Launching the British Music Collection at the University of Huddersfield

Sound and Music and the University of Huddersfield are delighted to announce a new, permanent home for the 20^th and 21^st century scores and recordings of the former BMIC Collection.

Now called the British Music Collection, this unique resource with over 30,000 scores will from November 2011 be located at the Music Library of the University of Huddersfield, where it will become publicly accessible in January 2012, housed within a specially-designed unit.

 The Collection (called the BMIC Collection before the creation of Sound and Music in 2009) is a remarkable resource consisting of scores, recordings and background material from the UK. Most of it relates to post-1960 and contemporary work, but it also encompasses materials stretching back to 1900.

It contains both published and unpublished works, including many pieces that are out of print or hard to obtain. High-profile composers, such as Britten, Tippett, Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies, Cardew, Harvey, Weir, MacMillan, Turnage and Adès, are featured alongside currently-emerging composers and many less well-known or unjustly neglected creators whose work deserves rediscovery.

Sound and Music and the University of Huddersfield will work in partnership to develop the British Music Collection, both to develop the digital resource and to acquire new materials for both the physical and online archives. The organisations will be planning the development of the Collection in more detail, including the creation of a policy on new physical and digital accessions, and there will be further announcements on this over the coming months.

Guy Morley, Interim Managing Director of Sound and Music, writes:

“The British Music Collection is an important resource for anyone interested in 20^th and 21^st century music in the UK. It’s a place for performers to find new repertoire and for academics, composers, students and anyone interested to discover the remarkably rich musical heritage of this country. We are delighted to have formed a partnership with the University of Huddersfield which will see the Collection not only become accessible and located at the heart of the UK’s contemporary music scene, through the connection with hcmf//, but also be a living and breathing resource to be jointly developed in the years to come.”

The composer Professor Monty Adkins, of the University of Huddersfield, writes:

“The Music Department at the University of Huddersfield has an established international reputation in contemporary music. As such, we are extremely proud to be able to enter into a collaboration with Sound and Music to house the British Music Collection at the University. The agreement will see the digitisation of the archive and so enable a global audience for this unique resource. The collaboration exemplifies the University of Huddersfield's ethos to provide access to education and resources to the widest possible community and to inspire people to understand and investigate this country’s great heritage. The work of the BMIC in providing a collection point for new British scores will continue. We have the ambition to expand this work by supplementing it with composer videos and interviews as well as developing further online resources. Sound and Music and the University of Huddersfield aspire to provide the most comprehensive 'living' archive of British Music for the 21st century.”

You can browse and search the content of the British Music Collection on the Sound and Music website here: www.soundandmusic.org/thecollection. We will be developing the online resource over the coming years.

Notes:

Sound and Music promotes fresh and challenging new music and sound through a range of live events, learning projects and digital content. Its focus is growing the stature and appreciation of contemporary music, and its significant scale enables it to make a major impact on public perceptions. www.soundandmusic.org

The University of Huddersfield has deep roots in educational initiatives of the early nineteenth century, designed to serve the needs of local industry and culture. Today it has more than 23,000 students and its music department has a very high reputation, especially in the field of contemporary music, with three-quarters of its research ranked as internationally excellent, and ten per cent classed as world-leading. The University has always maintained a close connection with the world-famous Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – indeed it is home to the CMF’s archive. The University’s Music Library has been granted an Excellence Award by the International Association of Music Libraries. www.hud.ac.uk