DeCoSEAS

Investigate, research and make a Catalog of audio archives about Vietnamese music in the Archives, Libraries, and Museums in Paris

VU THI Minh Huong (Vietnam) 

April – June 2023, France

Abstract: Vietnamese music is part of Vietnamese history and culture. Due to the lack of audio archives on Vietnamese music, there is still a gap in the study of Vietnamese music history as well as Southeast Asian music history.   

In order to have an overview of the audio archives about Vietnamese Music that are still unknown and have been exploited by Vietnamese researchers, I do propose during 3 months, I try to research and compile a Catalog of audio archives on Vietnamese music in some Archives, Libraries and Museum in Paris, France (CNRS, National Library of France [BNF], MuséeGuimet, Musée du Quai Branly, Maison de l’Asie, Archives nationals de France…). This is also an opportunity for me to learn about the methods of preservation of audio archives in the Archives of France, Holland, and British Library. During this time, I can give a presentation on my project and provide a final report at the end of the Fellowship.  

The output of the Project is a “Guidebook of audio archives about Vietnamese Music currently preserved at French Archives, Libraries, and Museums” (digital version).   

This is the first finding aids for research on music history, and for exchanging digital copies of documents related to audio material among Southeast Asian countries. Also, through the Catalog, it is possible to identify valuable audio archives of national, regional, or international significance to develop a nomination for submitting to UNESCO to inscribe into the Regional or International Memory of the World Register.

Read the final report here.