Listening Back: Community and the Life of Archival Sound
This talk examines how archival sound recordings can reenter cultural life when they are returned to the communities from which they originate. Drawing on work at the University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology and the Sagada Community Archives Initiative in the northern Cordillera region, the presentation reflects on listening as a collaborative practice between archives and communities. Rather than treating recordings as objects preserved primarily for scholarly analysis, the project explores what happens when communities listen again to recordings of their own musical past. Collective listening sessions revealed how memories, relationships, and local knowledge reshape the meaning of archival materials. Over time, these encounters led to the establishment of a small community archive at St. Mary’s School of Sagada, where decisions about organization, interpretation, and access are guided by community priorities. The talk argues that sound heritage is sustained not only through technical preservation, but through relationships that allow recordings to continue participating in cultural life
LaVerne David C. de la Peña is the former Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Music and former Director of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. He also served as Vice Chair of the UNESCO National Memory of the World Committee, contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage through archival and documentation initiatives. Following his retirement, Dr. de la Peña continues to serve as a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines, where he teaches courses in ethnomusicology and musicology. In Spring 2026, he joined the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa as the inaugural recipient of the Trimillos Visiting Distinguished Professorship in Ethnomusicology, a post honoring the legacy of Dr. Ricardo Trimillos. Dr. de la Peña holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Composition from the University of the Philippines