Re: Life story of Ludwig Koch on BBC Radio 4 website. (Apr 15,09)

["Richard's BT a/c" richard6054]

John

We have Ludwig Koch's archive at the British Library: numerous discs, copies 
of cylinders and discs, recordings made for the BBC, many radio programmes, 
and his personal papers.  The recordings range from his 1889 recording of 
the Common Shama, made in Leipzig, Germany when Ludwig was just 7 years old, 
to his early sound discs from Germany then, after he fled to England in 
1936, sound books of British birds.  We still use his recordings for 
scientific studies: his 1937 zoo recording of the Okapi for example is still 
the only recording made of this large mammal. Search his name under 
http://www.cadensa.bl.uk/ to  see references to some of his works including 
his 1903 recording of Pope Leo XIII and, incredibly, a 1889 cylinder 
recording of Johannes Brahms playing one of his own pieces (and audibly 
tapping his foot).

There's a good article about Koch here with a couple of sound clips: 
http://www.wildlife-sound.org/journal/archive/koch.html

Richard Ranft
The British Library Sound Archive
London