Carpenter, John Alden (piano) - Revision history

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 |(iii) ''Highwaymen''<br/>(iv) ''To a Young Gentleman''||[[Hager, Mina (mezzo-soprano)|Mina Hager (mezzo-soprano)]],<br/>John Alden Carpenter (piano)||12" / 30 cm<br/>lateral disc||<div style="text-align: center;">Ⓦ91734-2</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">2-A-1</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">5 December 1927</div>||Columbia studio,<br/>New York City(?)||[[Chicago Gramophone Society 50019-P, 50020-P|Chicago Gramophone Society 50019-P]]||USA
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-|<span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden_Carpenter '''Carpenter''']</span> ''Song of Faith'' – Part 4 (of 4)<br/>(short-play edition)||John Alden Carpenter (narrator),<br/>Chicago a Cappella Choir,<br/>anonymous (organ),<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra]</span>,<br/>Noble Cain (conductor)||10" / 25 cm<br/>lateral disc||<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800037900/BVE-72050-Song_of_faith BVE-72050-2]</span></div>||<div style="text-align: center;">unknown</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">10 April 1932</div>||Studio 2,<br/>Church Building,<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey Camden]</span>, New Jersey||<span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/169114/Victor_1560 Victor 1560-B]</span>||USA
+|<span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden_Carpenter '''Carpenter''']</span> ''Song of Faith'' – Part 4 (of 4)<br/>(short-play edition)||John Alden Carpenter (narrator),<br/>Chicago A Cappella Choir,<br/>anonymous (organ),<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra]</span>,<br/>Noble Cain (conductor)||10" / 25 cm<br/>lateral disc||<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800037900/BVE-72050-Song_of_faith BVE-72050-2]</span></div>||<div style="text-align: center;">unknown</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">10 April 1932</div>||Studio 2,<br/>Church Building,<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey Camden]</span>, New Jersey||<span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/169114/Victor_1560 Victor 1560-B]</span>||USA
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-|<span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden_Carpenter '''Carpenter''']</span> ''Song of Faith'' – Part 2 (of 2)<br/>(long-play edition)||John Alden Carpenter (narrator),<br/>Chicago a Cappella Choir,<br/>anonymous (organ),<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra]</span>,<br/>Noble Cain (conductor)||12" / 30 cm<br/>'''33⅓ rpm''' lateral disc||<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800037901/LCVE-72051-Song_of_faith LCVE-72051-1]</span></div>||<div style="text-align: center;">unknown</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">10 April 1932</div>||Studio 2,<br/>Church Building,<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey Camden]</span>, New Jersey||<span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/278945/Victor_L-11608 Victor L-11608-B]</span>||USA
+|<span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden_Carpenter '''Carpenter''']</span> ''Song of Faith'' – Part 2 (of 2)<br/>(long-play edition)||John Alden Carpenter (narrator),<br/>Chicago A Cappella Choir,<br/>anonymous (organ),<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra]</span>,<br/>Noble Cain (conductor)||12" / 30 cm<br/>'''33⅓ rpm''' lateral disc||<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800037901/LCVE-72051-Song_of_faith LCVE-72051-1]</span></div>||<div style="text-align: center;">unknown</div>||<div style="text-align: center;">10 April 1932</div>||Studio 2,<br/>Church Building,<br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey Camden]</span>, New Jersey||<span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/278945/Victor_L-11608 Victor L-11608-B]</span>||USA
 |-
 |}

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 Whatever its genesis and gestation, the Chicago Gramophone Society's issue of ''Water-Colors'' was a notable gramophone premiere. Understandably, as a limited, semi-private edition, it was not reviewed in the general press or musical periodicals, only in ''The Phonograph Monthly Review''.<ref><span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_8/2_8#page/n27/mode/1up 'Special']</span>, in 'Analytical Notes and Reviews', ibid., Vol.2 No.8, May 1928, pp.306-15 (on p.308)</ref> Neither Carpenter's nor Hager's recollections or opinions of it are documented. They must each have been presented with a copy, but Hager's is not among the many recordings donated with her papers to the Newberry Library in Chicago,<ref>Once again, my thanks to Bill Anderson for confirming in person what is implied by the <span class="plainlinks">[https://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/hager.xml#series4 inventory]</span> of Mina Hager's sound recordings held at the Newberry Library</ref> and whether Carpenter's survives is likewise unknown. In general, his view of the gramophone seems not to have been studied. He had previously made one extensive, remarkable, historic, if purely utilitarian [[#Private|private recording]], but he appeared only once more on a commercial disc (see [[#Commercial|below]]). He certainly did not need exposure or session fees (what he and Hager were paid to record for the Society is, like so much else, not known). Perhaps he was not interested in setting down his interpretations of his own music. Composers' recordings had been used as a marketing ploy for some time by the gramophone industry - notably, in Britain, by the Gramophone Company and Columbia, and also by the [[National Gramophonic Society]]<ref>In September 1927, the National Gramophonic Society issued the first compete recording of Maurice Ravel's <span class="plainlinks">[https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_in_F_major_(Ravel%2C_Maurice) String Quartet in F major]</span>, in whose production the composer had a hand, as a 'version de l'auteur', and in March 1928 it would issue Arnold Bax's <span class="plainlinks">[https://imslp.org/wiki/Moy_Mell%2C_GP_180_(Bax%2C_Arnold) ''Moy Mell'']</span> for two pianos, also a gramophone premiere, as a 'Composer's Edition'; on the N.G.S.'s pursuit and use of the imprimaturs of these and other composers, see Morgan, Nick ''The National Gramophonic Society'', Sheffield: <span class="plainlinks">[https://crqeditions.co.uk/#Books CRQ Editions]</span>, 2016, §6.3, pp.202-07</ref> - but the practice, and any ideas underlying it, were still rather undeveloped, and it seems to have had less traction in the US: tellingly, in its limited publicity for this issue the Chicago Gramophone Society made nothing of Carpenter's participation, while the author of the unsigned review apparently did not have high expectations of his performances:
   'The composer's accompaniments are played with gusto and insight – a rare feat for a composer!'<ref><span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_8/2_8#page/n27/mode/1up 'Special']</span>, in 'Analytical Notes and Reviews', ibid., Vol.2 No.8, May 1928, pp.306-15 (on p.308); like much of the magazine's content, this unsigned review was probably written by Robert D. Darrell (1903-88), see Darrell, R.D. <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.arsc-audio.org/journals/v19/v19n1p4-10.pdf 'O Pioneer (A Half Century Later)']</span>, ''ARSC Journal'', Vol.19 No.1, 1987, pp.4-10 (on p.5)</ref>
-Ten years later, in her last known published recording, for the small New York label <span class="plainlinks">[http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/ijs/musicraftf.html Musicraft]</span>. Hager revisited the ''Water-Colors'', by now somewhat old-fashioned: no one had recorded them again in the intervening decade, and this disc included only the set's first two numbers. The coupling, too, was backward-looking: Carpenter's <span class="plainlinks">[https://imslp.org/wiki/Berceuse_de_guerre_(Carpenter%2C_John_Alden) ''Berceuse de guerre'']</span>, a lullaby-cum-lament composed during World War I on a poem by the Belgian <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cammaerts Emile Cammaerts]</span> (1878-1953). Hager had sung the ''Berceuse'' many times in public, from her New York debut in 1921<ref>'Miss Hager Heard in Pleasing Song Recital Program', ''New York Tribune'', Tuesday 11 October 1921, p.7</ref> until 1932 and possibly later,<ref>'Mina Hager Concert Tuesday Afternoon Of Wide Interest to Music Devotees', ''Miami Daily News'' [Miami, Florida], Sunday 27 March 1932, Society Section, p.2</ref> and she later praised Carpenter's setting for its speech-like quality.<ref>Hager, Mina '"Speak for Yourself, John Alden Carpenter!"', ''Music Journal'', Vol.28 No.3 (March 1970), pp.66-67</ref> The pianist was <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.celiusdougherty.org/gpage6.html Celius Dougherty]</span>, by then well known as an accompanist, although he is not known to have performed in concert with Hager. This was her only record to receive widespread notice in the press.<ref>'Recorded Music', ''The Minneapolis Star'' [Minneapolis, Minnesota], Saturday 3 July 1937, Travel-Radio Music-Books Society, p.9; Simon, Robert A. 'Musical Events', ''The New Yorker'', 10 July 1937, pp.50-53; Pakenham, Compton 'Recent Recordings', ''New York Times'', Sunday 25 July 1937, p.136; Yeiser, Frederick 'Trade Paper', ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'', Sunday 22 August 1937, Section Four Cinema Stage Music, p.[1]; <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/TNR05/The%20New%20Records%20Vol%205#page/n48/mode/1up/ 'Vocal']</span>, ''The New Records'', Vol.5 No.7, September 1937, p.7; A[lec].R[obertson]., 'Musicraft', in 'Analytical Notes and First Reviews', ''The Gramophone'', Vol.XV No.173, October 1937, pp.197-206 (on pp.203-04)</ref>
+Ten years later, in her last known published recording, for the small New York label <span class="plainlinks">[http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/ijs/musicraftf.html Musicraft]</span>, Hager revisited ''Water-Colors''. By now the set must have seemed even more old-fashioned: no one had recorded it again in the intervening decade, and Hager's new disc included only the first two numbers. The coupling, too, was backward-looking: Carpenter's <span class="plainlinks">[https://imslp.org/wiki/Berceuse_de_guerre_(Carpenter%2C_John_Alden) ''Berceuse de guerre'']</span>, a lullaby-cum-lament composed during World War I on a poem by the Belgian <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cammaerts Emile Cammaerts]</span> (1878-1953). Hager had sung the ''Berceuse'' many times in public, from her New York debut in 1921<ref>'Miss Hager Heard in Pleasing Song Recital Program', ''New York Tribune'', Tuesday 11 October 1921, p.7</ref> until 1932 and possibly later,<ref>'Mina Hager Concert Tuesday Afternoon Of Wide Interest to Music Devotees', ''Miami Daily News'' [Miami, Florida], Sunday 27 March 1932, Society Section, p.2</ref> and she later praised Carpenter's setting for its speech-like quality.<ref>Hager, Mina '"Speak for Yourself, John Alden Carpenter!"', ''Music Journal'', Vol.28 No.3 (March 1970), pp.66-67</ref> The pianist was <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.celiusdougherty.org/gpage6.html Celius Dougherty]</span>, well known as an accompanist, although he is not known to have performed in concert with Hager. This was her only record to receive widespread notice in the press.<ref>'Recorded Music', ''The Minneapolis Star'' [Minneapolis, Minnesota], Saturday 3 July 1937, Travel-Radio Music-Books Society, p.9; Simon, Robert A. 'Musical Events', ''The New Yorker'', 10 July 1937, pp.50-53; Pakenham, Compton 'Recent Recordings', ''New York Times'', Sunday 25 July 1937, p.136; Yeiser, Frederick 'Trade Paper', ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'', Sunday 22 August 1937, Section Four Cinema Stage Music, p.[1]; <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/TNR05/The%20New%20Records%20Vol%205#page/n48/mode/1up/ 'Vocal']</span>, ''The New Records'', Vol.5 No.7, September 1937, p.7; A[lec].R[obertson]., 'Musicraft', in 'Analytical Notes and First Reviews', ''The Gramophone'', Vol.XV No.173, October 1937, pp.197-206 (on pp.203-04)</ref>
-Although Hager is not known to have appeared in concert with Carpenter after 1933,<ref>Cass, Judith 'President and Party invited to Attend Paris Ball at Fair', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Friday 5 May 1933, pp.19, 23</ref> his admiration and support for her did not waver. In October 1940, Chicago's Arts Club hosted a recital and lunch party in his honour; with the pianist <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Borowski Felix Borowski]</span>, Hager sang a group of his songs, ending with ''The Home Road'',
+Hager does not appear to have sung in public with Carpenter after 1933,<ref>Cass, Judith 'President and Party invited to Attend Paris Ball at Fair', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Friday 5 May 1933, pp.19, 23</ref> but his admiration and private support for her did not waver. In October 1940, Chicago's Arts Club hosted a recital and lunch party in his honour; with the pianist <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Borowski Felix Borowski]</span>, Hager sang a group of his songs, ending with ''The Home Road'',
   'with every one standing and singing. It's the finest of American patriotic songs, with an all-American lilt to it that brought tears to many who sang. [...] At luncheon upstairs, Mr. Carpenter said it might have been trying to listen to a morning of his own writings were it not for Miss Hager's beautiful triumph over their shortcomings.'<ref>'Cousin Eve' 'Church Filled to Hear Dean Beekman Preach', ''Chicago Sunday Tribune'', 27 October 1940, Part 8, p.2</ref>
 In 1941, he wrote to the composer and critic <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_Thomson Virgil Thomson]</span>, hoping to persuade him to review a forthcoming performance by the singer:
   'It has long been my conviction that Miss Hager has very unusual gifts. [...] She has had some success in a limited way since she left Chicago and established herself in New York some years ago but nothing like the recognition to which, in my judgement, she is entitled.'<ref>Carpenter, John Alden Letter to Virgil Thomson, 2 May 1941, <span class="plainlinks">[http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.thomson Thomson Collection]</span>, Yale University, quoted in Pollack, Howard ''Skyscraper Lullaby'', Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, p.149</ref>
-(The performance has not been identified.) Hager continued to sing Carpenter's songs during World War II, even as her concert career was clearly on the wane (known performances are [[Hager, Mina (mezzo-soprano)#Last appearances|listed on the page of this site]] devoted to her). On 27 July 1952, at the <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Hill_(Ipswich,_Massachusetts) Castle Hill estate]</span> in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a bandshell was dedicated to the memory of the composer, who had died the year before. The bandshell, 'suitable for chamber operas, ballets, and small orchestra concerts', was donated by his widow and friends, for the estate's recently established music festival. Mina Hager sang his songs, George Roth (another champion of the composer) some piano works, and the New Music String Quartet his String Quartet.<ref>Page, Eleanor 'J.A. Carpenter Memorial to Be Dedicated', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Wednesday 23 July 1952, Part 2, p.3; 'Music Stage Dedicated', ''New York Times'', Monday 28 July 1952, p.12; Wickham, Ina 'Catching The Beat In Music World Today', ''Democrat And Times'' [Davenport, Iowa], Sunday 10 August 1952, p.38</ref> Much later in life, Hager wrote a touching and perceptive tribute to Carpenter:
+(The performance has not been identified.) Hager continued to sing Carpenter's songs during World War II, when her concert career was clearly on the wane (known performances are [[Hager, Mina (mezzo-soprano)#Last appearances|listed on the page of this site]] devoted to her), and after the composer's death in 1951.  On 27 July 1952, at the <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Hill_(Ipswich,_Massachusetts) Castle Hill estate]</span> in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a bandshell was dedicated to his memory. Donated by his widow and friends, it was 'suitable for chamber operas, ballets, and small orchestra concerts', to be given during the estate's recently established music festival. Mina Hager sang some of his songs, George Roth (another champion of the composer) played piano pieces, and the New Music String Quartet performed his String Quartet.<ref>Page, Eleanor 'J.A. Carpenter Memorial to Be Dedicated', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Wednesday 23 July 1952, Part 2, p.3; 'Music Stage Dedicated', ''New York Times'', Monday 28 July 1952, p.12; Wickham, Ina 'Catching The Beat In Music World Today', ''Democrat And Times'' [Davenport, Iowa], Sunday 10 August 1952, p.38</ref> Much later in life, Hager wrote a touching and perceptive tribute to Carpenter:
-  'he was a rare individual. He did not happen to be one of those artists who must work in attics, but I am not sure it was any easier to compose in the atmosphere into which he was born. [...] His accompaniments which are not only very beautiful but also occasionally very demanding are evidence of the fact that he was a fine pianist. His playing was very exciting and not like any other pianist I have ever heard. [...] He had an exceptional gift of comprehension and of expressing his opinions with clarity, honesty and humor, qualities which proved invaluable in his business career and in dealing with temperamental conductors and singers. He had a peculiar awareness of Nature, a delight in children, especially in his own adorable daughter for whom he wrote many of his songs. Happily, for me, all of this comes alive again in his music.'<ref>Hager, Mina '"Speak for Yourself, John Alden Carpenter!"', ''Music Journal'', Vol.28 No.3 (March 1970), pp.66-67</ref>
+  '[...] he was a rare individual. He did not happen to be one of those artists who must work in attics, but I am not sure it was any easier to compose in the atmosphere into which he was born. [...] His accompaniments which are not only very beautiful but also occasionally very demanding are evidence of the fact that he was a fine pianist. His playing was very exciting and not like any other pianist I have ever heard. [...] He had an exceptional gift of comprehension and of expressing his opinions with clarity, honesty and humor, qualities which proved invaluable in his business career and in dealing with temperamental conductors and singers. He had a peculiar awareness of Nature, a delight in children, especially in his own adorable daughter for whom he wrote many of his songs. Happily, for me, all of this comes alive again in his music.'<ref>Hager, Mina '"Speak for Yourself, John Alden Carpenter!"', ''Music Journal'', Vol.28 No.3 (March 1970), pp.66-67</ref>
 ==Recordings==

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 In October 1927, Fisher <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_1/2_1#page/n10/mode/1up told]</span> readers of ''The Review'',
   'I am allowed to announce, very tentatively, that The Chicago Gramophone Society will have ready for Christmas time another set of records. [...] I do not feel that things are yet definite enough for me to announce the title of the work selected for recording, but can assure all interested that it will be one every bit as interesting as the last.'<ref>[Fisher,] Vories <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_1/2_1#page/n10/mode/1up 'Recorded Remnants']</span>, ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'', Vol.2 No.1, October 1927, pp.9-10 (on p.10)</ref>
-In November, the ''Review'' relayed another communication from Fisher, explaining that 'an over-crowded schedule at the recording studios has necessitated the postponement for a few weeks of the making of these records', again with no hint as to their contents; perhaps these were still under negotiation.<ref>Johnson, Axel B. <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_2/2_2#page/n2/mode/1up 'General Review']</span>, ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'', Vol.2 No.2, November 1927, pp.[41]-45 (on p.<span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_2/2_2#page/n5/mode/1up 44]</span>)</ref> The recordings were finally made during the following month: Carpenter's disc on 5 December, and a companion disc of songs by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, also sung by Hager but with a [[Kimsey, Lora Orth (piano)|different pianist]], a week later.<ref>All details of Columbia recording sessions for the Chicago Gramophone Society were ascertained, from original Columbia matrix cards now held by Sony Music Entertainment in New York, by Michael H. Gray, whose kind help is gratefully acknowledged; personal communication, 30 September 2015</ref> The [[Chicago Gramophone Society 50019-P, 50020-P|issue]] was announced in full in January 1928: consisting again of two 12-inch (30 cm) discs, it was pressed in a limited edition of 200 sets, priced at $5 each, and distributed later that month or in early February.<ref><span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_4/2_4#page/n26/mode/1up 'The Chicago Gramophone Society hereby announces (...)']</span> (notice), in 'Phonograph Society Reports', ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'', Vol.2 No.4, January 1928, pp.146-47 (on p.146); [[Pollak, Robert]] <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v004-i08/mvol-0010-v004-i08.xml;#page/28/mode/1up 'Current Records']</span>, ''The Chicagoan'', Vol.4 No.8, 14 January 1928, p.26</ref> For a small, amateur enterprise, this was a significant achievement: the fifth published record of any work by Carpenter, and his first (and only) published disc as a pianist, it also immortalized the partnership between the composer and one of his most devoted interpreters.
+In November, the ''Review'' relayed another communication from Fisher, explaining that 'an over-crowded schedule at the recording studios has necessitated the postponement for a few weeks of the making of these records', again with no hint as to their contents; perhaps these were still under negotiation.<ref>Johnson, Axel B. <span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_2/2_2#page/n2/mode/1up 'General Review']</span>, ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'', Vol.2 No.2, November 1927, pp.[41]-45 (on p.<span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_2/2_2#page/n5/mode/1up 44]</span>)</ref> The recordings were finally made during the following month, by Columbia's <span class="plainlinks">[http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/111 'Personal Record' Department]</span>: Carpenter's disc was completed on 5 December, when a start was made on a companion disc of songs by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, also sung by Hager but with a [[Kimsey, Lora Orth (piano)|different pianist]]; that was less successful and required a second session a week later.<ref>All details of Columbia recording sessions for the Chicago Gramophone Society were ascertained, from original Columbia matrix cards now held by Sony Music Entertainment in New York, by Michael H. Gray, whose kind help is gratefully acknowledged; personal communication, 30 September 2015</ref> The [[Chicago Gramophone Society 50019-P, 50020-P|issue]] was announced in full in January 1928: consisting as before of two 12-inch (30 cm) discs, it was pressed in a limited edition of 200 sets, priced at $5 each, and distributed later that month or in early February.<ref><span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_4/2_4#page/n26/mode/1up 'The Chicago Gramophone Society hereby announces (...)']</span> (notice), in 'Phonograph Society Reports', ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'', Vol.2 No.4, January 1928, pp.146-47 (on p.146); [[Pollak, Robert]] <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v004-i08/mvol-0010-v004-i08.xml;#page/28/mode/1up 'Current Records']</span>, ''The Chicagoan'', Vol.4 No.8, 14 January 1928, p.26</ref> For a small, amateur enterprise, this was a significant achievement: the fifth published record of any work by Carpenter, and his first (and only) published disc as a pianist, it also immortalized the partnership between the composer and one of his most devoted interpreters.
 ===Mina Hager===

@@ Line 93: / Line 93: @@
 '''Notes'''
-Made, presumably, in the studios of Columbia's 'Personal Record' Department in New York, the above recording is attributed in an unknown private source to the Chicago Gramophone Society.<ref>The recording has been auditioned from a digital copy of a good transfer, in which all sides have been edited together, once or twice obscuring the exact locations of side-breaks; other than the matrix and take numbers and recording date, no further details, or images of the original disc labels, were available</ref> This is highly unlikely. The Society was not officially [[Chicago Gramophone Society#Formation|founded]] until just under a year later. Not only were there no members to pay for such a project, a set of nine sides (or ten, with a filler) would have been beyond the future Society's means, not to mention an impractical proposition.<ref>The first issued commercial recording of ''Skyscrapers'', made by Victor on 1 May 1932 and conducted by <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Shilkret Nathaniel Shilkret]</span>, was laid out, in line with contemporary commercial practice for such works, on six 12-inch (30 cm) 78 rpm sides (in Victor Album M-130, 'manual'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/171735/Victor_11250 11250]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/171741/Victor_11252 52]</span>, Album AM-130, 'automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279422/Victor_11253 11253]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279424/Victor_11255 55]</span>, and Album DM-130, 'drop automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279423/Victor_13227 13227]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279426/Victor_13229 29]</span>), as well as on three 12-inch 33⅓ rpm long-playing sides (on Victor long-playing 'manual'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/70328/Victor_L-11618 L-11618]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/70329/Victor_L-11619 19]</span> and 'automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279431/Victor_L-11691 L-11691]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279432/Victor_L-11692 92]</span>)</ref> Moreover, this recording was clearly meant not for public audition but as an aid to the ballet's first production at the <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera Metropolitan Opera]</span> in New York, where the world premiere was given two months later, on 19 February 1926.<ref>'The Musical Go-Getter', ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', Saturday 20 February 1926, p.6; Cushing, Edward 'Music of the Day', ibid.</ref> The ballet's genesis had already cost Carpenter considerable effort, as revealed in an <span class="plainlinks">[http://lmhsbd.oicrm.org/media/ART-LM-1926-01.pdf interview]</span> between its designer, <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Edmond_Jones Robert Edmond Jones]</span>, and the founding editor of ''Modern Music'', <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minna_Lederman Minna Lederman]</span>:
+Made, presumably, in the studios of Columbia's 'Personal Record' Department in New York, the above recording is attributed in an unknown private source to the Chicago Gramophone Society.<ref>The recording has been auditioned from a digital copy of a good transfer, in which all sides have been edited together, once or twice obscuring the exact locations of side-breaks; other than the matrix and take numbers and recording date, no further details, or images of the original disc labels, were available</ref> This is highly unlikely. The Society was not officially [[Chicago Gramophone Society#Formation|founded]] until just under a year later. Not only were there no members to pay for such a project, a set of nine sides (or ten, with a filler) would have been beyond the future Society's means, not to mention an impractical proposition.<ref>The first issued commercial recording of ''Skyscrapers'', made by Victor on 1 May 1932 and conducted by <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Shilkret Nathaniel Shilkret]</span>, was laid out, in line with contemporary commercial practice for such works, on six 12-inch (30 cm) 78 rpm sides (in Victor Album M-130, 'manual'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/171735/Victor_11250 11250]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/171741/Victor_11252 52]</span>, Album AM-130, 'automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279422/Victor_11253 11253]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279424/Victor_11255 55]</span>, and Album DM-130, 'drop automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279423/Victor_13227 13227]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279426/Victor_13229 29]</span>), as well as on three 12-inch 33⅓ rpm long-playing sides (on Victor long-playing 'manual'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/70328/Victor_L-11618 L-11618]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/70329/Victor_L-11619 19]</span> and 'automatic'-coupled discs <span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279431/Victor_L-11691 L-11691]</span>><span class="plainlinks">[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/279432/Victor_L-11692 92]</span>)</ref> Moreover, this recording was clearly meant not for public audition but as an aid to the ballet's first production at the <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera Metropolitan Opera]</span> in New York, where the world premiere was given two months later, on 19 February 1926.<ref>'The Musical Go-Getter', ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', Saturday 20 February 1926, p.6; Cushing, Edward 'Music of the Day', ibid.</ref> The ballet's genesis had already cost Carpenter considerable effort, as was revealed in an <span class="plainlinks">[http://lmhsbd.oicrm.org/media/ART-LM-1926-01.pdf interview]</span> between its designer, <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Edmond_Jones Robert Edmond Jones]</span>, and the founding editor of ''Modern Music'', <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minna_Lederman Minna Lederman]</span>:
   'To discover what stimulus music rather than drama gives the painter, we casually asked [Mr. Jones] whether he worked from the score or the libretto. His unexpected replies led us to the story of the making of this ballet, the details of which are given here to record a pioneer effort from which an art-form emerged [...] ''Skyscrapers'' originally, it appears, had no libretto, no plot, no dance designs, not even a locale. In the beginning there was only the music and it is directly from this that the production has been built — built by the composer and the designer of scenes without the traditional choreographer. [...] A reversal of the usual routine, which is to start with the story, then proceed to the music and the stage picture, was therefore in order. Mr. Carpenter played the score repeatedly and from the music itself Mr. Jones evolved the scenes [...] Retreating to a farmhouse in Vermont they took the music and the scene designs and set to without story, plan or dancer. Their procedure is described by Mr. Jones: "Carpenter would play the music giving me an impression of the changing orchestration. He played each passage over and over again for hours. This would give me certain ideas of movement for which I drew tentative designs, to be discussed with him. Countless series of patterns were made during six months of gruelling, unremitting labor."'<ref>M[inna].L[ederman]. <span class="plainlinks">[http://lmhsbd.oicrm.org/media/ART-LM-1926-01.pdf 'Skyscrapers, an Experiment in Design: An Interview with Robert Edmond Jones']</span>, ''Modern Music'', Vol.3 No.2, January-February 1926, pp.21-26</ref>
 (The 'farmhouse in Vermont' was probably Carpenter's 'summer place' in <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte,_Vermont Charlotte]</span><ref>Among many press references to the Carpenters' 'summer place', see e.g. R.—, Nancy 'John Alden Carpenter House in Rush Street Is Taken by Paepckes', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Tuesday 17 August 1926, p.29; 'Miss Carpenter to Be Married In Charlotte', ''Burlington Free Press and Times'' [Burlington, Vermont], Tuesday 29 May 1928, p.7</ref>). Even then, Carpenter's work was not done, according to a review of the first night:
   'The opera stage management and Mr. Carpenter himself had worked three weeks drilling the large company in the scenes of "Work, Play, and Work Again," which formed what plot the ballet offered.'<ref>'Carpenter Jazz Ballet Gives New York Kick', ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Saturday 20 February 1926, p.15</ref>
-This brief account leaves unclear exactly what happened behind the scenes at the Met. Presumably, repetiteurs were available, but perhaps the score, full of devices borrowed from the epoch-making ballets of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, was considered difficult enough for dancers that the composer's help was required. If so, Carpenter can hardly have been expected to put himself through three more weeks of arduous keyboard work, and his records would have been an excellent substitute; significantly, he played mainly the score's rhythmic skeleton, as one would for dancers, while singing and even whistling the salient melodic lines. Perhaps, too, the discs served as an interpretative guide to the conductor of the first run, <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Hasselmans Louis Hasselmans]</span>. It is not known how the sides were pressed, whether in 'automatic' couplings, to facilitate continuous playback on one machine, or in the conventional 'manual' sequence, or even 'single-faced'; in the latter cases, two machines would have been needed.
+This brief account leaves unclear exactly what happened behind the scenes at the Met. Presumably, repetiteurs were available, but perhaps the score, strongly reminiscent of the epoch-making ballets of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, was considered difficult enough for dancers that the composer's help was required. But Carpenter can hardly have been expected to put himself through three more weeks of arduous keyboard work; his records would have been an excellent substitute, with the composer playing mainly the score's rhythmic skeleton, as one would for dancers, while singing and even whistling the salient melodic lines. The discs could also have served as an interpretative guide to the conductor of the first run, <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Hasselmans Louis Hasselmans]</span>. It is not known how the sides were pressed, whether in 'automatic' couplings to facilitate continuous playback on one machine, in the conventional 'manual' sequence, or even 'single-faced'.
-This recording is a remarkable document: it preserves not only some 27½ minutes of Carpenter's piano-playing, singing and whistling, but also a slightly different version of the score from <span class="plainlinks">[https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/skyscrapers_26704 that published]</span> by Schirmer in 1927. At the very start, an unidentified man instructs the listener to 'Adjust or tune your phonograph to this A'; someone, presumably Carpenter, sounds the A above middle C three times on the piano. The music starts almost immediately, unannounced, but then the person who gave the preliminary instruction calls out rehearsal cues, 'Number One', 'Number Two' etc. These usually correspond in placing to the figures (starting at 1) printed in the published score, but soon diverge in number: an interpolated 'Number 7a' ushers in a slightly different version of Scene III, so that when 'Number 8' is called it corresponds to published figure 9, and so on until another discrepant section after 'Number 43' / fig.44, which widens the gap yet further. The reduction which Carpenter recorded was presumably sight-read from his composing score, or a reworking of it which emerged after the weeks closeted with Jones in Vermont.<ref>No piano reduction of ''Skyscrapers'' appears to have been published. One or more manuscript piano scores were given to <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Diaghilev Serge Diaghilev]</span>, who commissioned the work for his <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballets_Russes Ballets russes]</span> but did not mount it; see Watts, Carolyn ''America in the Transatlantic Imagination: The Ballets Russes and John Alden Carpenter's Skyscrapers'' (MA thesis), School of Music, University of Ottawa, 2015, pp.55, 58-59; the fate of these MSS has not been ascertained</ref> Not the least remarkable aspect of the recording is the verve of Carpenter's performance, which conjures up an image of him hammering out the ballet's scenario with Jones at the farmhouse's piano. The fact that all sides are pressed from takes -1, and contain no fluffs or restarts, suggests the music was still very fresh in the composer's mind and under his fingers (although this may also have been an economy measure; to record 9 ten-inch sides and press three copies of each, Columbia charged something in the region of $450<ref>Thanks to research carried out by <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.timbrooks.net/ Tim Brooks]</span>, Columbia's 'Personal Record' rates for 1917-18 are documented, and are summarized in Brooks, Tim <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/82bnq3sk9780252028502.html ''Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919'']</span> (first paperback edition), University of Illinois Press, 2005, pp.442-43; it is not known if, or how much, the rates had changed by 1927</ref>). Carpenter's infectious projection of the score's essence must have helped to motivate the dancers and players for the first run at the Met. Although an ostensibly 'functional' run-through, it is vivid and involving, and deserves to be more widely heard and investigated further.
+This recording is a remarkable document: it preserves not only some 27½ minutes of Carpenter's piano-playing, singing and whistling, but also a slightly different version of the score from <span class="plainlinks">[https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/skyscrapers_26704 that published]</span> by Schirmer in 1927. At the very start, an uncredited male voice instructs the listener to 'Adjust or tune your phonograph to this A'; someone, presumably Carpenter, sounds A above middle C three times on the piano. The music starts almost immediately, unannounced, but then the voice which gave the preliminary instruction calls out rehearsal cues, 'Number One', 'Number Two' etc. These usually correspond in placing to the figures (starting at 1) printed in the published score, but soon diverge in numbering: an interpolated 'Number 7a' ushers in a slightly different version of Scene III, so that when 'Number 8' is called it corresponds to published figure 9, and so on until another discrepant section after 'Number 43' / fig.44, which widens the gap yet further. Carpenter presumably sight-read his composing score as he played, or a reworking of it which emerged after the weeks closeted with Jones in Vermont.<ref>No piano reduction of ''Skyscrapers'' appears to have been published. One or more manuscript piano scores were given to <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Diaghilev Serge Diaghilev]</span>, who commissioned the work for his <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballets_Russes Ballets russes]</span> but did not mount it; see Watts, Carolyn ''America in the Transatlantic Imagination: The Ballets Russes and John Alden Carpenter's Skyscrapers'' (MA thesis), School of Music, University of Ottawa, 2015, pp.55, 58-59; the fate of these MSS has not been ascertained</ref> Not the least remarkable aspect of the recording is the verve of Carpenter's performance, which conjures up an image of the two hammering out the ballet's scenario at the farmhouse's piano. The facts that all sides are pressed from take -1, and are free of fluffs and restarts, suggest the music was still very fresh in the composer's mind and well under his fingers, although this may also have been an economy measure; to record 9 ten-inch sides and press three copies of each, Columbia charged something in the region of $450.<ref>Thanks to research carried out by <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.timbrooks.net/ Tim Brooks]</span>, Columbia's 'Personal Record' rates for 1917-18 are documented, and are summarized in Brooks, Tim <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/82bnq3sk9780252028502.html ''Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919'']</span> (first paperback edition), University of Illinois Press, 2005, pp.442-43; it is not known if, or how much, the rates had changed by 1927</ref> Carpenter's infectious projection of the score's essence must have helped to motivate the dancers and players for the first run at the Met. Although an ostensibly 'functional' run-through, it is vivid and involving, and deserves to be more widely heard and investigated further.
-In addition to the above factory-pressed discs, Carpenter is named as pianist in one of [[Hager, Mina (mezzo-soprano)#Non-commercial|many recordings]] (78 rpm and 33⅓ rpm discs, substrates and systems mostly unknown, and audio tapes) held at the Newberry Library in Chicago alongside the <span class="plainlinks">[https://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/hager.xml Mina Hager Papers]</span>. As no pianists are credited for the majority of these, it is possible that the collection includes other recordings of Carpenter as pianist than the one listed below.
+In addition to the above factory-pressed discs, Carpenter is named as pianist in one of [[Hager, Mina (mezzo-soprano)#Non-commercial|many recordings]] (78 rpm and 33⅓ rpm discs, substrates and systems mostly unknown, and audio tapes) held at the Newberry Library in Chicago alongside the <span class="plainlinks">[https://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/hager.xml Mina Hager Papers]</span>. As no pianists are credited for the majority of these, it is possible that the collection includes further recordings of Carpenter as pianist.
 {| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%"

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 ''Pierrot lunaire'' must have left a lasting impression on Chicago music-lovers, for the Society to drop its name in this way. Ten months earlier, Vories Fisher had relayed to readers of ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'' a rumour that a 'semi-private' recording society in Berlin
   'have made much Ernst Kreneck [sic], they have made the Strawinski "Histoire d'un Soldat" [sic], and (and this one I consider the most important) they have made the Schöenberg "Pierrot Lunnaire" [sic].'
-(The rumour was false.) It is not known if Fisher attended any of Hager's Chicago performances the year before, but his enthusiasm is hard to explain otherwise. There could be no question of taking on composers as difficult as Schoenberg and Stravinsky. But Fisher and Pollak could certainly afford to take a gamble on another name from the Allied Arts repertoire: the one which Pollak had mentioned in the same breath as the others, although economy again dictated that ''Water-Colors'' was recorded in Carpenter's original setting with solo piano, as the orchestral version would have been too expensive. And, of course, Hager was well placed to approach the composer to record it with her - better, perhaps, than Pollak, who had been <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v002-i05/mvol-0010-v002-i05.xml#page/18/mode/2up/ less than complimentary]</span> about Carpenter's new ballet <span class="plainlinks">[http://americansymphony.org/skyscrapers/ ''Skyscrapers'']</span> at its Chicago premiere, though he later published a favourable <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v007-i04/mvol-0010-v007-i04.xml#page/26/mode/1up profile]</span> of the composer.<ref>Pollak, Robert <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v002-i05/mvol-0010-v002-i05.xml#page/18/mode/2up/ 'Musical Notes']</span>, ''The Chicagoan'', Vol.2 No.5, 15 November 1926, pp.16-17; id. <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v007-i04/mvol-0010-v007-i04.xml#page/26/mode/1up 'Chicagoans John Alden Carpenter']</span>, ibid., Vol.7 No.4, 11 May 1929, pp.24-25</ref>
+(The rumour was false.) It is not known if Fisher attended any of Hager's Allied Arts performances of ''Pierrot lunaire'' the year before; his enthusiasm is hard to explain otherwise, although he was enough of a collector to be motivated by rarity and novelty more than by musical enjoyment. Still, while there could be no question of his own Society taking on composers as difficult as Schoenberg and Stravinsky, he and Pollak could certainly afford to take a gamble on another name from the Allied Arts repertoire: the one which Pollak had mentioned in the same breath as the others, although economy again dictated that ''Water-Colors'' was recorded in Carpenter's original setting with solo piano, as the orchestral version would have been too expensive. And, of course, Hager was well placed to approach the composer to record it with her - better, perhaps, than Pollak, who had been <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v002-i05/mvol-0010-v002-i05.xml#page/18/mode/2up/ less than complimentary]</span> about Carpenter's new ballet <span class="plainlinks">[http://americansymphony.org/skyscrapers/ ''Skyscrapers'']</span> at its Chicago premiere, though he later published a favourable <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v007-i04/mvol-0010-v007-i04.xml#page/26/mode/1up profile]</span> of the composer.<ref>Pollak, Robert <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v002-i05/mvol-0010-v002-i05.xml#page/18/mode/2up/ 'Musical Notes']</span>, ''The Chicagoan'', Vol.2 No.5, 15 November 1926, pp.16-17; id. <span class="plainlinks">[http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v007-i04/mvol-0010-v007-i04.xml#page/26/mode/1up 'Chicagoans John Alden Carpenter']</span>, ibid., Vol.7 No.4, 11 May 1929, pp.24-25</ref>
 Carpenter's involvement in the Society's production might well have been minimal: it says much for his friendship with Hager that he was prepared to travel to New York and play for just two sides (whether he had other business in the city on 5 December 1927 has not been ascertained). The recording seems to have gone without a hitch. As was the practice at the time, two takes of each side were set down, of which the second of both was issued; by contrast, the other two sides, which Hager recorded with [[Kimsey, Lora Orth (piano)|another pianist]], had to be remade a week later, and were both issued from fourth takes. No test pressings have come to light; Carpenter must surely have been asked to 'pass' the chosen takes, if only as a courtesy, and offered a complimentary copy of the pressed issue, but this too can not be confirmed. Whatever its genesis and gestation, the Chicago Gramophone Society's issue of ''Water-Colors'' was a notable gramophone premiere. Understandably, as a limited, non-commercial edition, it was reviewed only in ''The Phonograph Monthly Review'',<ref><span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/stream/PMR_2_8/2_8#page/n27/mode/1up 'Special']</span>, in 'Analytical Notes and Reviews', ibid., Vol.2 No.8, May 1928, pp.306-15 (on p.308)</ref> not, as far as is known, in other musical periodicals or in the general press. More surprisingly, neither Carpenter's nor Hager's recollections or opinions of it are documented. Hager seems not to have retained a copy of the disc; it is not among the many recordings donated with her papers to the Newberry Library in Chicago.<ref>Once again, my thanks to Bill Anderson for confirming in person what is implied by the <span class="plainlinks">[https://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/hager.xml#series4 inventory]</span> of Mina Hager's sound recordings held at the Newberry Library</ref> Whether the composer kept one is likewise not known; in general, Carpenter's views on the gramophone appear not to have been canvassed. Perhaps he was not that interested in making recordings for public consumption: he appeared once more on a commercial disc (see [[#Commercial|below]]), although he had previously made one remarkable, not to say historic, if [[#Private|private, purely utilitarian recording]]. Or perhaps he was uncertain of the reception his piano-playing would receive from the gramophone audience, unseen and unknown. Such a fear was not unfounded. Today, a composer's recorded performance, or personal supervision of one, almost automatically accrues a special interest and authenticity. At the time, if the sole, anonymous review of the Society's second issue is anything to go by, the opposite was true: