Eleni Novakovska

The Methodology of Digitizing Legacies

Digitizing Vasil Hadzhimanov’s Legacy

Legacies, as types of music materials belonging to musicians, appeared in Macedonia during the past several years. All the legacies currently owned by separate institutions are those of the pioneers of Macedonian art and science. Thus, the processing of legacy materials by Macedonian scientists and artists is yet to follow. We therefore decided to greet the expected emergence of legacies by defining the methodology for digitization.

The National and University Library “St. Clement of Ohrid” currently owns the complete legacies of the Macedonian composer and teacher Stefan Gajdov, as well as those of the renowned contemporary music ensemble “St. Sophia”. MANU (The Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences) also owns the legacies of the Macedonian ethnomusicologist Vasil Hadzhimanov (1905-1969).

Vasil Hadzhimanov (1905-1969)

The ethnomusicologist Vasil Hadzhimanov (Kavadarci, 14.01.1905 – Skopje, 16.12.1969) graduated and received a Master of Science degree in pharmaceutics in Zagreb, Croatia. Apart from his professional advancement in this field, his life profession became ethnomusicology. He earned a degree in music in 1955 at the Academy of Pedagogy in Skopje.

Hadzhimanov began to collect materials in 1927-28, transcribing more than 1000 songs from the Tikvesh region. During this same period he formed and took part in many folk groups, performing at various festivals and radio shows in Radio Zagreb, Belgrade and Ljubljana, and later in Skopje, thus popularizing Macedonian folk songs. As a member of the Association of Yugoslav Composers in Zagreb (1938), he published several Macedonian songs with the publishing houses Frajt and Strahov .

After the liberation he started working as Head of the Folk Music Sector at Radio Skopje. During the same period his work as a collector of music flourished in the eastern and western regions of Macedonia, transcribing over 200 songs. In the 1960s he transcribed over 800 songs in the Maleshevo region. After the catastrophic Skopje earthquake of 1963, he managed to record over 300 dirges.

During his employment at Radio Skopje, he filmed over 100 shows regarding Macedonian folklore and folklore around the world.

Along with his transcriptional work, Hadzhimanov did ethnomusicological research. He participated at many ethnomusicological congresses in Europe (Oslo, Moscow, Bratislava, Ostend, Gottwaldov, Paris), publishing his articles in specialized journals.

He also worked as teacher of music folklore at the Music High School in Skopje.

According to Vasil Hadzhimanov’s autobiography, he transcribed over 8 000 folk songs and dances, and recorded (on magnetic tapes) 900 songs from western Macedonia, 500 dirges from the Skopje earthquake (180 of them have been decoded), and 800 songs and dances from the Maleshevo region.

Out of all the transcriptions, only eight collections have been published: Macedonian Folk Songs: I – IV (1953, 1956), Macedonian War Folk Songs (1960), Hey Macedonian (1962), Gathering Folk Songs (1964) and Macedonian Folk Songs: Girls from Tikvesh (1968).

Vasil Hadzhimanov’s Legacy

Vasil Hadzhimanov’s legacy is the only one which contains specific materials regarding both his personal and professional life. Vasil Hadzhimanov’s legacy was donated to the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences on 17.12.1993 by his son Zafir.

The process of purchasing Hadzhimanov’s collection began in the 1970s. In 1986 MANU formed a specialized committee for registering and evaluating all the materials from the collection. The committee consisted of academic Todor Skalovski, academic Vlastimir Nikolovski, professor Gjorgji Gjorgiev and the archivist Marija Miloshevska.

Apart from to the large number of registration lists composed by the members of the committee and their associates, MANU’s archive still lacks a final registry of Hadzhimanov’s 1993 legacy.

In addition, MANU’s archive contains lots of incorrect information regarding the legacy.

Our research began with the examination of the existing materials from MANU’s archive, the data registered in the period between 1966 and 1986.

MANU’s official archive contains six lists which are the subject of our initial research:

1. “A list of all the collected materials by the ethnomusicologist Vasil Hadzhimanov” – made by professor Gjorgji Gjorgiev and the archivist Marija Miloshevska (this record does not include the year of completion).

According to the above-mentioned list, Hadzhimanov’s legacy contains:

1. 154 materials with musicological and ethnomusicological value: manuscripts, machine scripts, printed materials
2. 86 phonograph records with: Macedonian folk songs and tunes; Serbian folk songs, foreign folk songs; classical music
3. 107 magnetic tapes according to one list, and 89 records and according to another
4. 505 photographs
5. 67 films: negatives – rolls (53), five metal disks and 9 rolls of negatives
6. 17 music instruments

2. “A list of the registered books from Vasil Hadzhimanov’s collection” – made by Liljana Skalova, also undated.

According to this list the Hadzhimanov collection contains:

- 466 monograph publications

- 39 classic literature books

- 35 dictionaries

- 2 encyclopedias

3. “A list of the articles registered in the Vasil Hadzhimanov collection” – which unfortunately does not include data as to who made it or when it was made. This list contains 33 titles of articles.

4. “The Vasil Hadzhimanov collection – magnetic tapes” – made by professor Gjorgji Gjorgiev and the archivist Marija Miloshevska, also undated.

According to this record the collection Vasil Hadzhimanov contains 89 magnetic tapes.

All the registered materials show the content of the Vasil Hadzhimanov collection, but not its specific state. We thus decided to begin the construction of a database regarding the content of the legacy. This database will enable further research activities.

Creating secondary databases for the content of the Hadzhimanov Legacy

The creation of a secondary database regards the content of the Hadzhimanov collection. Hadzhimanov’s ethnomusicological and musicological materials were entered into the databases.

After surveying Hadzhimanov’s legacy in the archives of MANU, we began crating both databases simultaneously. In order processing the material from this collection in greater detail, we decided to form two sub-databases, one for the audio, and one for the remaining material.

Both secondary databases are based on the artifacts which include different types of materials, as well as the previously mentioned MANU archive register.

We prepared the main fields necessary for the description of the artifacts from the Hazdhimanov collection on the basis of the conducted research regarding the standards of secondary database creation, i.e. the standards for the bibliographical description of materials transferable regardless of location. We attempted to maintain and anticipate the bibliographic description standards, but also to reduce the elements not necessary for surveying the content of the archived material. We did this bearing in mind the scope of the material and the time needed to properly enter the secondary data. We used the standards ISBD (NBM), IASA Cataloguing Rules for the creation of audio materials. For the database for the other type of materials we used ISBD(M), ISBD(PM), ISBD(S).

Naturally, this does not exclude future entering of additional data which is of theoretic interest. In fact, the advantage of digital databases is the existence of the opportunity to add new fields without disturbing the existing elements.

It should be noted that the creation of both databases involved the use of Microsoft Excel software which enables simple and easy entering of data as well as facile transformation and transfer of the data to other types of databases.

Audio Material Database

Our audio database contains the following 14 fields:

1. Title
2. Author
3. Content
4. Physical description
5. Number of channels
6. Recording speed
7. Position of the dial
8. Place
9. Dates
10. Duration
11. Ways of recording
12. Notes
13. MANU call number
14. Numeration within the digital database

Several problems appeared during the entering of data. There were several different existing data for one magnetic tape which were of the following nature:

- the author wrote the data on the magnetic tape

- the person from MANU registering the tapes wrote the data on the tape

- there are written data as additions to the tapes

- the MANU archive registering provided other data

Because of the clash of data from different sources, we decided to enter the data from the official archive, i.e. the MANU register.

Thus, data regarding 89 magnetic tapes were entered in the audio database, which corresponded to the de visu work with the material.

In order to reinstate the realistic situation of the recorded magnetic tapes and their content, they should be listened to and digitized immediately upon that due to their state. Only then would it be possible to affirm the data concerning the content of the tapes.

At that time another field for the performer would be added to the database, as now it does not exist due to lack of data.

Database for the other materials in the Hadzhimanov collection

The second sub-database of the Hadzhimanov collection consists of a description of transcriptions, scores or texts in printed or manually written form. The main fields are derived from the ISBD standards because it contains the main six blocks. All data is entered in the original language and writing of the materials as the standards impose. The database contains data for 4241 units.

The main fields are the following:

1. Title
2. Additions to the title (volume, other numbers)
3. Notes regarding the title
4. Author
5. Type of material (manuscript, machine script, published)
6. Number of pages (physical description)
7. Type of material (transcription, text)
8. Notes regarding the type of material
9. Internal numeration (numeration)
10. Notes regarding the duplicated materials
11. Language of the text
12. Date
13. Place
14. Duplicates
15. MANU call number
16. Numeration in the digital database

Results regarding the final condition of the Hadzhimanov legacy

The creation of the databases for the Hadzhimanov legacy enabled a survey of the current condition of the materials. In fact, the realistic situation proved that the Vasil Hadzhimanov legacy, property of MANU, contains:

- 154 registered materials which are in fact 154 folders containing different materials, put in cardboard boxes numbered 1 to 23, and 6 unnumbered boxes.

- 4 boxes numbered 23-27 containing the magnetic tapes

- 1 box containing photographs

- 1 box with 7 musical instruments, transcriptions, newspaper clippings and duplicates of separate materials, 1 magnetic tape player

- 1 box containing newspaper clippings

According to the collection’s register, a number of materials are missing, such as phonograph records, films, 10 music instruments, as well as all the monograph and serial publications, dictionaries, encyclopedias. The survey of the collection proved that according to the register of the MANU Archives, the following numbered materials are missing: 16, 38, 122, 123, 131, 142, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154. A large portion of the content of the folders does not correspond to the register of the MANU Archive.

In fact, the existing registers in MANU do not contain the correct number of units.

This new survey and registering of the current situation proved that the Vasil Hadzhimanov legacy contains:

- a total of 4253 units entered in the digital database

Out of these: 34 units are published materials, 768 are unpublished texts, and 3452 units are manuscripts.

According to the types of materials, the Hadzhimanov legacy contains:

- 3307 units with music manuscripts (years 1937-1969)

- 72 scores

- 497 texts with Vasil Hadzhimanov’s radio shows

- 2 parts

- 9 biographies

- 9 autobiographies

- 5 bibliographies for several papers

- 3 interviews

- 1 syllabus

- 4 concert programs

- 2 reviews

- 211 conference papers and lectures

- 4 journal articles

- 17 summaries for various papers

- 3 epilogues for various collections

- 4 forewords for various collections

- 79 registers, lists, notes, field materials

- 18 published texts, scores

- 1 album with reviews and pieces of criticism

The audio material database contains entrances for 89 magnetic tapes.

Both databases do not include: 505 photographs, 30 of Vasil Hadzhimanov’s documents (passport, student cards, IDs), 5 folders of Vasil Hadzhimanov’s personal letters, 4 issues of the journal Estrada, the non-author published materials in the collection, the description of the folk instruments.

Problems in the processing of the database data

The main problems are divided into several groups.

The first group of problems concerns the lack of data regarding the field title. A large portion of the materials do not bear a title. The standards imposed on us to give our own title, such as for instance Transcription, or the initial words of the text. There was a particular problem with the transcriptions bearing Hadzhimanov’s illegible handwriting. The title data was thus changed with the internal transcription numeration the author made.

The second problem concerns the lack of data regarding the author of a text or transcription. If the author had not been included, but the content usually of the textual materials implied that in fact the author was Hadzhimanov, we entered the data regarding the author in parentheses.

One of the main problems regards the creation of the audio base, since the data Hadzhimanov wrote on the magnetic tapes sometimes reappeared at several units. There was also a conflict with the register from the MANU Archives and the additional textual materials for the tapes. The solution to the problem involves the listening and digitization of the tapes, which would confirm the data.

Bearing in mind the standards, we managed to create two databases which currently cover the complete ethnomusicological materials from Vasil Hadzhimanov’s legacy.

Working on the secondary digital database for Vasil Hadzhimanov’s legacy was a methodological challenge. As mentioned in the beginning, we are yet expecting the emergence of such legacies, and it is of particular importance to set a standard, unified methodology for forming databases. Therefore, we hope that this continuing experience will help IRAM and other institutions build secondary databases of great value to theory and archivation.