Peter Cooke Uganda Collection

Long description:

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Nearly 1,500 recordings made by ethnomusicologist, Peter Cooke, between 1964 and 1997 and covering a broad range of culture groups, genres and instrument types.

Dr Peter Cooke conducted several field trips to Uganda from 1964 to 1997, each with a particular focus. His longest stay in Uganda was between 1964 and 1968 where he was head of music at the National Teachers’ College in Kampala. During this time he made several hundred recordings with a large number of musicians from different culture groups all around the country with the aim of bringing materials back for his students to learn from. By the end of the period the political situation had deteriorated, leading to the expulsion of the long-established Kabaka (king) of Buganda and over two decades of instability.

It wasn’t until 1987 that Peter Cooke was able to return to Uganda and during this trip he was concerned to discover what had remained in Buganda of the rich royal musical genres and instruments. This theme has underlain his research ever since (see The king’s musicians: royalist music of Buganda – Uganda Topic Records TSCD 925).

Nevertheless Dr Cooke has explored a range of themes represented in this collection of recordings roughly chronologically as follows:

* July – December 1988 and August 1990: healing rituals
* January – February 1992: pitch perception
* February – March 1993: song texts of the Buganda court traditions. On this trip he also recorded among the Batwa people in South Western Uganda to investigate the possibility of remnant royal traditions of that area and to explore the nature of Batwa musical style. These resources represent some of the only surviving recordings of the now extant Rutwa language.
* February – March 1994: Busoga song texts, during which he recorded a large number of women’s groups
* February – March 1997: took him to Northern Uganda with the objective of exploring the repertory and style of okeme [lamellaphone] playing in the area among the Lango people, though a number of other instruments and traditions of the area were recorded at the same time.

All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.