involved in digitizing sound and images.
The result of this documentation and conservation project is now available here.
The GRMRC houses a unique collection of over 18,000 78 rpm records, 2,500 45 rpm records and several reel-to-reel oral history recordings, all of which were collected in Ghana. The collection is the result of field research conducted by Kwame Sarpong, the Museum Director, over the last thirty years. The core of the collection is the Ghanaian Highlife music records.
Ghana's Highlife Music: A Digital Repertoire of Recordings and Pop Art is based on the GRMRC collection. Through this project, the GRMRC will develop an interactive multimedia program to provide better access to its collection to a larger number of people.
Among the objectives of the project are the development of an interactive research tool based on the records in the collection, the inclusion of textual information, recorded music, and images from record sleeves (1) and labels. It also seeks to make this information accessible to musicologists, musicians, students, researchers, and all those interested in intangible culture via the Internet. In addition, it will create opportunities for young Ghanaian post-graduate students to become involved in a national and international project. Finally, the project will help to preserve the collection by limiting the use and handling of its historic documents.
The first phase of the project, extending from January 2003 to June 2004, involves the selection of 500 disks (1,000 song titles): the digitizing of the songs, labels and selected album sleeves, and the writing of discographies and biographies of artists and groups. Integrating information technologies into the database will provide access to archival material that would otherwise be difficult in the context of Ghana and West Africa.
In addition to supporting the project financially, the Foundation was involved in purchasing-with the help of the Audio Conservator of the National Library of Canada (Music Division)-the audio and conservation equipment for the Museum, and in coordinating the trip to Ghana by the Audio Conservator, whose services were lent by the Library in order to instruct the GRMRC staff on the use of the equipment, and on the processes involved in digitizing sound and images.
The result of this documentation and conservation project is now available here.
Dominique Fontaine © 2003 rev. 2014 FDL
(1) "The recording companies and Highlife music groups promoted the sales of their recordings using colourful record sleeves, which became very popular as a form of pop art over the years. The graphic art was closely related to the style of the musical era, and was also used as social criticism. The music sleeves were to become popular collectible items." This information originates from the proposal submitted to the Foundation.
