Anker Kirkeby (1884-1957) var journalist. Ud over kortvarige ansættelser i bl.a. Norge og Sverige arbejdede han hele sit liv næsten udelukkende for Politiken.
Måske var det hans interesse for teatret – han havde overvejet at blive skuespiller – der var med til hans fremsynede forståelse for, hvad grammofonen kunne bruges til. Han ønskede at oprette et stemmearkiv, hvor datidens berømte mænds og kvinders stemmer skulle optages og bevares for eftertiden.
Det lykkedes Anker Kirkeby at overtale Kong Christian X til at gentage sin proklamationstale fra maj 1912 foran fonograftragten i september 1913. At kongen deltog i projektet skabte velvilje blandt de omkring 50 udvalgte mænd og kvinder fra politik, kultur og selskabsliv, hvis stemmer skulle optages. Kun få nægtede at lade deres stemme bevare for eftertiden.
For Anker Kirkeby havde stemmen og sprogets kvalitet næsten mere betydning for optagelserne end selve indholdet. Han udvalgte stort set kun personer fra de højere samfundslag, der måtte formodes at have et godt sprog, til stemmearkivet. Mange personer holdt små taler (”Man giver mig tre minutter til at henvende mig til fremtiden”, Johannes V. Jensen), men der er også genbrugt tekst. Skuespillere reciterede fx brudstykker af deres yndlingsmonologer.
Alle optagelserne er lavet i 1913.
Samlingen omfatter xx lydoptagelser.
Denne samling er endnu ikke i Dansk Lyd.
The Anker Kirkeby Collection (From the early days of Danish sound history)
Anker Kirkeby (1884-1957) was a Danish journalist. Besides short engagements in among others Norway and Sweden, his total work life was carried out at the Danish newspaper Politiken. Perhaps due to his interest for the theater – he had dreamt of becoming an actor – he was very forward-looking when it came to the opportunities of the phonograph. Kirkeby wanted to establish a sound archive where the voices of famous men and women of their time would be recorded and preserved for posterity.
Kirkeby managed to persuade King Christian X to repeat his proclamation speech from May 1912 in front of the funnel of the phonograph in September 1913. The king’s involvement in the project created goodwill among the 50 men and women from politics, cultural life and higher society, who had been selected for voice recordings. Only a few of them refused to have their voices preserved for posterity this way.
It seemed that the voice itself and the linguistic quality of the recordings were more important to Anker Kirkeby than the content itself. He only chose people from the upper classes who were assumed to speak a well-formed language for his archive of voices. Many of the participants made short speeches (e.g. “I was offered three minutes to address the future” by the Danish author Johannes V. Jensen), but a significant number of the recordings are re-used texts. Actors would recite parts of his or her favourite monologues, for example.
All the recordings were made in 1913.
The collection encompasses XX sound recordings.
The collection will be added to Dansk Lyd soon.