Towards the Feasibility of Instituting a Philippine Digital Audio Library: A Case Study

Abstract

As a spearhead force in music research, especially in the area of South East Asia region, the University of the Philippines (UP) Center for Ethnomusicology (UPCE) caters to a gigantic collection of audio materials which covers different musics and musical traditions in the Philippines, South East Asia and representative areas from other continents. As an outcome of its former appellation, the “UP Ethnomusicology Archives”, UPCE hosts an ethnomusicological collection of about 2500 hours of recorded music in open reel and cassette tape formats, under the authorship of Jose Maceda whose visionary work of putting together these valuable recorded materials left a treasure for ethnomusicology scholarship and research. In recognition of his influential contribution that made the UCPE an archive and repository of materials on music, philosophy, anthropology and other cognate disciplines, these audio materials, together with field notes, music transcriptions, song texts, photographs, music instruments, music compositions, personal files, about 200 books and journals, all of which he personally initiated and developed as a unified institution resource for music research are called “Jose Maceda Collection”.