The Global Music Archive is a multi-media reference archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and the Americas. Current databases include the Digital Collection of East African Recordings, the Appalachian Dulcimer Archive, and the Calypso Interviews Database. It is a public facility that promotes education in African and American traditional and popular music through its own activities and by supporting the activities of others. The archive is housed within the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library in Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. It includes public spaces for the study of materials, and audio and video listening and viewing facilities.
The GMA’s primary mission is to provide access to sound recordings and images of Indigenous music from communities in Africa and the Americas. Founded in 2003 by Gregory Barz, former professor of musicology (ethnomusicology) at Vanderbilt University and the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, the GMA contains several online collections:
