Kathmandu Gopal Yonjan (1943–1997) was one of the most prominent musicians — composer, director, lyricist, singer and arranger — in the history of Nepali music. He has left behind a staggering musical legacy, which could have disappeared had they not been documented and archived, all thanks to the late singer’s wife Renchin Yonjan who started archiving his work 18 years ago after his death. She collected his compositions and tried to compile them as a list. And now the Cornell University Library in New York, USA has undertaken the task of archiving his musical works in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections that is housed in the Carl A Kroch Library. “It is a sharing,” Renchin expresses about the good news. “I feel that it is not just for an individual that Gopal Yonjan is going to the Cornell University. I am happy because it is a representation of Nepal and the diversity of Nepal.” Yonjan is the fourth Asian to be archived in the Library but he is the “first music person which is a big honour for Nepal”. The agreement with the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections was signed on August 6 at Cornell University. For the archive, Renchin will be providing all the needed materials. Yonjan’s recorded music that are in old forms — reel tapes, cassettes, records, VHS tapes, Beta tapes and DV tapes — will be sent to them. Along with that his photographs, metadata like note books of songs with signed dates and lyrics of those songs as well as word-by-word translations and general translations together with the notations will also be made available to them. Once they get it, they will get into preservation and compilation of all the materials for display and digitisation and then putting together an exhibit. And the archive will include audio and video recordings, digital files, notebooks, instruments, photographs and other publications documenting Yonjan’s life and works, thus preserving Yonjan’s musical compositions and legacy while sharing them with audiences across the world. The archive is to be completed in two years. “It is going to be placed in a library and it is three stories underground and it has everything to safeguard and to prevent fire hazards and other things. It is safe and secure. It also has all the expertise and equipment for preservation and documentation. They have the technology to look at the reel tapes and preserve them,” shares Renchin, a fan of western music. She has always found it interesting how the western world saved everything. “Here in Nepal, nothing is saved. Something is done today and it is forgotten tomorrow. We simply don’t document.” So, she started documenting and archiving Yonjan’s work after his death. “We worked together all through his life. He did all the compositions and I never did anything musical when he was alive. But I was the one who sort of kept his records and organised his files, went with him for concerts and did his backstage work. So I was always a part of that. And also I am a very organised person,” she adds. But archiving at Cornell was not just about preservation and storing it, it was also about making his work and life publicly available to the world. “We are in a global environment where everything is accessed with a press of a button. And they have wide networks with universities around the globe. It (his musical works) will be more accessible.” As per their agreement, Yonjan will be made available across the world for students for educational purposes, research but not for commercial purposes. The seed of the archiving with Cornell University was planted two years ago when Kathryn March (one of the professors of Cornell who had met Yonjan for their anthropological studies when he was alive) suggested Renchin to archive Yonjan’s work at the University. She was looking for an appropriate place to archive whatever she has collected of his work.