Percival Robson Kirby
| Prof. Percival Robson Kirby MA DLitt | |||||||||
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| Born | 1887 | ||||||||
| Died | 1970 | ||||||||
| Residence |
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, S. Africa [1937] [and] 56 Sixth Street, Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa [census] | ||||||||
| Occupation | music | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1936.11.17 nominated
*1947.12.02 it was resolved that Prof. Kirby be invited to remain a Fellow of the Institute, and that his subscription be remitted [assuming this is the same man]
1970.03.12 death reported
Notes From Elsewhere
Musicologist Percival Robson Kirby was born in Scotland in 1887 and graduated with a MA degree in philosophy and biology from the University of Aberdeen. After completing his studies at the Royal College of Music in London, he worked as Music Organiser at the Natal Education Department from 1914. In 1921, he joined the University of the Witwatersrand (then University College) in Johannesburg, tasked with founding a Music Department. Soon after his arrival in South Africa he began studying and recording the musical practices of South African people, and advocated that it be studied in detail in South African schools. His most intense period of research was in the 1930s, during when he went on field trips, aiming to collect a comprehensive selection of southern African musical instruments, recording the music on wax cylinders, and photographing and sometimes sketching what he observed. He retired after 33 years with the university.
In 1934 Kirby ’s magnum opus, The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa, was published by Oxford University Press; the book remains as a major reference on the subject. When Kirby relinquished curatorship of the collection in 1954, he loaned it to the Africana Museum, now Museum Africa, in Johannesburg. Kirby died in 1970, and in the early 1980s the collection was purchased by the University of Cape Town, and housed in the South African College of Music. In 1983 it was opened to the public by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. In 2004, Michael Nixon a senior lecturer in the Ethnomusicology and African Music divisions at the university’s South African College of Music took over the collection. He found it in a dismal condition as the rooms it was stored in were damp with most of the collection covered in mould. However, the University had sourced funding from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, enabling Nixon and his team to embark on a project that was aimed at controlling the climate, fixing the exhibition space, conserving the instruments, making copies of selected instruments for performance, and developing an online catalogue.
Publications
External Publications
Wits end : an unconventional autobiography / [by] Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1967 ] At 2 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 22.885)
Overture to the opera Guillaume Tell / by Gioacchino Rossini ; edited by Percival R. Kirby
Rossini, Gioacchino, 1792-1868 [ Printed music : 1800-2007 ] Languages: English;No linguistic content;German;N/A, [3 others] At 18 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 12.557)
The musical instruments of the native races of South Africa / by Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1953-1965 ] At 8 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 11.873)
The true story of the Grosvenor East Indiaman wrecked on the coast of Pondoland South Africa on 4 August 1782 / Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1960 ] At 8 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 11.641)
Overture to the opera Le siège de Corinth : adapted version from Maometto II / by Gioacchino Rossini ; edited from the original ed. by Percival R. Kirby
Rossini, Gioacchino, 1792-1868 [ Printed music : 1800-1988 ] Languages: English;French;German, [2 others] At 7 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 11.475)
Sir Andrew Smith, M. D., K. C. B. : his life, letters, and works / [by] Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1965 ] At 4 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.789)
A source book on the wreck of the Grosvenor East Indiaman / compiled and edited, with introduction, notes and map, by Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1953 ] At 4 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.756)
The kettle-drums : a book for composers, conductors and kettle-drummers / Percival R. Kirby
Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 [ Book : 1930 ] At 3 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.754)
Travels and adventures in Eastern Africa : descriptive of the Zoolus, their manners, customs with a sketch of Natal / by Nathaniel Isaacs
Isaacs, Nathaniel, b. 1808 [ Book : 1970 ] At 9 libraries
This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 7.781)
Solo in D minor : op. 1, no. 1 : for flute and piano / John Stanley ; edited by Percival R. Kirby
Stanley, John, 1712-1786 [ Printed music : 1963 ]
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
census including cv
Other Material
University of Cape Town: the Kirby Collection
