^{Muzeum Etnograficznego im. F. Kotuli w Rzeszowie
Rynek 6, 35-060 Rzeszów
www.muzeumetnograficzne.rzeszow.pl}

Thanks to the growing number of book and disc publishers, knowledge of museums’ sound collections, that have often remained undiscovred, forgotten or overshadowed by exhibitions of musical instruments, regional outfits or products of a material culture, is more and more common. That have been the case when the employees of F. Kotula’s Ethnographic Museum in Rzeszów have been preparing a draft of the Folk music and songs of Podkarpacie multimedia exhibition. Besides musical instruments, photographs and the stories of bands and musicians, they’ve also used the saved sound recordings (101 magnetic tapes) that had been made from 1964 to 1974 by the staff of the Department of Ethnography in the Regional Museum in Rzeszów: Franciszek Kotula, Ewa Waszkowska, Krzysztof Ruszla, Teresa Szetela, Wanda Daszykowska, Andrzej Karczmarzewski and Bogusława Linetta.

After F. Kotula’s death the museum purchased his private collection of field recordings – 63 Stilon style tapes (the collection has been copied onto new tapes). Creators of the project were Damian Drąg and Agata Mazur. They wanted to provide today’s generation with source material „so that folk songs and music could be accurately deconstructed outside of their natural habitat”. Only some of the original discs – reel magnetic tapes (the original recordings have 1-4 tracks with the 9,5 speed and 19 cm/s) – have been digitalized within the project. The part of the collection set to be published have been digitalized and archived. Subjects of the recordings varies greatly. Recorded interviews focus on the rituals (weddings, carolling, harvest festivals, Easter Monday, Palm Sunday), folk craft and art, speaking (New Year’s greetings and occasional poems, prayers, legends) and musical folklore. Methods of digitalization have been consulted with the Phonographic Archive of the Institute of Art PAN by a museum’s employee. Musical samples, chosen from the archive have been presented on a CD which was attached to an interactive exhibition. The publishing company was honoured with a Fonogram Źródeł (Phonogramm of Sources) by the Polish Radio in 2012. Rzeszów Museum’s collection of recordings is one of the first museum sets, that have been made a part of the Polish traditional music – phonographic heritage in order to conduct a systematic digitalization and a detailed description of  the whole archive.

The documentation of the Franciszek Kotula’s collection within the Polish folk music – phonographic heritage project has been digitalized and developed by Barbara Śnieżek, Kaja Macko-Gieszcz and Magdalena Dąbek.

_{zob. więcej:
EMILIA JAKUBIEC-LIS Działalność dokumentacyjna i popularyzatorska Muzeum Etnograficznego w Rzeszowie jako kontynuacja idei Franciszka Kotuli (z uwzględnieniem kolekcji muzycznej), w: „Polska muzyka tradycyjna – dziedzictwo fonograficzne. Stan aktualny, zachowanie, udostępnianie”,  str. 90-107.
ELŻBIETA DUDEK-MŁYNARSKA, Franciszek Kotula (1900-1983) – badacz, kolekcjoner, regionalista. Portret założyciela Muzeum Etnograficznego w Rzeszowie w: „Polska muzyka tradycyjna – dziedzictwo fonograficzne. Stan aktualny, zachowanie, udostępnianie”, str. 108-123.}