Course Syllabus and On-Line Resource Links
Spring 2011
HISTORY 404 / DOC. STUDIES 404 / HISTORY 604
Prof. Gerald Zahavi
Dept. of History, University at Albany-SUNY
Classroom: SS 145
Course Schedule: Tues. 4:40-6:40
Office: Social Sciences 060R
Phone: 518-442-5427
Office Hrs: M 10-12 AM; Tu 1:30-3:30 PM
and by appointment
E-mail: zahavi@albany.edu
COURSE INTRODUCTION:
AURAL HISTORY AND HISTORICAL AUDIO DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course introduces students to 1) the historical study of sound, soundscapes, and sound recordings, 2) aural history composition techniques (especially radio documentaries and features, but also aural essays and museum audio installations), and 3) audio delivery technologies to communicate historical ideas to broad audiences. It includes coverage of textual and archival audio source research, 20th and 21st century historical radio documentary work, analysis of audio documentary forms and non-fiction storytelling techniques, scriptwriting, technical instruction in the art of audio recording and post-production editing and mixing, discussion of audio preservation and restoration techniques, and an introduction to traditional and modern technologies for the transmission and dissemination of documentary and related audio work.
Be prepared to do a lot of listening in this course -- in class and out! Our range of study will be broad; students will learn the full spectrum of skills needed to complete historical audio documentaries and features -- both theory and practice. We will explore the various formats and styles of aural composition work, giving plenty of attention to the aesthetic and technical aspects of production. This course is one of the core courses in both the History Department's MA curriculum in History and Media and in the interdisciplinary undergraduate Documentary Studies Program.
Along with several assignments and projects -- including media research, recording, interviewing, editing, and short production assignments -- students will be expected to write a script and produce a well-researched audio documentary over the course of the semester, one that would be worthy of being aired on radio (and hopefully will be).
GRADING:
Grades will be based on: 1) Class participation: 20%. Includes on-line Blackboard blog postings.
2) Projects and short writing assignments: 40%.
3) Final audio documentary: 40%.Should include script (fully footnoted and with a bibliography) and recording of the final production. Your audio documentary should be submitted either on a CD or a flash drive. Make sure you submit your production in an uncompressed audio format (no low bitrate MP3s!!! I will elaborate on this in class).
* Graduate students are expected to produce a 22-30 minute audio documentary as their final project;
* Undergraduates are expected to produce a shorter piece -- a 14-18 minute production.
* NOTE: Do not overuse music as a "filler;" this is a common lazy practice employed by neophyte producers -- and in practice it can be quite expensive since you have to pay for music rights if you distribute your productions commercially.. Please type all writing assignments and submit them electronically as attachments (WORD or WORDPERFECT files are acceptable; if you use a different word processor, speak to me first about producing WORD-readable output). No paper submissions!!
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
The following statement of policy is required by the University at Albany: It is assumed that your intellectual labor is your own. If there is any evidence of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, the minimum penalty will be an automatic failing grade for that piece of work. Plagiarism is taking (which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one’s own work. If another person’s work is quoted directly in a formal paper, this must be indicated with quotation marks and a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas are to be identified by proper citations.
READINGS AND RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
NOTE: All reading, listening, and viewing assignment for each class are listed under the individual class date. Most will be drawn from the below books, articles, and on-line sites. Only one book is required for purchase:
John Biewen, Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
Make sure to complete all assignments by the time we meet. All assigned readings, sound files, and video will be made available to class members through direct links from the various Blackboard pages and on the course electronic reserve site (usually listed by last name of author.USE THE FOLLOWING PASSWORD TO ACCESS THE ELECTRONIC RESERVE SITE FOR THE COURSE: "radiodoc"; please let me know if you have any problems accessing resources on that site.
Articles, chapters, and additional readings are available on the World Wide Web or on electronic reserve or on Blackboard. Some items, due to copyright/fair use restrictions are ONLY available to enrolled class members on electronic reserve or Blacboard. Selective assignments will be made from the following texts/resources. More details on access to these readings will be provided in class.
Audio: The Movie (Tracer Technologies, 2006). [DVD].
Durand R. Begault, The Sonic CD-ROM for Desktop Audio Production (Academic Press, Inc., 1996). [CD]
Horst J. P. Bergmeir & Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing (Yale University Press, 1997). [Includes audio CD].
Howard Blue, Words at War: World War II era radio drama and the postwar broadcasting industry blacklist. (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2002).
Michael Bull and Les Beck, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (New York, 2003).
Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside, Martin Thom, trans. (New York, 1998).
Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination . . . from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern (Times Books, 1999). Selections (available on electronic reserve.)
Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America (Sage Publications, 1996).
Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity (Oxford, 2004).
Handbook for the URN Advanced Radio Journalism Course in Political Reporting (Parts 1-3):
Michele Hilmes and Jason Lovigilio, eds., Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (Routledge, 2002).
Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America (Baltimore, 2003).
Jonathan Kern, Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008) [a newer version and much revised version of the above, by a different author].
Richard Cullen Rath, "Hearing American History," Journal of American History vol. 95, no. 2 (September 2008).
Richard Cullen Rath, How Early America Sounded (Ithaca, 2003).
David E. Reese and Lynne S. Gross, Radio Production Worktext, 3rd edition ((Focal Press, 1998).
Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992).
R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design (New York, 1977).
Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (New York, 1995).
Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill, 2001).
Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004).
Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition (National Federation of Community Broadcasters, 1989).
Linda Wertheimer, Ed., Listening to America: 25 Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on National Public Radio (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995).
Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech (Boston, 2005).
AUDIO:
Audio files are available either through our closed audio reserve page on Blackboard, or directly on the Internet as MP3 or RealMedia files. Most of you probably already have software capable of playing RealMedia and MP3 files installed on your computers, but they may be older versions that are incompatible with the present encoding. It's fairly easy and free to upgrade your older versions! For RealMedia files, click here and select "Free Real Player" to obtain RealPlayer software: real.com.
Please note that our course's Blackboard site is a CLOSED site, available only to enrolled students in this course.
VIDEO:
Several videos/films may be put on reserve at the library; others will be available on a closed server on campus, accessible only through our class Blackboard site. Still others may be placed on a password-accessible video viewing workstations at the History Department computer lab. Passwords will be announced in class.
WEB SITES:
Talking History: Aural History Productions. Based at the University at Albany, a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Its weekly radio show is broadcast over the air and via the internet. Contributing and consulting producers include: David Cohen (New Jersey Historical Commission), Dan Collison (On the Job Productions), Curtis Fox (The Past Present), Charles Hardy (West Chester University), David Isay (Sound Portraits), George King, James David Moran (The History Show), Joe Richman, George Liston Seay (Dialogue), and many more.
AUDIODOCUMENTARY.ORG: "Audiodocumentary.org is a first-of-its-kind guide to free radio and audio documentary content on the web. There are thousands of great audio stories available for free but many of the sites are not well known. And even great mainstream stories can get lost in the shuffle. This website strives to be part of a curatorial effort for all that great content. Basically we bring you links to stuff that we think is interesting and which might otherwise fly below the radar - that great piece from NPR, that unknown Podcast, or any other audio documentary content we want to bring to people's attention."
Joe Richman's Radio Diaries Web Site. Description from the Web site: "Radio Diaries, Inc. is committed to producing a new kind of oral history. We work with people to document their own lives for public radio; teenagers, the elderly, workers, prison inmates and people in the forgotten corners of America. Our mission is to find extraordinary stories in ordinary places, and preserve these voices for generations to come."
Transom.org [http://www.transom.org]. An outstanding radio production resource site, administered by Atlantic Public Media [http://www.atlantic.org], a non-profit organization, founded by Jay Allison. Based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it is devoted to serving "public broadcasting through training and mentorship, and through support for creative and experimental approaches to program production and distribution."
The Audio Dimensions of History: A Bibliography and Guide to Audio and Textual Guide to Audio and Textual Sources on Historical Documentary Production for Radio, General Radio Production Techniques, and related Topics and Resources. [This document is not quite up-to-date but will be updated soon. Students and others are encouraged to recommend additions to the list. The bibliography is intended to be a resource for scholars, students, and the general public.]
AIROS: American Indian Radio on Satellite. A radio distribution service created to "inform, educate and encourage the awareness of tribal histories, cultures, languages, opportunities and aspirations through the fullest participation of American Indians and Alaska Natives in creating and employing all forms of educational and public telecommunications programs and services, thereby supporting tribal sovereignty."
Current. The on-line version of Current, a biweekly newspaper that covers news about U.S. public TV and radio.
Soundprint. Homesite of a major documentary production center.
American Radio Works. A major producer of public radio documentaries: "AMERICAN RADIOWORKS is public radio's largest documentary production unit. American RadioWorks creates documentaries, series projects, and investigative reports for the public radio system and the Internet. ARW is based at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul and also has staff journalists based in Washington and New York."
Battery Radio <http://www.batteryradio.com/>. Battery Radio, headed by award-winning Chris Brookes, is an audio production company specializing in radio documentary features. Their work has been aired by stations around the world. Their studios are located in St. John's, Newfoundland (near the birthplace of radio).
David Isay's Sound Portraits WWW Home Site. Examples of excellent documentary production work; see also the quick guide to documentary production available at that site.
Documentary Sound. [http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/documentary.htm]. Looking for specific sounds for a documentary? This Web site may help you find it. It's "a partial discography and guide to resources for documentary sound (son verite, field recordings, etc). These are things like recordings of the sounds heard at specific locations (beaches and forests, junkyards, highways), of animals/insects, of certain processes, etc."
Lost and Found Sound. "Lost and Found Sound: An American Record is a collection of richly layered stories—evocative and haunting—that chronicle, reflect and celebrate the changing century-that mark the turn in sound. A special series designed to air on public radio throughout 1999 and into the year 2000."
http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=20785]. This is Panos London's magazine audio portal, "reporting on development issues that are often neglected by mainstream media." The programs come from a "global team of local journalists we seek out the views of people on the edges of society and offer you fresh perspectives."
This American Life. One of the best and most original shows on public/non-commercial radio. Features long-form and short-form documentaries and much, much more. Some history pieces, but mainly contemporary subjects.
Third Coast International Audio Festival. [http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/]. "The Third Coast International Audio Festival is a celebration of the best feature and documentary work heard worldwide on the radio and the Internet. Organized by a team based at Chicago Public Radio, the festival includes a competition, nationwide broadcast, conference, website and Chicago-based listening series, making it the first of its kind in North America. The Third Coast Festival (TCIAF) was designed to bring extraordinary and format-breaking radio to broader audiences, drawing listeners to radio's powerful ability to document the world we live in. Our mission is to enrich the opportunities available to veteran and rookie producers who are working to perpetuate this craft in fresh and vital ways."
Listening Between the Lines [http://www.listeningbetweenthelines.org/]. Alan Lipke, Senior Producer/Project Director. Produces an ongoing series which "explores roots of and remedies for what may be America's most powerful and lasting predicament: the racial divide resulting from the longest, bloodiest, most successful campaign of domestic terrorism and propaganda in U.S. history. It highlights the historic (and heroic) role of minorities in fighting for democratic values and justice nationwide."
Race With History / Creative Change Productions [http://www.racewithistory.org/]. "The Race With History project seeks oral histories, music, dance, poetry and all forms of cultural expression that can help tell the untold stories of people whose roots are in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and all parts of the globe. Many such stories remain to be told, discussed, turned over in our minds for their meaning, like cave drawings or trail maps of broken twigs, like moss on the side of a tree or the drinking gourd in the sky." Creator and Producer: Alan Lipke; Executive Producer and Managing Editor: Jude Thilman.
Broadcasting History Links (from Elizabeth McLeod).
"There's a lot of information available on the World Wide Web for those interested in the history of radio and television-- the programs, the personalities, the networks and the stations. Much of it is useful -- but there's also a lot of misinformation out there! The purpose of this site is to sift thru the mass of material found on-line and suggest some of the most worthwhile resources for the serious student of broadcasting history."
Although we have a few recorders you can borrow, you are strongly encouraged to purchase a digital recorder for this course in order to make sure that you will have access to one when you need it; you will also need to budget a small amount of money for inexpensive recording media (SD cards, CDs), a cable or two, and a small microphone stand for our flash recorders (we don't have many). I will have more to say about all of this when we meet. Before you buy, consult me! There is an awful lot of junk out there inappropriate for the quality recording I expect of you, You can purchase pro-level equipment through local vendors or through professional audio suppliers such as B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio Corp [www.bhphotovideo.com], BSW [http://www.bswusa.com], Bradley Broadcast [http://www.bradleybroadcast.com], Sweetwater [http://www.sweetwater.com], and Full Compass [http://www.fullcompass.com]). E-Bay is a good source of used equipment, though there are many other used equipment and auction sites now on the Internet.
Various software options are available to students for computer-based digital audio editing. We will utilize mainly Audacity -- a free program available for PC and Mac users (you can obtain it at: audacity.sourceforge.net) -- and Adobe Audition in class. However, some of you might already be familiar with Pro Tools or other digital audio editing programs. Feel free to use whatever is most easily accessible to you and with which you are most comfortable. Our labs our equipped with both MACs and PCs and have Audacity, Pro Tools, Audition, Sound Forge, and Vegas software. You can obtain information or purchase software at the following sites (as well as through third party vendors--some of whom offer educational discounts):
Please note: because of the large number of resources used in this course and posted and linked to this syllabus, I will be making changes constantly -- correcting dead or incorrect links, adding materials to recommended listings, posting additional links to audio and video materials. I'll be making announcements of my changes periodically. Please work from the on-line document and not from a printed version of it, which will not reflect my ongoing revisions. Links to items on our closed server -- video and audio programs -- will be active ONLY within our Blackboard course site and not through the open on-line syllabus.
Class 1 (Tuesday, January 25):
An Introduction to Aural History, Aural Composition Work, and Audio Documentaries
Readings/Listenings/Viewings -- in class; review later:
Michael
Rabiger, Directing the Documentary, (Boston: Focal Press, 1998), pp. 3-9. A superb guide to
film and video documentary production, and much of what
Rabiger writes is equally applicable to audio documentaries (occasionally substitute the word "microphone" for "camera" in your mind occasionally as you read). Available
on electronic reserve. Read it after we meet; I'll be referring
to it in the introductory class. [On electronic
reserve].
Audio tours: From Bridge to Boardwalk (selections from a regional aural tour of Maryland's eastern shore).
[Text and audio available on our Blackboard site.]
As a preview to next week's class, we'll listen and discuss parts of this production:"Shadows on Sparks Street: A tale of a Canadian Political Assasination" (2009).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 32:07
PART 2: Real Media. MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 21:32
Producer Sarah Boothroyd (and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) are behind this aural exploration of one of the most famous crimes and trials in Canadian history: "140 years ago one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation was gunned down just a few blocks from Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Thomas D’Arcy McGee remains the only Canadian federal politician ever to be assassinated. He has been called “Canada’s JFK” – a charismatic politician, poet, and journalist, shot on the doorstep to his rooming house on Sparks Street. He was killed six days before his 43rd birthday, and left behind a wife, a brother, and a 10-year-old daughter. This is the story of Canada’s first political assassination – one that happened less than a year after the new Dominion of Canada was formed – and one that many think led to the wrongful conviction and execution of Patrick James Whelan, an Irish tailor. Shadows on Sparks Street by Sarah Boothroyd explores this mystery, drawing on various archival materials as well as the expertise of historians David Wilson and David Shanahan, as well as lawyer Lawrence Greenspon." For more information on the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee and on this production, go to: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/shadows-on-sparks-street/.
Class 2 (Tuesday, February 1):
Researching and Reconstructing the Sonic Past Before the Era of
Sound Recording ~ Theory and Practice
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Martha Ballard's Diary (January 1, 1785 to May 12, 1812): http://dohistory.org/ [sample the diary; no need to read the entire manuscript].
Michael Bull and Les Beck, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (New York, 2003), Part II: "Histories of Sound" [essays by Alain Corbin, Bruce R. Smith, Mark M. Smith, and Karin Biijsterveld; pp. 115-189]. [On electronic reserve~ listed under "Bull, Michael].
A Midwife's Tale (DVD. Produced by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and directed by Richard P. Rogers, 1997). [ Film available on closed reserve on Blackboard site][CLICK TO VIEW "A MIDWIFE'S TALE"] Pay attention to the use of sound in the film.
R. Murray Schafer, "Soundscapes and Earwitnesses" (from Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004), originally in The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (Rochester, 1994) [On electronic reserve.]
"The Maypole at Merrymount (1999)." <Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:30.
Here's a historical documentary from Mary Borten, from the series "A Sense of Place." The piece focuses on the conflict between two 17th century North American colonial antagonists: "In their own words, Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony and adventurer Thomas Morton tell the story of a clash that destroyed one man and symbolized fateful differences that determined our attitudes toward Native Americans and the ultimate course of the nation. This long-forgotten conflict between the Pilgrim Fathers and a freethinking fur trader resonates with today's moral concerns. Marvelous voices, the men's own vivid narrative and evocative music make this footnote to history as fresh as tomorrow."
Hark! The Acoustic World of Elizabethan England." 2008.
PART 1: <Real Media. MP3 unavailable by request of producers. Time: 29:47
PART 2: <Real Media. MP3 unavailable by request of producers. Time: 22:38
This 52-minute feature, originally recorded and produced in 2008 by Chris Brookes, Paolo Pietropaolo, and Alan Hall, with additional recording by Katie Birningham, and was inspired by historian Bruce R. Smith's The Acoustic World of Early Modern England (University of Chicago Press, 1999). The documentary won the 2009 Prix Marulic Prize for best documentary as well as a Gold Medal for Best Sound at the 2009 New York Festivals Awards for Radio Programming. It is an excellent introduction to the new historical sub-field of "Aural History." Our thanks to the producers for permission to provide on-line access to their production for our listeners.
Recommended:
Curtis Fox's "America's Reconstruction." " 28.8| 56. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, examines the Era of Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, looking closely at the radical transformation of race relations during that period. Leonard Lopate talks with historian Eric Foner; archival recordings of African-American spirituals and actor readings of freedpeople testimonies inform and enlarge their conversation.
"The History Show: 1775." From the American Antiquarian Society, produced by Damora Productions. Written, Directed, and Produced by James David Moran.
Good Friday, 1865: Lincoln's Last Day." RealMedia| MP3. In this dramatic radio play, reconstructing the last day of Abraham Lincoln's life, "the character of a country, and its President, are revealed -- as a traumatic war winds down, and eerie events presage Abraham Lincoln's own end. Produced before a live audience at The Museum of Television and Radio (Paley Center for Media) in New York, this original audio docudrama by producer Craig Wichman is the recipient of a National Audio Theatre BEST SCRIPT "GRAND PRIZE." Mr. Wichman plays the 16th President, and Katie Nutt is Mary Todd Lincoln, in a cast that includes John O. Donnell, Emma Palzere, Vito LaBella, Derek Lively, Dan Renkin, Bernadette Fiorella, and John Prave. Directed by Jay Stern (Independent Feature, THE CHANGELING); Music by TONY AWARD-winning Composer Mark Hollmann, with Kathy McDonald and Darren Wilkes; Sound Effects by Sue Zizza and David Shinn (Sue Media); Engineering by Dominick Barbera, with John Kiehl (Soundtrack NY.)"
You Are There! radio series. This series, which began on July 7, 1947 and ran through March 19, 1950 on CBS radio, took listeners into the past by having newscasters John Daly, Don Hollenbeck, and Richard C. Hottelet virtually place themselves in the midst of major historical events and "report" on them. The series included ninety episodes, though not all have survived.
The following two readings will be used in class in discussions of sonic reconstructions of pre-recording era events and communities:
(1) Donald S. Johnson, Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson (New York, 1993), chapter 4. [On electronic reserve]
(2) Henry David Thoreau, "Sounds" chapter in Walden (1854): http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/WALDEN/hdt04.html. You can also listen to an "audiobook" version of chapter 4 and all of Walden at LibriVox: http://librivox.org/walden-by-henry-david-thoreau/.
Richard Cullen Rath, "Hearing American History," Journal of American History vol. 95, no. 2 (September 2008).
Richard Cullen Rath. "Acoustics and Social Order in Early America" in Hearing History: A Reader, edited by Mark M. Smith (University of Georgia Press, 2004). [On electronic reserve]
Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill, 2001).
Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004).
Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America (Baltimore, 2003).
R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design (New York, 1977).
Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (New York, 1995).
Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech (Boston, 2005).
AUDIO TRACKS FROM CD ACCOMPANYING THIS BOOK: http://www.beacon.org/soundsofslavery/
Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity (Oxford, 2004).
Richard Cullen Rath, How Early America Sounded (Ithaca, 2003.
Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside, Martin Thom, trans. (New York, 1998).
Peter A. Coates, "The Srange Stillness of the Past: Toward an Environmental History of Sound and Noise,"
vol. 10, no. 4 Environmental History (2005).
The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). Founded in 1993, this organization "is an international association of affiliated organisations and individuals, who share a common concern with the state of the world soundscape as an ecologically balanced entity." Individuals dedicated to preserving the world's sounds. Go to: http://wfae.net/
Class 3 (Monday, February 8): Researching and Reconstructing the Sonic Past ~ From the 1880s till the 1950s / Introduction to Sound Recording and Recording Technologies, I
Chapter 20 ("Documentary and Feature Programmes") in Robert McLeish, Radio Production: A Manual for Broadcasters (Focal Press, 1999).[On electronic reserve.]
A. William Bluem, Documentary in American Television (New York, 1965), 60-72 ("Radio: The Forgotten Art"). [On electronic reserve.]
Lawrence Lichty and Thomas W. Bohn, "Radio's 'March of Time': Dramatized News," Journalism Quarterly 51 (Autumn 1974): 458-62, reprinted in American Broadcasting, eds. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping (New York, 1975). [On electronic reserve.]
Edward R. Murrow, "'Orchestrated Hell' and 'Buchenwald'," in American Broadcasting, eds. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping (New York, 1975).[On electronic reserve.]
Searching for Virginia Woolf: S. N. Clarke, "Virginia Woolf's Broadcasts and Her Recorded Voice," Virginia Woolf Bulletin, no. 4 (May 2000). Available locally -- see bottom of page for link. [Here's a link to the only surviving recording of Woolf:
Stern, Jonathan, "Preserving Sound in Modern America," in Mark M. Smith, ed., Hearing History: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2004). [On electronic reserve.]
Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition, pp. 27-87 (read quickly and don't get lost in the details; I'll go over the key points in class). [On electronic reserve.]
Edward R. Murrow. Edward R. Murrow broadcasts, including one from Buchenwald. Originally aired April 15, 1945. Listen to the Buchenwald selection.
Real Media | MP3. Time: 3:48. Alexander Kerensky, head of the provisional government in Russia just before the Russian Revolution of October (Nov.) 1917, recalls the events of those years in this short excerpt from a Ladies of the Press interview conducted with him in 1963 . For a short on-line bio of Kerensky, see: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSkerensky.htm.
Sample a couple of programs from Destination Freedom, available at: http://www.archive.org/details/DestinationFreedom. Destination Freedom was a half-hour show focusing on African American history and culture that was broadcast in Chicago radio station WMAQ back in 1948-1950. For an episode log of the series, see: http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logd1001.htm.
"Freedom's People, 1941-42 (Opening Broadcast: Music)." Real Media | MP3. Time: 29:08. "Freedom's People" (1941-42), an 8-part series produced by the Federal Radio Education Committee in the U.S. Office of Education and broadcast over the NBC network, was the first major radio series focusing on African-American life, culture, and history. [NOTES: The stated goal of Freedom's People, was to "promote national unity and better race relations." The brainchild of Dr. Ambrose Caliver, a specialist in Negro education within the Department of Education, the program enlisted a wide variety of African American intellectuals, musicians, and actors -- including E. Franklin Frazier, Sterling A. Brown, Joe Louis, A. Philip Randolph, Fats Waller, Jesse Owens, Cab Calloway, Josh White, and Paul Robeson. This is the first broadcast in the series, aired in September of 1941. The series included all of the following segments: "Music" (Sept. 21, 1941); "Science and Discover" (October 19, 1941); "Sports" (November 23, 1941); "Military Service" (December 21, 1941); "The Negro Worker" (January 18, 1942); "The Education of the Negro" (February 15, 1942); "Creative Art" (March 15, 1942); "The Negro and Christian Democracy" (April 19, 1942). For more information on the incredible career of Dr. Caliver and his contributions to black radio and black education, and for more specific information on "Freedom's People" see: chapter 2 of William Barlow, Voice over: The Making of Black Radio (Temple Univ. Press, 1998); Walter Daniel, Ambrose Caliver: Adult Educator and Civil Servant (Syracuse University, 1966); and Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1999). For information on this particular recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Additional recordings of "Freedom's People" have survived in various archives. There are a number at the Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress as well as in the National Archives].
Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), 1-16, 246-270.[On electronic reserve.]You can also listen to some segments of the programs New World A'Coming (1944-57), Destination Freedom (1948-50), and other anti-Jim Crow radio series at: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/jim_crow/newworld.html and at some of the above links.
Recommended:
Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination . . . from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern (Times Books, 1999), pp. 3-39. [On electronic reserve.]
Bruce Lenthall, "Critical Reception: Public Intellectuals Decry Depression-era Radio, Mass Culture, and Modern America," in Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio, Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (New York: Routledge, 2002), 41-62. [On electronic reserve.]
Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933 (MIT Press, 2004).
Save Our Sounds. Produced by The History Channel. Focuses on Smithsonian/Library of Congress initiative to preserve sonic treasures in our national archives. [CLICK TO VIEW "SAVE OUR SOUNDS]
"Songs from General Electric's Association Island" (circa 1930s). Real Media.| MP3. Time: 4:25. Association Island is situated just off the coast of the northeastern edge of Lake Ontario in New York State near the outlet of the Great Lakes and the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. From 1907 until the mid-1950s it served as a summer retreat and conference center for managers and engineers from the National Electric Lamp Company and later the General Electric Company (GE), the National's corporate parent. The Island is perhaps more widely familiar to avid modern fiction readers as the satirized "Meadows" in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). In Vonnegut's novel the "flat, grassy island" located on the St. Lawrence River, was a corporate playground that also served as a rite-of-passage to status and power within a technocratic dystopia. There, in Vonnegut's fictional realm-as in real life-managers and engineers, all male, "spent a week each summer in an orgy of morale building." Through "team athletics, group sings, bonfires and skyrockets, bawdy entertainment, free whiskey and cigars; and through plays, put on by professional actors, which pleasantly but unmistakably made clear the nature of good deportment within the system, and the shape of firm resolves for the challenging year ahead," the Island worked "its magic" on its temporary inhabitants, helping to forge a male-centered brotherhood of managers. Yet, ironically, Association Island in 1952, when Player Piano was published, was entering the final years of usefulness to the corporation. Soon, a new corporate structure and ethos emerged and swept away the seemingly quaint fraternalism of the serene Island. In 1959, the company turned the Island over to the YMCA. The two songs featured in this selection, come from the GE archival collection of the Hall of History, at the Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY. I digitized it for the Museum some years ago, in an attempt to preserve these very rare recordings of the "Island Chorus," recordings of songs that reflect the culture of the Island during its heyday. For more information about Association Island, see: http://www.elfun.org/history/history.asp. For the post-GE fate of Association Island, see http://www.airvresort.com/History.htm
The Hindenberg Tragedy Real Media. | MP3. Time: 2:39.
On May 7, 1937, the German zeppelin, the Hindenburg, landed at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. As it was landing, it exploded into flames. Of the 106 people on board, only 62 survived. This very famous spontaneous and emotive account of the explosion and fire that destroyed the Hindenburg was made by Herbert Morrison, an American radio reporter, and his audio engineer, Charlie Nehlsen. Both were working for Chicago station WLS at the time and were experimenting with delayed broadcast on-the-spot recording (at the time, networks eschewed the use of recorded material). It wasn't until after World War II that Morrison and Nehlsen's technique became widely adopted by news broadcasters. For more information on the Hindenberg broadcast, see: http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/hindenburg.html.
Alan Lomax, "Mister Ledford and the TVA" (Radio script, Library of Congress production, 1941). Source: Erik Barnouw, Radio Drama in Action: Twenty-Five Plays of a Changing World (New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1945. [On electronic reserve.]
This is Our Enemy: Nazi Youth." 1942.Real Media | MP3. Time: 27:17. This recording is part of over 1,000 radio broadcasts made between 1941-46 concerning the war effort on the US home front. "This is Our Enemy" was one of several series produced by the Office of War Information in collaboration with WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting Network (these included "Soldiers of Production," "Three-Thirds of a Nation," "Neighborhood Call," "Hasten the Day," "Victory Front" and several others). It featured dramatic and personal stories about America's enemies during World War II. In this episode, #55 of the series, "a young boy leaves his family [in occupied Europe] to study in Germany and while there, is converted to a Hitlerite. He returns home, a changed person, and problems develop between" the son and his father. The young man's loyalty to Nazism leads to his betrayal of his father's friends and ultimately to the father's murder of his own son. Starring Frank Gallup, Frank Lovejoy, Bill Lipton, Charlotte Holland, Ed Latimer, Stephen Schnabel, Danny Leone. Written by Dorothea Lewis and produced and directed by Frank Telford. Special Commentary by Van Cleve. For more information on this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, Maryland.
"Hear It Now" radio series. Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly created this CBS radio series in 1950. It ran through 1951, bringing listeners historical aural recreations and narratives about historical events from 1932-1949. For selections from this series, go to http://www.archive.org/details/hearitnow.
Morton, David. Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America (New Jersey, 2000) (selection). [On electronic reserve.]
Horst J. P. Bergmeir & Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing (Yale University Press, 1997), chapters 1 & 5 [Ch 1: "The Making of the German Ministry of Propaganda" / ch2: "Propaganda Swing"]. [On electronic reserve.] Selections from the CD will be played in class.
Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began (New York, 1993). Read the preface and ch.1. [On electronic reserve.]
Erika Brady, A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 1-9; 52-88. [On electronic reserve.]
David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000), ch. 2 ("The End of the Canned Music' Debate in American Broadcasting"). [On electronic reserve.]
Durand R. Begault, The Sonic CD-ROM for Desktop Audio Production (Academic Press, Inc., 1996). [CD]
Audio: The Movie (Tracer Technologies, 2006). [DVD].
Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis. From the introduction: "The American Folklore Society and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress collaborated on a conference, Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis, held on December 1–2, 2000, and gathered experts to formulate recommendations for the preservation and access of America's folk heritage sound collections. They were supported in their work by the Council on Library and Information Resources, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities. This report represents the collected expertise, experience, and wisdom of the participants and proposes a strategy for addressing this crisis in a collaborative way."
Class 4 (February 15): Researching
and Reconstructing the Sonic Past ~ From the 1950s to the
Present / Introduction to Sound Recording and Recording Technologies, II
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Stephen Smith, “What the Hell is a Radio Documentary,” and other selections from the Nieman Reports (Fall 2001). 8 pp. [On electronic
reserve.]
Check out some of the "From the Archives" segments -- especially the truly archival audio segments and not the readings of historical documents -- on Talking
History [www.talkinghistory.org].
Edward R. Murrow, "The Case for the Flying Saucers," (1950). Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:57.
The modern UFO era emerged following World War II and is generally dated to June 24, 1947, when businessman Kenneth Arnold sighted a formation of very bright objects in the sky while flying over the Cascade mountains in Washington. Edward R. Murrow interviewed Arnold and others in this CBS radio special report, titled "The Case for the Flying Saucers." Utilizing interviews, actors, historical reconstructions, and narration, this documentary, hosted by Murrow and heard nationwide on the evening of April 7, 1950, explores the growing phenomenon of UFO sightings and reflects the growing public attention and concern during the Cold War era with flying saucers in general. [For more information on this audio, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. This particular recording came from Record Group 330: Records of the U.S. Department of Defense].
Deborah Amos' Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown (1981) Father
Cares. From NPR's description of this documentary:
"On November 18, 1978, 913 men, women, and children --followers
of cult leader Jim Jones -- died during a mass suicide and murder
in Jonestown, Guyana. In the months preceding the tragedy, Jim
Jones and his People’s Temple followers recorded their thoughts,
their problems and their aspirations. The hundreds of hours of
audio tape form the basis of the NPR documentary Father Cares:
The Last of Jonestown. Airing in 1981, the documentary was written
by James Reston, Jr and Noah Adams, and produced by Deborah Amos.
Based on the tapes Reston acquired under the Freedom of Information
Act, the documentary won most major broadcast awards including
the Dupont Col umbia Award, the National Headliner Award and the
Prix Italia." This is a long documentary. Listen to at least the first fifteen minutes or so, and then sample the rest. You can listen to one of the tapes -- the infamous "Death Tape" (11-18-1978) here: Real Media. MP3. Time: 44:30. The tape contains some of the final moments of the mass suicide/murder.
Linda Wertheimer, Ed., Listening to America: 25 Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on National Public Radio (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995), pp. xi-xxiii, 70-81, 116-119, 124-128, 240-244, 340-343, 414-417. [On electronic
reserve.]
"Songs from General Electric's Association Island" (circa 1930s). Real Media.| MP3. Time: 4:25.
Association Island is situated just off the coast of the northeastern edge of Lake Ontario in New York State near the outlet of the Great Lakes and the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. From 1907 until the mid-1950s it served as a summer retreat and conference center for managers and engineers from the National Electric Lamp Company and later the General Electric Company (GE), the National's corporate parent. The Island is perhaps more widely familiar to avid modern fiction readers as the satirized "Meadows" in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). In Vonnegut's novel the "flat, grassy island" located on the St. Lawrence River, was a corporate playground that also served as a rite-of-passage to status and power within a technocratic dystopia. There, in Vonnegut's fictional realm-as in real life-managers and engineers, all male, "spent a week each summer in an orgy of morale building." Through "team athletics, group sings, bonfires and skyrockets, bawdy entertainment, free whiskey and cigars; and through plays, put on by professional actors, which pleasantly but unmistakably made clear the nature of good deportment within the system, and the shape of firm resolves for the challenging year ahead," the Island worked "its magic" on its temporary inhabitants, helping to forge a male-centered brotherhood of managers. Yet, ironically, Association Island in 1952, when Player Piano was published, was entering the final years of usefulness to the corporation. Soon, a new corporate structure and ethos emerged and swept away the seemingly quaint fraternalism of the serene Island. In 1959, the company turned the Island over to the YMCA.
The two songs featured in this selection, come from the GE archival collection of the Hall of History, at the Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY. I digitized it for the Museum some years ago, in an attempt to preserve these very rare recordings of the "Island Chorus," recordings of songs that reflect the culture of the Island during its heyday. For more information about Association Island, see: http://www.elfun.org/history/history.asp. For the post-GE fate of Association Island, see http://www.airvresort.com/History.htm
Listen to and read script of David Isay's "Sunshine Hotel." Be ready to discuss the following in class: research, story structure, sound elements, transitions, and more.
Recording from On-Line Sources: A Short Guide. These instructions are for Windows XP. The most universal way of recording from on-line sources is to simply record onto a digital recorder via a cable, being careful to avoid over-modulation. Generally a stereo mini-to-mini plug will work with most laptops and small digital recorders. The latter are generally equipped with "line-in" or "mic in" (or both) jacks. Start by setting the playback volume on your computer VERY LOW and slowly bring it up to the level that produces the cleanest and least distorted recording. Generally, the playback headphone jacks on computers are very "hot" so you need to compensate for this by setting the playback volume very low.
My thanks
to Dale Willman and NPR for making the following NPR programs available
to the class. We may revisit these later in the semester, as
well:
* NPR's Morning Edition. "Will Rodgers" segment
from first show, 1971. [On electronic
reserve.]
* NPR's Morning Edition. "Apocalypse Now" selection
from first show, 1971. [On electronic
reserve.]
* NPR's Morning Edition ("Graffiti" selection
from the first show, 1971. [On electronic
reserve.]
Inventing the Poster Child: This show explores how
the disability charity business was built and how people with
disabilities are working to change it. It is part of a four-part
series on the history of society's attitudes toward the disabled
and the emergence of a disability civil rights movement. The
homepage for the project contains audio excerpts as well as
primary source documents used in the productions: The
Disability History Project.
Charles Hardy III, "Recording Oral Histories: Field Recording
Equipment and Its Use." (Draft, 1998) [available on [On electronic
reserve.]
Richard Kilborn and John Izod, An Introduction to Television
Documentary: Confronting Reality, ch. 3 ("Shaping the Real:
Modes of Documentary"). While this is not about radio or radio
documentaries, many of the documentary modes discussed have
parallels to aural documentary production. [On electronic
reserve.] [WE WILL REVISIT THIS]
Huber, David Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, chapter 2 ("Sound and Hearing" (pp. 33-66). [On electronic
reserve.]
Huber, David Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, chapter 4 ("Microphones") pp. 115-185. [On electronic
reserve.]
Project/Assignment: Identify at least
three specific archival/heritage audio you might want to use
in a documentary on any one of the following hypothetical subjects. Feel free to narrow the topic as you please).
Search through the various databases at your disposal -- on-line (see the below section for some suggestions), in our library, or at the New York State library downtown.
Discuss your source, recording media, copyright/access restrictions,
quality of the audio (if you have access to the recordings or
if such information is available from the archive)--and speculate
on how you would use the segments. Prepare ONE short sound element
and submit it along with your discussion of the three
selections.
1) The Death Penalty in 19th and 20th Century America
2) The Presidency of Warren Harding
3) World War I
4) The Spanish American War
5) The Music of __________ (find any musician/performer from the 1880s throught the late 1940s)
6)
World War II
7) The Origins of the Cold War
8)
The Atomic Bomb
9) Juvenile Delinquency in the Early 20th Century
10)
The Great Depression and the New Deal
11) Romantic Love in 20th Century America: A History
12) The Blues and Early Civil Rights History
13) American Prisoners of War
14) The Rise and Fall of American Labor
15) A Radio History of the FBI
16) American Socialism
17)
The Conservative Sixties: A Revisionist Look at a Not-So-Turbulent
Decade
18) American Immigration History
19) A History of American Environmentalism
20) Women's Rights: A Radio History
21) Race and Racism in Early 20th Century America
Rodgers
and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. "The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound
of the New York Public Library is one of the richest resources
of recorded sound in the world. The aural landscape that helps
define a community, a country, or a cultural era can be studied
through the Archives extraordinary holdings, which cover virtually
every aspect of recorded sound--from Mozart to Maria Callas to
Motown, from symphonic works to presidential speeches, from radio
dramas to television specials." The Archives contains approximately
500,000 recordings and more than 10,000 printed items. See: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/rha/rha.html
Library
of Congress Sound Collections ~ SONIC Search Engine.
The Library of Congress Recorded Sound Collection contains over
2.5 million audio recordings in a variety of physical formats.
The collection includes radio broadcasts, spoken word recordings,
as well as vocal and instrumental music. Through SONIC you can
access a sizable portion--though not all--of the library's holdings.
Association
for Recorded Sound Collections. "Founded in 1966,
the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a non-profit
organization dedicated to research, study, publication, and information
exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound."
It "provides a forum for the development and dissemination of
discographic information in all fields and periods of recording
and in all sound media. In addition, ARSC works to encourage the
preservation of historical recordings, to promote the exchange
and dissemination of research and information about them, and
to foster an increased awareness of the importance of recorded
sound as part of any cultural heritage."
The National
Gallary of the Spoken Word. When completed, this
site will offer researchers a fully searchable online database
of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century. The project
is just beginning.
Indiana
University Archives of Traditional Music [http://http://www.indiana.edu/~libarchm/].
This "is the largest university-based ethnographic sound archives
in the United States. Its holdings cover a wide range of cultural
and geographical areas, and include commercial and field recordings
of vocal and instrumental music, folktales, interviews, and oral
history, as well as videotapes, photographs, and manuscripts.
As a research and teaching facility, the Archives serves a wide
community of scholars, students, musicians and teachers---on campus
and throughout the world."
Radio
Archive of the University of Memphis. A catalog
of thousands of radio programs broadcast since the 1920s. The
collection is housed in the Microforms Department of the McWherter
Library at the University of Memphis. Copies of audio tapes can
be obtained at very low cost. An incredible resource for documentarians.
The
G. Robert Vincent Voice Library. An excellent source
of both on-line and original audio. From the Web site: "The Vincent
Voice Library contains over 1100 collections of spoken word audio
recordings. Each collection is described by an online finding
aid that contains information about the collection in general,
and provides a description of and access information for each
recording. In total, there are close to 10,000 individual recordings
described. All the recordings are available for listening in the
Vincent Voice Library. . . . We are currently in the process of
digitizing all the recordings. As material becomes digitized and
copyright restrictions permitting, recordings will become available
on the Web through the links found in the finding aids."
http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/tutorial/dpm/index.html. Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies
for Long-Term Problems. An excellent introduction to some of the
central issues in digital media preservation.
Pacifica Radio Archives and Library. Search their archives
of more than 50,000 recordings.: Pacifica
Radio Archives Guide
Class 5 (Tuesday,
February 22): No Class.
Class 5 (Tuesday,
March 1): Writing for/with Sound: The Art of Aural Storytelling Today
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
John Biewen, Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
Krulwich, Robert, "Conceiving Features: One Reporter's Style," and Scott Simon, "Writing for the Ear," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting:
The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), 81-89 and 103-115. [On electronic
reserve].
Charles Hardy III, “Authoring in Sound: Aural History,
Radio, and the Digital Revolution,” in The Oral History
Reader, 2nd edition, editors Rob Perks and Alistair Thomson,
(London: Routledge, 2006). [On electronic
reserve.]
Recommended:
Chapter 5 ("Writing") in Robert McLeish, Radio
Production: A Manual for Broadcasters (Focal Press, 1999). [On electronic
reserve.]
The Future Then and Now: The Evolution of Science Fiction. This is an outline submitted to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
by Robert J. Sawyer outlining a three-part, three hour-long radio
documentary tracing the development of Science Fiction. The series
aired in 1986: Robert J. Sawyer's outline for "The Future Then and Now".
[http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/annual_conference_2002_sessions.asp#id1l].
Listen to the programs on beginnings and endings ("Once Upon
a Time . . . The End") and on "Music" (in the section
titled "The Elements").
Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and
Techniques of Audio Production, 2nd edition, pp. 123-144. [On electronic
reserve.] Although some of this focuses on older technologies and techniques, the fundamental approach to planning and putting together audio work is still valid.
Listen to Charles Hardy, "Prodigal Son" (1985) [below] and read his essay via this link: Hardy Essay on Prodigal Son. Be prepared to discuss both in class. PRODIGAL SON: 28.8 | 56 | ISDN [all in RealMedia]. This 8-minute lyrical audio piece was first featured in Hardy's 1985 series, "Mordecai Mordant's Celebrated Audio Ephemera," a collection of audio art sound montages broadcast on public radio in 1985. Composed of excerpts from oral history interviews, archival recordings, and James Weldon Johnson's recording of his poem, "The Prodigal Son, " it explores how black migrants from the American South made sense of their ncounters with the "bright lights" of northern industrial metropolises in the early decades of the twentieth century. In this highly creative and imaginative work, Hardy was interested in unraveling the origins of a series of folk tales and personal narratives that elderly African Americans used to encode their own youthful experiences with the pleasures and dangers of the red light districts of industrial Philadelphia.
Conrad's Garage. Produced by Joe Richman/Radio Diaries. A sound-rich story about the early history of radio transmission.
Project/Assignment: Find any academic history article
that you believe would be amenable to translation into an audio
documentary. Bring in a short typed treatment for how you would
go about adapting the article into audio form. You might look at The Journal of American History, The American Historical
Review, or more specialized journals such as the Journal
of Social History, Journal of Women's History, Labor History,
and so on. Identify audio elements you would need to produce your
piece.
Class 6 (Tuesday, March 8): The Art of Conducting and Producing Interviews
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Tips for Interviewers. From Willa K. Baum, Oral
History for the Local Historical Society. Tips
for Interviewers.
Chapter 3 ("Conducting Interviews") in Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History (New York, 1995). [On electronic
reserve.]
Terry Gross on the art of interviewing (recorded
speech, Union College, 11/13/2002). Available only
on the course electronic
reserve site and not to the general public.
Sorry -- Terry's restriction!
Principles
of Digital Audio. Prof. Jeffrey Hass, Center
for Electronic and Computer Music, Indiana University. Check
out the other chapters in this "on-line" book.
Project/Assignment:
(1) By now you should have a pretty good idea of what you intend to produce as your final documentary project. Write a 1-2 page description of your project. Also, add a separate sheet with a tentative bibliography, identifying the audio/sound elements that you will need to collect to complete it. If you intend to utilize archival audio resources, identify their location (by archive). (2) Record a short interview, ideally one that will be useful to you for your final documentary project. This might be an interview with a scholar who is very familiar with the topic of the documentary (and can provide perspective and information), or with a principal witness/character. Submit the recording on CD, DAT, or minidisk -- or attach it (as a 128 kbps MP3) to your part 1 submission (above) through Blackboard.
Class 8 (Tuesday, March 22): Creating Sonic Scenes With
Narration, Interviews, Music, Sound Effects, Ambient Sounds, and Actualities
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Randy Thom, Audiocraft: An Introduction to the Tools and
Techniques of Audio Production, "Documentaries" section. [On electronic
reserve].
Karen Kearns, "Delivery: Using Your Voice," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting:
The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), 81-89. [On electronic
reserve.]
Deborah Amos, "Producing Features, in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting:
The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 117-126. documentary modes
discussed have parallels to aural documentary production.
[On electronic
reserve.]
"Ring
'Em and Fling 'Em," produced by Gerald Zahavi and Deborah Maxwell. Every May, bird
banders from around the Adirondacks converge on the Crown Point State Historic
site for three weeks of intense banding activity, led by Master bird
banders Mike Peterson and Gordon Howard. Listen to this recent radio
documentary (aired on WRPI-Troy) on banding at Crown Point: "Ring
'Em and Fling 'Em": RealMedia. | MP3. Time: 26:43
"Voices from the Dustbowl." Produced by Barrett Golding. RealmMedia 28kbps | 56 Kbps. Golding's documentary has been aired on Lost and Found Sound on National Public Radio (NPR) and also on Soundprint. It is narrated by Charles Todd, who was hired by the Library of Congress to record interviews with farm workers who had travelled to California in the 1930s. "They were Okies and Arkies, originally from Oklahoma and Arkansas who had come west in search of better living. Depression poverty and a massive drought anddust storm had made life impossible for them back home. These are the very people John Steinback wrote about in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. In fact, Steinback was doing interviews for his novel at the same time and in the same places as Todd was recording his interviews. Todd's interviews took place 60 years ago, in the summer of 1940, at several Migratory Government Camps, established in California by the Farm Securities Administration, a New Deal program. The camps were created to accomodate the enormous swell of migrants that came to California, nearly 300,000 people in a few short years. Todd carried a 50-pound Presto recorder from camp to camp, and made hundreds of recordings on acetate discs. The recordings include songs, poems, camp council meetings, square dances, storytelling, and people talking about why they left, about conditions along the way, and about life in the government camps."
"CCC Camps," by Mark Wolfe.[Student project completed for Producing
Historical Documentaries class]. RealMedia
28.8 |
RM 56. Mark Wolfe offers a brief glimpse
of Depression-era CCC camp life.
"Challenger," by Rick Clarkson. [Student project completed
for Producing Historical Documentaries class]. RealMedia
28.8 |
RM 56. Rick Clarkson examines memory and tragedy in this short documentary
on what people remember about the day the shuttle Challenger exploded
in January of 1986. files).
"Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold" (2009).
PART 1: Real Media. Time: 34:33. [MP3 Unavailable by request of producer].
PART 2: Real Media. Time: 24:24. [MP3 Unavailable by request of producer]. Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold, comes to us from Rob Rosenthal, WMPG, and Maine's Salt Insitute for Documentary Studies. "In 1912, the state of Maine evicted a mixed-race community of about forty-five people from Malaga Island, just off the coast of Phippsburg. It was an act of racism, eugenics, and political retribution. Eight islanders were committed to the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded. The rest managed as best they could. The state moved the island school to another island. Then they dug up the graves and reburied the remains in the graveyard at the Maine School. The Malaga community was erased. For generations, descendents feared to speak about what happened to their families because of the local stigma of mixed-blood and feeble-mindedness. Others in Phippsburg would rather forget the incident - a story best left untold, some say. This is that story." For more information on Malaga Island, see: http://www.malagaislandmaine.org/
Projects/Assignments:
You will find a folder with several dozen audio files
in our Blackboard site under "March 23" class (all *.wav files). The audio segments in they folder all pertain
to Ellis Island and immigration; they include oral interviews
with immigrants, historians, Ellis Island tour guides, as well as ambient
sounds, narration, music and songs, actors representing former
Ellis Island employees, and other audio selections that might
be useful in putting together a documentaty on Ellis Island
and immigration. Your assignment is to compose a short-from
documentary (4-7 minutes) utilizing these sonic elements in
a coherent, compact, and evocative way. We will discuss your
compositions in class. Be prepared to talk about why you chose
to construct the documentary in the way you did--which sound
elements you were drawn to, what essential points you were trying
to communicate, what sort of compromises between aesthetics
and authenticity you were forced to make, and so on. Prepare your mix as a *.wav or *.aif file, but submit it as a high quality (at least 128 kbps) MP3 file.
Class 9 (Tuesday, March 29): Advanced
Composition and Sound Editing Techniques
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Glenn Gould, Solitude Trilogy. Listen to any one of the following aural documentaries by Glenn Gould (1932-1982), the Canadian composer and pianist.
National Library of Canada, The
Glenn Gould Archive. From the introduction to the
Web site: "This site was developed by the National Library of
Canada which is the official repository of the archives of the
late concert pianist, Glenn Gould. A supremely gifted artist and
Canada's most renowned classical musician of the 20th century,
Gould was a recording artist, radio and television broadcaster
and producer, writer and an outspoken apologist for the electronic
media. Visitors to this site will find a virtual exhibition drawn
from his archival papers, a look at the National Library's audio
archival tapes available using RealAudio, two searchable databases
of the National Library's Glenn Gould Papers, research aids such
as two chronologies, a Gould bibliography, lists of films, videos
and radio broadcasts made by and about Gould, selections of writings
by Gould and writings about Gould, works of art and of poetry
inspired by him, and links to other related internet sites."
Projects/Assignments: Listen to one of the following documentaries and write a 3 page
review of it. In your review consider historical content, story structure,
and sound/production quality issues. Be specific in your discussion,
highlighting examples from the production to make your major points
(use exact index play times to direct the reader to these examples).
Charles Hardy, "You Work at Stetson's?" Produced in 1982. [Part of Hardy's "I Remember When"
series]. Real
Media | MP3.
By 1886, John B. Stetson owned the world’s biggest
Hat factory in Philadelphia and employed nearly 4,000 workers.
The factory was putting out about 2 million hats a year by
1906. Stetson was a pioneer in mechanizing the art of hat
manufacturing. He was also part of a movement of liberal business
reform in the early 20th century, now referred to as "welfare
capitalism." He offered a variety of benefits to his
employees, including free health care -- and gave shares in
his company to valued workers. As a philanthropist, he founded
Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and built a Philadelphia
hospital. This documentary, based on oral interviews with
former Stetson employees, looks as the industrial world that
Stetson created. It was produced by Charles Hardy as part
of his "I Remember When" documentary series on Philadephia
history.
America's Cold War and the Hollywood blacklist: "BLACKLISTED."
A dramatic documentary about Hollywood screen writer Gordon Kahn's
struggle to survive the Hollywood blacklist of the late 1940's,
1950's and early 1960's (utilizing actors, sound effects, dramatic
recreations, and so on—based on letters, diaries, FBI files,
and other primary source documents). All six parts of the series are now available from the following site: WGBH <http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3625029>. Please listen to part 1, "Hollywood on Trial."
"WHER-1000 Beautiful Watts: The First All-Girl Radio Station in The World. "
Part 1:Real Media. | MP3. Time: 25:10.
Part 2:Real Media. | MP3. Time: 33:11. WHER went on-air on October 29, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and stayed there for 17 more years. "Legendary record producer Sam Phillips had always wanted a radio station. When the FCC finally gave him a frequency, 1430 on the AM dial, Sam came up with a one-of-a-kind idea—an all girl format—women announcers, sales staff, management, record librarians, copy writers. At the time, stations had at most one girl announcer. Each woman who interviewed for a job at WHER thought she would be that girl. It wasn't until the day before the station went on the air that the girls themselves found out the station would be all female." Produced in 1999 by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and mixed by Jim McKee.
Dan Collison, "Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party." Producer: Dan Collison. 28.8 | 56."In 1964, most people assumed that the
Democratic National Convention would serve as little more
than a coronation of Lyndon Johnson as the Democratic nominee
for President. However, controversy erupted when the mostly
black Mississippi Freedom Democratic party challenged the
all white regular Mississippi Democratic delegation on the
convention floor." This piece chronicles their efforts.
"Remembering Stonewall." Producer: David
Isay (1989). 28.8 | 56 | ISDN. Produced in 1989 by David Isay to commemorate the 20th anniversary
of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. It was the first
documentary--in any medium--about Stonewall. An excerpt from
the Sound Portraits WWW site notes: "On Friday, June 27, 1969, eight officers
from the public morals section of the first division New York
City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall
Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars.
At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons
always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect
of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular
Friday night at the Stonewall Inn was different. It sparked
a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into
a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen
clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged
riot, and modern gay activism was born."
"Campaign '68." This documentary was produced in 2008 by American Public Media's American RadioWorks. "The 1968 presidential election was a watershed in American politics. After dominating the political landscape for more than a generation, the Democratic Party crumbled. Richard M. Nixon was elected president and a new era of Republican conservatism was born. In the wake of another historic election, we look back 40 years to the dramatic story of Campaign '68."
"The WASPs: Women Pilots of WWII." Producer
Joe Richman/Radio Diaries (Dec. 2002). Real
Media | MP3. "In the early 1940s, the US Airforce faced a dilemma.
Thousands of new airplanes were coming off assembly lines
and needed to be delivered to military bases nationwide, yet
most of America's pilots were overseas fighting the war. To
solve the problem, the government launched an experimental
program to train women pilots. They were known as the WASPs,
the Women Airforce Service Pilots." This is their story.
"Emma Goldman: The Courage to Struggle"
(1991). Real
Media | MP3. This documentary, produced by Trish Valva in 1991 for Pacifica
Radio, offers a fascinating look at a 20th century anarchist
and feminist who struggled her whole life for free speech,
the right to birth control, and women’s equality. It
includes interviews with Dr. Candace Falk, editor of the Emma
Goldman Papers, Mollie Ackerman, Goldman’s personal
secretary, and Ora Robbins, whose family provided a home while
Robbins was a teenager.
Curtis Fox's "Sacco and Vanzetti."" RealMedia:28.8 | 56. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, is the second in his
new history documentary series titled The Past Present.
Here is his summary of the program: "Almost everyone has heard
of [Nicola] Sacco and [Bartolomeo] Vanzetti, two Italian-born
anarchists who were executed in 1927 for a crime they probably
didn't commit--a payroll robbery and double murder in South Braintree,
Massachusetts. What most people don't know, however, is that Nicola
Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti were part of a group of revolutionaries
that conducted a bombing campaign against government officials,
including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Supreme Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Historian Nunzio Pernicone discusses
the anarchist background of Sacco and Vanzetti. Then Pernicone,
joined by historian Richard Polenberg, examine the world-famous
case that tore this country apart in the 1920s. The program includes
historical audio of men involved in the case, Italian anarchist
songs, Woody Guthrie ballads, and actors Joe Grifasi and Spiro
Malas reading from Sacco and Vanzetti's Moving prison letters."
Crossing East (2006), episode
3 ("Raising Cane"). [On electronic
reserve]. Crossing East is an 8-part
series of one-hour documentaries on the history of Asian American
immigration, from the 1600s to the present. This episode focuses
on the earliest encounters between Asians and North Americans
and Europeans. For more information on Crossing East, go to:<www.crossingeast.org>.
"King's Last March" (2008), by Kate Ellis and Stephen Smith. Produced by American Public Media's American RadioWorks. "Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Four decades later, King remains one of the most vivid symbols of hope for racial unity in America. But that’s not the way he was viewed in the last year of his life." [http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/]
Class 10 (Tuesday, April 5):
Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in Sound Broadcasting
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Ethics Guide to Public Radio Broadcasting (CPB): http://www.cpb.org/stations/radioethicsguide/. Includes Independence and Integrity: A Guidebook for Public Radio Journalism (1995) and Independence and Integrity II (2004).
William E. Kennard and Jacqueline R. Kinney, "A Legal Guide for the Radio Journalist," in Marcus D. Rosenbaum & John Dinges, eds., Sound Reporting:
The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism and Production (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 259-272. [On electronic
reserve.]
Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America (Sage Publications, 1996), pp. 43-132. [On electronic
reserve.]
KPFA On The Air. Film/Video documentary. Producer/Director: Veronica Selver; Co-Producer/Writer: Sharon Wood; narrated by Alice Walker. Distributed by California Newsreel. 56 minutes, 2000. Additional description at http://www.newsreel.org/films/kpfa.htm.
[Available on password-accessible class viewing stations].
Recommended:
Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication
Politics in Dubious Times (University of Illinois Press, 1999).
Matthew Lasar, Pacifica Radio : The Rise of an Alternative
Network (Temple University Press, 1999).
Jeff Land, Active Radio: Pacifica's Brash Experiment (Commerce
and Mass Culture (University of Minnestota Press, 1999)].
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation et al. No. 77-528 SUPREME COURT
OF THE UNITED STATES (1978):FCC
v. Pacifica (1978)
Class 11 (Tuesday, April 12): Long-Form Documentaries, Documentary Series, and Aural Essays
Required Readings/Listening/Viewing:
Alessandro Portelli and Charles Hardy III, "I Can Almost See
the Lights of Home," in The Journal for MultiMedia History 2 (1999). Available on-line at: JMMH.
Go to "Past Issues" and select volume 2.
Steve Rowland, "Leonard Bernstein: An American Life. Part 2: Twelve Gates to the City (Meeting the Mentors)" [Radio documentary]. [On electronic reserve]. "LEONARD BERNSTEIN: AN AMERICAN LIFE," is a groundbreaking eleven-hour documentary series illuminating the life and work of Leonard Bernstein. The series is narrated by actress Susan Sarandon and was produced by Steve Rowland and Larry Abrams. It is based on the voluminous Bernstein archive of correspondence, including 17,000 letters written to and from Bernstein and hundreds of rare archival audiotapes, as well as interviews with a hundred of Bernstein's colleagues, friends and family.
"Remembering Kent State, 1970" by Mark Urycki (2002)..
"When thirteen students were shot by Ohio National Guard
Troops during a war demonstration on the Kent State University
Campus on the first week of May 1970, four young lives were
ended and a nation was stunned. More than 30 years later,
the world at war is a different place. However, those thirteen
seconds in May, 1970 still remain scorched into an Ohio hillside.
Through archival tape and interviews, Remembering Kent State
tracks the events that led up to the shootings. (59:10) Aired
on WKSU-FM on May 5, 2002." To listen, go to Talking
History, at: http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2003jan-june.html (scroll down to the May 8, 2003 broadcast).
Optional Project/Assignment (extra credit): Review previous discussion
of short form documentaries. Prepare a script and produce a very
short mini-documentary, or "feature," (at least 4 minutes)
on any historical topic -- but to make this assignment a bit less time consuming, you might
want to use audio segments you have prepared for your own final
documentary project.. Bring in your production and session files on a data CD or a flashdrive for discussion in class.
Recommended:
The
Jewish Giant [28.14 Minutes]. A wonderful recent
example of the documentary work produced by the Sound Portraits
group.
David Isay's Sound Portraits WWW Home Site: Sound
Portraits. Examples of excellent documentary production
work.
Selection from America's Women: A Legacy of Change. Sleight-Brennan
Communications. Produced in 1995 as a four-part radio series on
women's history commemorating the 75th anniversary of the achievement
of women's right to vote. On electronic reserve; to be added.
Dan Collison's "Freedom Summer." [RealMedia:28.8 | 56.] A look back at one of the most famous summers of the 1960s
Civil Rights movement.
Dan Collison's "Port Chicago 50." [RealMedia:28.8 | 56.] Dan Collison produced The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History in 1994. It aired on dozens of public radio stations around the
country. It's the story of the worst homefront disaster of World
War II and its aftermath -- an act of resistance by fifty African
American munitions loaders. In late March of 1999, a docu-drama
based on the Port Chicago incident -- titled The Mutiny -- was aired by NBC.
(Tuesday, April 19): NO CLASS
Class 12 (Tuesday, April 26):
"Publishing" Aural History ~ On Air, On Line,
On CD
Hearing
Voices special featuring The Kitchen Sisters's "Tony
Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later” and “New York
City: 24 Hours in Public Places.” [http://hearingvoices.com/news/2008/07/hv021-tony-schwartz/] 
"Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold" (2009).
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