IAML Spain-AEDOM expresses its disagreement with the assignment of the Music Documentation Center of Andalusia as a unit under the Andalusian Regional Library

The Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía (CDMA), institutional partner of AEDOM-IAML/Spain, has been, and is, a reference and core entity that comprehensively manages Andalusian musical heritage.

Located in Granada, it began its activity in 1985, as an administrative service with differentiated management, endowing it with personality and autonomy. In a new restructuring we note that the regional government “Junta de Andalucía” repeals this decree relegating this exemplary center to a unit dependent on the Library of Andalusia.

For this reason, AEDOM-IAML/Spain claims its exemplary management in our country and beyond by carrying out essential work within its territory, a standard in musical documentary management, with projects such as coordinating and disseminating the immense amount of musical heritage preserved in the archives of the Cathedrals of Andalusia and many institutions, as well as the publication of their inventories. In addition to its active collection of donated funds, this includes collections as important as the Musical Archive of Ángel Barrios, the donations of the family of Francisco Alonso, the digitalization of the archive of Joaquín Turina, the musical archive of Manuel Castillo Navarro-Aguilera, of Juan Alfonso García, the collection of Poesía 70 of Juan de Loxa, the historical recordings of the Festival de Música Tradicional de la Alpujarra, the archive of field recordings of Pepe Criado, of popular poetry, and so on. The cessation of its activity as an autonomous organization may mean that in the end many future donations will not materialize, not to mention its work of recovery and publication -of new creations- thanks to the collection Documentos Sonoros del Patrimonio Musical de Andalucía, with more than 60 discs, with several awards and recognitions, as well as the publication of all kinds of studies, monographs, scores, and the international magazine Música Oral del Sur (Oral Music of the South).

The admiration and learning generated has elevated this center as a paradigm since the 1980s for all music documentation professionals in Spain, as a model for other institutions that were created later. It has carried out integral work in the management of musical resources, providing exemplary library, archive and museum service, as well as a space for all kinds of musical manifestations. We highlight its support and collaboration in AEDOM-IAML/Spain leading activities and professional conferences, being part of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centers).

Therefore, we insist on a reflection to dignify the work of so many years of its professionals, and to continue their essential work independently.

AEDOM-IAML/Spain stands as a prototype in libraries, documentation centers and specialized archives by carrying out for more than 25 years cooperative agreements and dissemination of Spanish musical heritage.