A rare recital by Abdul Karim Khan in the second decade of the 20^th Century, or a priceless Zohra Bai piece dating back to 1908 are just a few of the many valuable recordings that promise to spring back to life at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA) audio archive. Realising the need to preserve its recordings for posterity, the SRA has embarked on an ambitious project of digitising its entire repertoire of classical vocal and instrumental recitals spanning the past 70 years or so.

Next only to AIR with recorded music of around 15,000 hours, the SRA archive contains recordings of sangeet sammelans held at the SRA and across the country, plus those donated by gurus and private collectors for proper maintenance.

"With the bulk of the recordings stored in cassettes and the old ones in LPs, 78 RPMs and even spools, we first had to determine the level of restoration each piece needed. Some of the vintage compositions were in very bad shape, while the more recent ones were pretty fine. The Abdul Karim Khan piece, which we got hold of very recently, was recorded by a British researcher on a small wired disc," says Amit Mukherjee, executive director, SRA, adding that 1912 recordings of Faiyaz Khan and Bawera Rahmat Khan also need urgent restoration.

Wipro has recently carried out an assessment of the quality of the recordings and the degree of restoration required for each piece, after listening to all the recorded music. The material will be transferred to DVDs for greater storage space, as each disc can contain about five to six hours of music.

"Besides, it’s a more durable format and ensures longevity of the music. Accessing the system will also be a lot more user-friendly, with catalogues referring to the artiste and the venue of the recital," Mukherjee adds.

As the first step to digitisation, the recordings have already been transferred to a medium of tape and made ready to be put into the DVD format. "But any form of transfer involves a loss of quality and we are trying to keep that to a minimum," Mukherjee says.

The SRA audio library was computerised some four years ago. Around 5,000 compositions of different gharanas were recorded under a Ford Foundation project to help in the training of SRA scholars. The collection, later edited and compiled in the library, has also been included in the makeover scheme.

"The digitised library will be open to our gurus and scholars, who need to refer to the various gharanas and listen continuously. The students can learn the nuances of a particular raga, or how the exponents have evolved over the years. For instance, Abdul Karim Khan’s early recording gives us an insight into his style and quality of voice in his youth," explains Mukherjee. "But not anyone can just walk in to listen. We will allow in serious listeners after proper screening."