Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Research records
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Sub-series
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1939-1987 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
6.5 m. of textual records
725 graphic images.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Custodial history
Scope and content
The records document Halpern's intensive research and writing concerning the principles and significance of First Nations' music created and performed across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in indigenous communities of the North West Coast of North America. The records are exclusively textual. They are organized by activities including writing on publications of sound recordings, academic articles, research into individual songs arranged by performer, and biographies of performers. The song indexes (boxes 69-71) relate the research material (transcriptions, translations, electronic analysis, biographical research) to the song recordings on disks and tapes. Each song has a unique identification number. Halpern also arranged her research by types of songs and performer. As a classical music scholar from Vienna, Halpern did not have a thorough knowledge of indigenous societies on the West Coast. In particular, her knowledge of local languages was not strong. Often her titles of songs, performers, ceremonies and other cultural descriptions were phonetic renditions of indigenous vocabulary.