Music

A fragment of 15th century music known as the York Masses

We hold the archives of some individual composers, such as Wilfrid Mellers, Trevor Wishart and the archives of performers such as Electric Phoenix, the York Waits, and York Symphony Orchestra.

The MacCarthy-Foulds archive relates to the violinist and Theosophist Maud MacCarthy and her husband, the composer John Foulds.

We also hold the manuscript of the early 16th century York Masses.

John R. T. Davies Collection

This collection of commercial recordings includes nearly 20,000 rare jazz 78s and LPs, including many test recordings. The Davies materials give the Department an extraordinary resource for research and for teaching in jazz history.

John R.T. Davies (1927-2004) was a collector and remastering engineer of classic jazz records, a trombonist, trumpeter and alto saxophonist and a member of the 1960s jazz revival band The Temperance Seven. He was considered by many people to be the world's leading specialist in the art of sound restoration, specifically in relation to jazz and blues recordings before the introduction of magnetic tape. John’s collection of almost 20,000 shellac 78s is rich in rare recordings from 1917 to 1940.

As well as the recordings that John issued under his own ‘Ristic’ label (Ristic was his childhood nickname) the University has made digital copies of around 6,000 sides to date, which will be made available via York Digital Library.

Further information

More information about the University of York Sound Archives is available on the Music department's website:

Sound archives