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MUS101: Introduction to World Music: Smithsonian Global Sound

Fall 2013 (M.Sarkissian)

The Public Interface

Smithsonial Global Sound is now cataloged in the Five College Online Catalog and also in Discover

Smithsonian Global Sound®

Advanced Search

Browse by Collection & Label

This public interface allows listening to sound clips and fee-based downloads.

Folkways Radio

Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries & Smithsonian Global Sound

Smithsonian Global Sound® for Libraries is a joint venture with Smithsonian Global Sound®, an international network of music audio archives and an educational resource that delivers the world’s diverse cultural expressions in an informative way via digital media.

This unique online resource delivers easy access to tens of thousands of audio recordings and hundreds of video features from the U.S. national museum’s Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections (which includes Smithsonian Folkways) and content from partner archives including the International Library of African Music at Willard Rhodes University (South Africa), the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology of the American Institute for Indian Studies (India), the Aga Khan Music Initiative for Central Asia of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (Central Asia) and others still to come.


Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. Their mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document "people's music," spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. Under Asch's enthusiastic and dedicated direction, Folkways sought to record and document the entire world of sound.

Between 1948 and Asch's death, Folkways' tiny staff released 2,168 albums. Topics included traditional, ethnic, and contemporary music from around the world; poetry, spoken word, and instructional recordings in numerous languages; and documentary recordings of individuals, communities, current events, and natural sounds.

The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987. As a condition of the acquisition, the Smithsonian agreed that virtually all of the firm's 2,168 titles would remain "in print" forever.

The Libraries' Interface @ Smith

Smithsonian Global sound is now cataloged in the Five College Online Catalog and also in Discover.

Music Online Advanced Search

Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries

Allows Smith users listening access to full length streams.

List of Record Labels

Browse by Label

*[bolded]* = significant holdings @ Smith in Five College Library Catalog

*Smithsonian Folkways Recordings*
Folkways Records
A.R.C.E. Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology
Collector Records
Cook Records
Dyer-Bennet Records
Fast Folk Records
I.L.A.M. International Library of African Music
M.O.R.E. Minority Owned Record Enterprises
Monitor Records
Paredon Records