“Apiros” initiated the creation of the Polyphonic Sοng Archive (PSA) in 2003.
It emerged as a necessity for the classification of the audiovisual recordings collected during the first five years of the International Polyphonic Song Meetings and the Big Polyphonic Song Concerts, as well as for the transcription and digitalization of older, analog materials also collected throughout these years. The creation of the PSA was the result of a more systematic engagement with the field-based research, which it has also supported, as well as defined the beginning of the second five-year period of the Polyphonic Caravan.
Since then, the Polyphonic Song Archive is being constantly and the more and more systematically enriched, while its materials feed a united digital database leading to the Polyphonic Library, the Polyphonic Sound Gallery and the Polyphonic Image Gallery. The majority of the materials constitutes the fruit of either the recording of the Polyphonic Caravan’s events and actions or the independent field-based research conducted by “Apiros”, while an important part is also the outcome of the digitalization and transcription of older printed and audiovisual materials.
The function of the Archive relies on the voluntary collective work of its contributors. The Polyphonic Song Archive’s team, whose composition is being renewed throughout the years, meets every Saturday, advancing a consistent and detailed work of particular importance, not only for the Archive itself but also for all the actions supported by its running. All of the PSA materials, the recordings, the videos, the digitized texts, support the Polyphony Workshops action, offering a valuable resource of documentation and comparative approach of the different ways of the polyphonic song interpretation from place to place. At the same time, the PSA supports “Apiros” publications and productions, the Polyphonic Caravan’s actions and events, as well as the online promotion of the polyphonic song itself.
One of the most important goals of the PSA in the near future is the indicative online presentation of the whole body of its materials.