Difference between revisions of "Classical 'Society' Records by Nick Morgan"

Revision as of 09:48, 8 February 2019

This site is devoted to classical 'society' records, labels and editions of the '78 rpm' (short-play, coarse-groove) record era.

It documents:

• the records themselves
• the artists who performed on these records
• the organisations which published these records
• the individuals who founded and ran these organisations
• (where possible and relevant) the contemporary reception of these records by the societies' members, critics and others

It is researched, written and published by Nick Morgan. It employs the open-source software package MediaWiki, but it isn't affiliated with Wikipedia, and it is not a wiki: editing has been disabled for readers, but you are of course very welcome to send in corrections, additional information and constructive criticism.

Main page

This is the main page. It summarizes the site's genesis, aims, scope, structure, sources, quirks and so on. It is accessible via the link in the left-hand sidebar on any page.

Once you've read this page, and if you intend to visit the site again, you might find it might be more useful to bookmark the list of all pages, which you can also access via the left-hand sidebar on any page.

For dates of creation and latest update, please see 'Page information' in left sidebar.

Genesis

This site grew out of a doctoral study of the National Gramophonic Society (N.G.S.) of Great Britain, completed in 2013 and published in 2016.^[1]

The N.G.S. apparently pioneered the 'society' model of record production in 1924; no earlier instance is known of a publisher or society which financed recordings by subscription, and sold them solely or principally to subscribers and members.

From 1931, this model was taken up by the Gramophone Company of Great Britain, for 'society' editions on its labels His Masters' Voice (H.M.V.; first issue in spring 1932^[2]), Columbia (first issue in late 1935^[3]) and Parlophone (first issue in late 1935^[4]); all of these were more or less successful, some running to several volumes. (In late 1935, Decca launched a 'Purcell Club',^[5] but it was not funded by subscription, nor were its issues for sale only to members;^[6] after this, nothing more was heard of the Purcell Club or any other Decca 'club' issues.)

Many of these later 'society' editions became classics of the gramophone, and some are still available today in transfers to modern media. Much less well known are the records issued by a handful of small, independent labels which also adopted the N.G.S.'s 'society' model, initially in Japan and the USA. These labels do not seem to have been studied or documented in any detail; they, along with the N.G.S., are the subjects of this site.

Finally, after World War II, a variety of subscription and 'club' labels (some of them already active in the 78 rpm era) entered the market in long-playing records, a development outside the scope of this site.

Aims

The aims of this site are:

• To document its subject
• To contribute to the historiography of classical, (mostly) instrumental music on record
• To help music-lovers, students and collectors find recordings they may not know of, or may not have been able to track down
• To experiment with discographical content
• To experiment with publishing online

This site was originally planned as a collection of label discographies, plus brief histories of each label and basic information about artists. Over time, though, the entries on artists have grown into much fuller biographies, and similar treatment has been given to the individuals who ran 'society' labels. In particular, artists' histories of performance - in concert, on stage or on air - are charted in sometimes admittedly overwhelming detail. Researching performance histories is time-consuming, and it is hardly reasonable to expect all discographies to include them. But surely classical discography, in particular, can no longer be divorced from the context of artists' and entrepreneurs' careers. The question then arises, how best to present the resulting mass of information. This site's partly discursive, partly documentary pages don't always make for easy reading; they're the best that could be done with limited resources, skills and imagination. Ideally, what the hoped-for marriage of discography and performance history needs is software which allows readers to zoom in, from a graspable, readable overview of an artist's career, to the fullest details of concerts, broadcasts and recordings, preferably also displaying historical sources such as concert programmes in their original setting and typography. Discography must be brought into the 'digital humanities' fold, perhaps by harnessing something like Wolfram Alpha.

This seems still some way off, but publishing online already has immediate and obvious advantages. Web pages can be created, corrected and updated more easily and cheaply than printed pages. Perhaps most importantly, they can be searched, and searched for. (It's often claimed that leafing through printed reference works leads to serendipitous finds; so does browsing websites.) And they can make better use of the rich resources of the internet. Wherever possible, this site links to online reference sources (including Wikipedia, though not, haters will be relieved to learn, as a discographical source), digitized historical documents, images, sounds and so on.

None of the above is intended in anyway to disparage existing printed discographies, many of which are justly famous, highly respected and unlikely to be surpassed. But print publishing is not the way forward, and discography both old and new is moving online.

Scope

Definitions

What were record 'societies'? They have not been studied in depth, academically or for a general readership.^[7]

For the purposes of this site, they can can divided into two types:

• societies formed by owners and users of records and record-players, so as to further their knowledge and enjoyment of both
• societies which commissioned and/or published recordings for their members' benefit

The second type grew out of the first, and is the principal subject of this site.

Several languages have words which can be translated into English as 'society' but in a commercial or industrial context denote a 'company': not all record businesses whose names included such a term were record 'societies' of the second type above, notably:

• Association phonique des grands artistes (France), a commercial company formed by a coalition of artists (mainly singers) who wished to control their recording activities and remuneration;^[8] as far as is known, it issued standard, mainstream repertoire of its time (1906-1910), which it marketed through normal retail channels, without restriction
• Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (Germany), during the period under study a limited (joint-stock) company^[9]
• Schweizerische Tonkunstplatten-Gesellschaft, alias Société Suisse des Disques Phonographiques d'Art (Switzerland), a commercial label based in Zurich^[10]
• Sociedad fonográfica española Hugens y Acosta (Spain), a commercial producer of cylinder records, active c.1899-1911^[11]
• Société éditrice musique sacrée (widely known as 'Musique au Vatican') (France), a commercial joint venture between the Vatican and a Paris-based record company, offering a curious mix of repertoire, from the very obscure to the well-known, recorded by performers mostly associated with Papal music establishments^[12]
• Society of Participating Artists (USA), a later, 'artist-owned' label of the long-playing record era, founded by the conductor Charles Adler^[13]

By contrast, what the 'societies' documented here had in common was that they offered repertoire which commercial companies considered too limited in appeal to sell on records. Two financed their issues by subscription, payable in advance, while one required payment only on delivery. Issues were sold mainly to subscribers or members, but some were also available (at the time or later) to any buyer. The Friends of Recorded Music operated as a society but did not finance its issues by subscription; nevertheless, it is included here because it overtly modelled itself on the National Gramophonic Society, and issued only previously unrecorded repertoire. It also seems that, again like the N.G.S., it was not a legally constituted commercial entity but a sideline of its parent business, a record magazine. Likewise, the two smaller societies documented here had no legal status. All these organisations contracted out the production of their issues to commercial record companies, who had the industrial facilities needed to record and press shellac discs. 'Society' editions were limited, and in principle were not re-pressed once sold out, although this principle too proved flexible.

Thus, the principal features of society labels were, in varying combinations:

• specialist, uncommercial repertoire
• subscription
• membership
• limited editions
• non-legal, informal constitution

The large commercial companies' 'society' editions shared some or most of these attributes, except the last.

Labels

Initially, this site will document the following labels:

• the Chicago Gramophone Society (USA)
• Dainippon Meikyoku Rekōdo Seisaku Hanpu Kwai (大日本名曲レコード制作頒布会) (Japan)
• The Friends of Recorded Music (USA)
• the National Gramophonic Society (N.G.S.) (US)

For future inclusion

• Cherubini Society (UK)
• Concert Hall Society (USA)
• Croydon Celebrity Recording Society (UK)
• Handel Society (USA)
• Haydn Society (USA), both a music publisher and a record label, founded in Boston in early 1949 by a group including the musicologist and champion of Haydn H.C. Robbins Landon. Funded initially by an uncle's bequest to Robbins Landon, the Society adopted subscription to finance its first issues, which were limited, numbered editions not sold via retail,^[14] and rewarded subscribers with discounts. But its recordings sold so well that this soon became unnecessary, and the label operated for most of its existence as a standard commercial concern. It has been documented by Robbins Landon's friend and colleague Christopher Raeburn,^[15] although its beginnings as a short-lived 'society' label of the 78 rpm era still merit further investigation

The Gramophone Company's celebrated 'society' editions, and Decca's sole 'club' edition, have been documented only rather haphazardly, in discographies and general histories, and in transfers to other media, but no dedicated monograph or discography has charted in detail their genesis, production, issue, life in the catalogues, reception and after-life; in future, if time and resources allow, these editions may be added to this site.

At the time of writing (autumn 2018), it is not known if the following labels fall within the scope of this site:

• Bach Society (US)
• Bu-Scha (Bund deutscher Schallplattenfreunde, 'League of German Record-Lovers') (Germany), a poorly documented mail-order 'club' label
• DeBeGe (Germany), affiliated with a book club (Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 'German Book Association')^[16]
• Eboracum Record Society (UK)
• Isis society, Oxford (UK); sometimes listed as Isis Recording Studios, this may have been a custom recording business rather than a publisher
• Neglected Masterpieces Recording Company (UK); sometimes listed as Neglected Masterpieces Recording Society, probably erroneously, this appears to have been a subsidiary of the London-based commercial company Oriole Records
• Volksverband der Musikfreunde (V.d.M, 'People's Club of Music-Lovers') (Germany), a poorly documented mail-order 'club' label

Finally, if previously unknown society editions or labels are discovered, they will also be added.

Chronological scope

In principle, the period covered by this site is the '78 rpm' era. As of late 2018 its scope extended from late 1923, when the N.G.S. was first mooted, to late 1940, the date of the last known issue by The Friends of Recorded Music.

Repertoire

The earliest societies documented here issued mainly chamber and solo instrumental music, and only a small amount of vocal music. There were several reasons for this. It happened that Compton Mackenzie, founder of the N.G.S., was especially fond of chamber music, and especially outraged by what he perceived as its wilful neglect by commercial record companies. He was not entirely wrong: until the later 1920s, chamber music did form a very small proportion of commercial catalogues of classical records, whereas vocal music, especially operatic solos and small ensembles, had been one of their mainstays from the beginning.^[17] Mackenzie founded the N.G.S. to redress this imbalance, and chamber music (for two to eight instruments) made up just over 80% of its issued output, with orchestral and instrumental music well behind, at just under 10% and nearly 7%, respectively. Another important consideration was cost: chamber and instrumental music were relatively inexpensive to record (although this was also true of, say, vocal solos or duets). Undeniably, too, chamber music had a certain 'highbrow' cachet, which made it attractive to those interested in projecting or affirming taste and status, whether real or desired.

Record societies outside Britain also tended to privilege instrumental over vocal music. In Japan, the N.G.S.'s earliest imitator initially commissioned a solo piano set, followed by a string quartet; it then went to the opposite extreme, with Beethoven's Missa solemnis in D major Op.123, occupying twenty-one sides, the most substantial issue documented here, and surely motivated as much by the 1927 centenary of Beethoven's death, and the expanded capabilities afforded by electrical recording, as by its vocal character. The Chicago Gramophone Society's output was too small - two solo instrumental music discs and two vocal - to submit to such analysis. Perhaps for reasons of cost, solo piano music accounted for two thirds of the output of The Friends of Recorded Music, followed by a fifth with chamber music and a tenth with vocal music (plus one private vocal disc).

Not documented here are societies which issued only historical recordings of vocal music (see below). These societies were fundamentally different in purpose: their members wanted recordings of specific singers, whereas the societies listed above catered mainly to music-lovers seeking repertoire unavailable elsewhere (only rarely did they suggest or request named performers). Of course, such repertoire might be vocal: H.M.V.'s first 'Society' edition was devoted to the songs of Hugo Wolf, and Parlophone's to Musorgsky's. By then, in the early and mid-1930s, lovers of instrumental music were well served by the commercial companies; a few years earlier, the situation had been very different. In 1928, Mackenzie mooted art and folk songs for possible recording by the N.G.S.,^[18] but his proposal was rejected by members, and the Society issued just 7 vocal sides out of a total of 332. The contrast between these constituencies reflected a deeper divergence, already noted by one perceptive writer in the 1920s:

'The gramophone public tends to divide into several different communities, which seem to have little in common. [... A] cleavage presents itself between those who acquire performances and those who acquire music. The former will sometimes brag very confidently of a record they have of some great singer or instrumental virtuoso, and betray the foggiest of notions concerning the music interpreted by them. As if to balance this element, members of the other contingent will frequently express their satisfaction over the possession of some work which they had never hoped to possess in disc-form, and quite possibly forget who it was that made the record.'[19]

Exclusions

For various reasons, the following labels are not documented here:

• Clangor (Germany), label of the Schallplatten-Volksverband ('People's Record Club'), itself an offshoot of a pioneering and well-known German book club. Clangor has not been authoritatively documented, despite its considerable interest: unverified information shared by collectors and enthusiasts suggests that it was active from 1929 to 1942, and adopted its parent company's 'book club' model.^[20] Perusal of institutional holdings and sale listings makes it clear that Clangor for the most part did not offer repertoire that was commercially unviable or unavailable elsewhere, but competed on price with existing companies by issuing recordings of mainstream classical and popular material, which do not seem to have been limited editions
• the Collectors' Record Society (US), a label about which little is currently known, except that it catered to aficionados of historical vocal records
• Det danske Selskab (the Danish Society; since 1989, the Danish Cultural Institute), set up in 1940 to promote Danish culture and subsidised by the Danish government. Ever since, it has sponsored recordings of Danish classical music by commercial companies, and has never operated as a private or subscription society^[21]
• Les Discophiles français (France), well known as a commercial label of the 78 rpm and LP eras, appears not to have used subscription, although this remains to be verified, as does any possible connection to poorly documented groups such as the Club français de discophilie, Société française de discophilie and, especially, the influential Club des discophiles de Paris, whose name appeared on a series of LP issues on the Erato label during the 1950s
• the Historic Record Society (USA), again catering to collectors of historical vocal records^[22]
• the International Record Collectors' Club (I.R.C.C.) (USA), founded in 1932 and active into the LP era, issued re-pressings of historical vocal records (some previously unissued)^[23]
• New Music Quarterly Recordings (later New Music Recordings) (USA), founded and run by Henry Cowell, and underwritten by Charles Ives. This label, like the N.G.S. an off-shoot of a magazine, comes well within this site's remit, but it has been authoritatively documented by Rita H. Mead and David Hall^[24]
• Victor Record Society (USA), launched in early 1938 by RCA Victor to market its records and players; the latter were given free as an inducement to new members. Resembling a book club, the Society also published a monthly magazine, the Victor Record Review
• Victor Record Lovers Society (Japan), apparently an initiative of the Japanese Victor Company, launched in the late 1930s to market records by well-known Western artists. Nothing is known of its aims or terms and conditions, although its issues are documented in various discographies

Societies devoted to repertoires other than classical music, such as the United Hot Clubs of America (U.H.C.A.) and Hot Record Society (H.R.S.), are not documented on this site.

Library editions

Educational recordings have a long and interesting history which is still largely unwritten. The largest commercial companies, such as Victor and the Gramophone Company, established educational departments, and produced recordings and publications for use in schools, adult music appreciation and so on. Academic institutions and philanthropic, cultural and other bodies - including one with a 'society' name - also employed or produced recordings for their own ends, which were not so far removed from those of the earliest 'society' labels. Although they fall outside the scope of this site, they are mentioned below for interest, and in the hope that they will one day be fully documented:

• L'Association française d'action artistique was founded (under a different name) in 1922 by France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and charged with promoting French culture around the world. It is not known to have sponsored or published recordings of music until 1942, when the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Fine Arts of the (Vichy) French State commissioned an ambitious series of forty discs of contemporary French music, recorded over one year from October 1942 and issued under the AFAA's imprint. These were not for commercial sale but were to be distributed to French embassies abroad, who would organize local broadcasts and public auditions, and donate copies to libraries; a summary account of the project leaves many details of its planning and execution unclear, and the series remains rare and little known^[25]
• The Anglo-French Music Company Series of Educational Records was launched in Britain in 1922 as a joint venture between a publisher of pedagogical scores and tutors, itself founded by the influential teacher Tobias Matthay, and the Aeolian Company, manufacturer of player and reproducing keyboard instruments and rolls, gramophones and records. A.F.M.C. discs offered performances by well-known teachers of the day of piano pieces from the examination syllabus of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music but apparently did not sell well and are rare and little known today, despite their great historical interest. A useful selection has been remastered by APR in 'A Matthay Miscellany', a 2-CD survey of recordings by Matthay and his pupils, while brief accounts by the late Frank Andrews and others are to be supplemented by a full discography (forthcoming)^[26]
• Carnegie Corporation Music Sets were assembled from existing commercial recordings, printed music and reference books, and donated by the well-known philanthropic foundation, along with a gramophone, to smaller universities and colleges in the US 'to enable the teachers to carry on music appreciation more thoroughly and extensively.' Two selections were made, in 1933 and 1936, by panels of musicians, academics and librarians, and were surveyed in an article by Philip L. Miller, although without a full discography;^[27] a 1937 report from the University of Hawai'i shows just how munificent this gift was, comprising as it did '150 books and scores and 900 records, with a value of $2,500'^[28]
• Dahlemer Musikgesellschaft zur Förderung junger Künstler (Dahlem Music Society for the Promotion of Young Artists), set up in 1947 in the American-occupied sector of Berlin, was a joint venture between US and German cultural officials. Its main activity was the promotion of concerts, but a small number of discs of modern German music, recorded by Deutsche Grammophon, was issued under its name. These were distributed to US libraries, universities, music critics and institutions; they are due to be documented by Peter Adamson in a forthcoming issue of For The Record, the journal of the CLPGS
• Editions nationales du disque was a short-lived Swiss label apparently launched by the Lausanne-based music publisher and retailer Foetisch Frères,^[29] and published just one little known issue, recorded in mid-1942;^[30] it is not known how 'national' this venture was, whether commercial or academic, and whether it relied on or received cantonal or federal funding^[31]
• Yaddo Festival Recordings were made live in concert during some of the nine Festivals of Contemporary American Music held from 1932 to 1952 at Yaddo, the Trask family mansion in Saratoga Springs. As an account by Tim Page explains, the composer Quincy Porter had the idea of using recording equipment installed at Yaddo to capture the Festivals' pioneering repertoire, and to issue it on discs sold at cost to 'universities, libraries, associations, and other institutions' as study aids. According to the first edition of WERM, 'Couplings in this make were arranged "to order"';^[32] a large if incomplete collection is preserved in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library. Yet it remains the case that, as Page rightly wrote ten years ago,

'A complete collection of the [162 extant] Yaddo discs, remastered and reissued with proper annotation, would be a significant contribution to our understanding of our musical culture.'[33]

Unissued recordings

Recordings made for labels documented by this site but not issued are included, where known.

Record formats

All records listed on this site are lateral-cut discs. In recent years some record societies have issued new or historical recordings on cylinder (e.g. the CLPGS's Masters Series), but no such issues by historical societies are known. Disc sizes are are noted in all discographical entries.

Recording systems

Records listed on this site were made using both acoustical and electrical recording systems of various types. Where known, these are noted in discographical entries.

Structure

This site is an assemblage of the following types of pages:

• label pages, documenting a 'society' label
• label discographies, listing on one page the entire output of a 'society' label
• issue pages, documenting each issue in more detail than the label discographies, and listing some (but not necessarily all) institutions holding copies of the discs and transfers to other media
• artist pages, documenting the life and career of an artist or ensemble recorded by a 'society' label; all members of ensembles also have individual artist pages
• personality pages, documenting the life and career of a person involved in a 'society' label as founder, officer, member etc.
• composer pages, documenting either the life and career of a composer recorded by a 'society' label, and who is too obscure to be covered in easily accessible reference sources, or the involvement in a 'society' label of a composer well documented elsewhere, such as John Alden Carpenter

This is a quixotic and possibly naive attempt to promote all these people and aspects of discography, concert and recording history as equally important.

Navigation

You can start by viewing the list of all pages in this site. (This is also accessible via the link in the left-hand sidebar on every page.) This list is generated automatically by MediaWiki, and is organized simply by the first letter of each page's name.

You can also view a list of recent changes to this site (again, also accessible via the link in the left-hand sidebar on every page). It's not very pretty, but it might be useful.

MediaWiki's 'Category' feature allows pages to be indexed. At the bottom of each page is a list of the 'Categories' which that page belongs to. Clicking on a 'Category' will open a list of all pages of this site belonging to that 'Category' (e.g. 'Pianists', 'Chicago Gramophone Society', etc.). You can also browse 'Category' pages by typing the following into the 'Search' box:

Category:

The search box at top right will drop down a list of 'Category' pages to choose from, e.g. Category:Pianists or Category:Chicago Gramophone Society

Search

To search this site, type one or more terms, such as an artist's name, into the 'Search' box at top right. If one or more pages matching your search term(s) exist, the search box will drop down a list of prompts for you to choose from. If no matching page exists and you press Enter, MediaWiki will generate a list of pages containing one or more of your search terms, for you to choose from.

So, to find a label, type its name into the 'Search' box, e.g. National Gramophonic Society or The Friends of Recorded Music

To find an ensemble, do the same: e.g. Kreiner Quartet or Modern Chamber Orchestra

Contrary to the practice of Wikipedia, page titles on this site invert first names and surnames. So, to find an artist, composer or other person, it's better (though not imperative) to start with the surname and to use initial capitals: e.g. Roberts, Marion or Carpenter, John or Pollak, Robert.

To find a disc, it's probably easiest to open to the label's discography page and click on an individual issue for detailed information. You can also type a label name, followed by an alphanumeric catalogue identifier, into the 'Search' box: e.g. Chicago Gramophonic Society 50016-P or National Gramophonic Society Q or Friends of Recorded Music 4

Dainippon Meikyoku Rekōdo Seisaku Hanpu Kwai branded its discs not with its own name but with that of its commercial partner, Polydor; so, to search for its records, type into the 'Search' box: e.g. Polydor 1 or Polydor 95146

To find a matrix number, type a continuous alphanumeric string, leaving no space(s) between characters, into the 'Search' box: e.g. W91729 or GS20 or NGS142E. The first of these examples is a US Columbia matrix recorded using the Western Electric system; although the Western Electric matrix logo Ⓦ can be displayed by MediaWiki, it cannot be searched for, and so is not used on this site.

Whereas matrix numbers are represented as continuous alphanumeric strings, to aid searching, this is not always true of take numbers. Different producers used different notations (or none) for successive takes, from simple digits or superscript digits, to fractions, geometrical shapes etc. On discographical pages, takes are represented in the original notation, and also, where possible, glossed with their numerical equivalents. Thus, the first of the above examples was issued from take -2, notated and represented on this site as W91729-2. The second example was issued from take -3, notated and represented on this site as GS20³. The third example was also issued from take -3, notated and represented on this site as NGS142EXX, and glossed as [take] -3.

MediaWiki's wild card character is: *. It can be used only at the end of a search string, not at the beginning or in the middle. It is not of great use in searching this site.

Links

This site is very prodigal with links, so you should never be far away from a link to a page you might be interested in.

By default, MediaWiki distinguishes 'internal' links, which are coloured blue and get underlined when pointed at, from 'external' links, likewise blue and underlined, but also followed by a small arrow . That arrow is suppressed throughout this site, as it makes text very cluttered.

Links coloured red are 'internal' links to pages on this site which have not yet been created.

Look

This website is compiled using Mozilla's Firefox browser, on a largish, landscape-orientation desktop monitor, and is best viewed and navigated on a similar screen. Unfortunately, the skills and manpower required to format it for all screens, devices and browsers are lacking.

Sources and references

This site uses MediaWiki's inbuilt reference system. Almost all sources cited or quoted can be found in the References section at the foot of each page, as for instance on this page. On discographical pages, some sources are listed in the body of the text, and others in the Discographical bibliography.

Some pages have very many footnotes. MediaWiki allows you to toggle between the main text and footnotes, but doing this can be distracting. So this site uses an additional gadget which displays a footnote in a small pop-up bubble when you hover over the footnote's number. If you don't like this, click on the little wheel in the top right-hand corner of any pop-up and a 'Reference Tooltips options' dialogue box will appear. It should allow you to disable the gadget on your browser, or adjust the options in other ways.

This site does not use a widely-adopted method for citing a source repeatedly in MediaWiki (and Wikipedia). Here, no matter how many times a source is cited on any page, it is always given in full in each footnote.

Likewise, this site does not use ibid. (etc.) across footnotes, only within them - i.e. only if a source is given twice within a single footnote will the author or publication be replaced with id. / ead. or ibid.

If a source can be consulted online and without payment, a link to that source is given. It is recommended to open such links in a new browser tab, to avoid having to reload the original page and possibly losing your place (although, in principle, if you do return to a page after following an external link, browsers should land you in your last place on that page).

This site has no separate bibliography of all sources consulted and cited, the vast majority being newspaper articles whose relevance or interest are not apparent out of context. The exception is discographical sources, listed in the Discographical bibliography.

Types of sources

The types of sources consulted for and cited by this site include:

• historical newspapers, consulted from original printed copies and, more commonly, in online repositories, both commercial - e.g. newspapers.com, Proquest - and public/open - e.g. Chronicling America, California Digital Newspaper Collection and other US state newspaper archives, Gallica (digital portal of the Bibliothèque nationale de France), Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica (Spanish national digital newspaper archive), Hemeroteca digital (Brazilian national digital newspaper archive), etc.
• historical and modern periodicals, consulted from original printed copies and, more commonly, in online repositories, both academic/commercial - e.g. JSTOR, Proquest - and public/open - e.g. Internet Archive, International Arcade Museum Library, etc.
• personal civil and military documents, census returns, travel records, city and trade directories, school and university yearbooks, consulted online at ancestry.co.uk and Internet Archive
• books, articles, websites etc., devoted to composers, artists, and other figures
• personal reminiscences, written and oral, by private communication
• original recordings, both physical copies (including associated printed inserts) and later transfers to other media (including images of inserts, labels and manufacturing marks)
• historical commercial record catalogues and supplements, both original copies and later reproductions
• historical and modern discographies, both printed and online, e.g. Discography of American Historical Recordings
• catalogues and union catalogues of institutional holdings, usually consulted online, e.g. British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue, Yale University Library Historical Sound Recordings, WorldCat, Deutsches Musikarchiv, etc.
• musical scores, consulted from original printed copies and, more commonly, in online repositories, mainly International Music Score Library Project and Eastman School of Music Sibley Music Library

Why so many newspapers?

This site quotes or cites a very large number of articles from historical, mainly US newspapers. Well into living memory, but especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in large cities and small towns alike, newspapers reported the doings of local citizens and visitors in great detail. The private life, education, and public career of an artist like Mina Hager or a figure like Vories Fisher, neither of whom has been the subject of a published biography, could not be investigated to any useful degree without historical newspapers or personal papers; an artist as obscure as Lora Orth Kimsey could not be documented at all. As it happens, Mina Hager's papers are publicly accessible, but consulting them entails travelling to Chicago and visiting the Newberry Library in person; and it seems unlikely that even they contain, for instance, details of Hager's public performances in childhood and adolescence, or her appearances in circuit Chautauqua - yet these were reported in contemporary newspapers, many of which which can now be consulted remotely online.

Music periodicals, of course, also yield plentiful and sometimes detailed reports of artists' lives and careers, but surprisingly few have been digitized or made available online. The National Recording Preservation Board of the US Library of Congress has done valuable work, scanning and making available online (free, via the Internet Archive) recorded music periodicals such as the Phonograph Monthly Review, H. Royer Smith Co.'s Disques and The New Records, and The Phonogram; and the John R. Dover Memorial Library of Gardner-Webb University has filled a lacuna by making The Etude freely available online (with less than optimal search capabilities, it must be said). But where are Musical America, the Musical Courier, The Musical Leader, Music News, the Musical Observer, Musical West, the American Music-Lover and Music Lovers' Guide? Some volumes are available in the HathiTrust's digital library, though again with an extremely cumbersome search interface. There is still much work to be done before the internet's self-evident promise and advantages to researchers are fully realised.

Updates

I plan to announce new pages and other important additions or changes on my blog.

Submissions

Additions, corrections and suggestions are warmly welcomed. Please send an e-mail.

Re-use

If this website is quoted or cited in an academic publication, a reference, including URL, would be most welcome.

Acknowledgements

The greatest debts of gratitude are owed to:

• Michael H. Gray, for discographical help and advice over many years, for information vital to this project, and for his invaluable A Classical Discography
• Jolyon Hudson, collector, connoisseur and sleuth, for generously sharing his forensic knowledge of early records, and for lessons in MediaWiki
• Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Emeritus Professor of Music, King's College London, for extraordinarily kind, friendly and patient guidance, and for setting an inspiring example to all in his own research, writing, teaching and lecturing
• Dr. David Patmore, historian of the recording business and proprietor of CRQ Editions, for incitement to and successful supervision of a PhD, and for cheerfully sharing an obsession with music on and off discs
• Tully Potter, journalist, connoisseur and historian of string playing and chamber music, for generously sharing his expertise and for setting an inspiring example in his biographies and concert histories of soloists and ensembles
• Jonathan Summers, curator of classical recordings, British Library, London, for expert access to the Library's collections and unstinting support, advice and good humour
• Judith Tick, Professor Emerita of Music History, Northeastern University, for her superb scholarship, her interest and help, and for encouragement, not least to sign up to newspapers.com
• my partner Lucy, for putting up with so much for the sake of this project

Many others, who have also kindly provided help and information (including useful 'negatives'), are named and thanked on individual pages.

References

1. ↑ Morgan, Nick The National Gramophonic Society, Sheffield: CRQ Editions, 2016
2. ↑ H.M.V.'s first 'Society' edition was The Hugo Wolf Society Volume I, containing 19 songs performed by Elena Gerhardt (mezzo-soprano) and Coenraad V. Bos (piano), recorded 4, 5, 6 and 9 November 1931, issued in album of 6 discs, DB 1615-20 (12-inch), with translations and notes by Ernest Newman
3. ↑ Columbia's first fully-fledged 'Society' edition appears to have been the English Music Society (Volume I), containing instrumental and small-scale vocal works by Henry Purcell performed by the International String Quartet, violinists Isolde Menges and William Primrose, baritone Keith Falkner and others, recorded 19 and 20 September, 1 October and 7 November 1935, issued December 1935 in album of 8 discs, RO 82-84 (10-inch) and ROX 131-35 (12-inch)
   • The previous year, Columbia had produced an album of 17 songs by Roger Quilter, performed by baritone Mark Raphael (1900-1988) with the composer at the piano and other instrumentalists, recorded 27, 28 and 29 November 1934, 7 sides remade 6 and 13 December 34, issued January 1935 in album of 6 discs, RO 73-78 (10-inch), with insert signed by Quilter. Subscriptions for this 'Roger Quilter Subscription Portfolio' appear to have been managed by Columbia, at whose office address the Secretary was nominally based, although Quilter is reported to have drummed them up himself, see Langfield, Valerie Roger Quilter: His Life and Music, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2002, p.89 (Langfield states she was unable to find any information about the so-called Roger Quilter Society in whose name it was issued), and 'Roger Quilter' in 'Lazyarm' 'Just About People and Things', The Gramophone, Vol.XII No.135, August 1934, pp.107-11 (on p.108). The portfolio was a limited edition but, unlike all other 'society' editions, its constituent discs were soon issued individually in Columbia's standard domestic 10-inch series, from October 1935 to August 1936, leaving the status of this venture somewhat unclear
   • The earlier International Educational Society series of 100 'gramophone lecture-records', produced and ultimately managed by Columbia, and issued from June 1928 to November 1932, was aimed at schools, colleges and universities, although also for sale to the general public; it does not appear to have been a limited edition or financed by subscription, see Anderson, W.R. 'Lectures for All', The Gramophone, Vol.VI No.62, July 1928, p.48, and Ridout, Herbert C. 'Behind the Needle - XXXV', ibid., Vol.XX No.240, May 1943, pp.170-71 (on p.171)
4. ↑ Parlophone's first 'Society' edition was The Songs of Modeste Moussorgsky, containing 14 songs performed by Vladimir Rosing (tenor) with Myers Foggin (piano), recorded 10 and 11 April 1935, issued in Parlophone Album P 13, discs SW 1-6 (12-inch), with booklet by Richard Holt containing translations and transliterations of the sung texts and notes; Holt was closely involved in proposing, devising, marketing and producing this edition, and also reviewed it, see Holt, Richard 'The Moussorgsky Song Album', The Gramophone, Vol.XIII No.152, January 1936, p.332
5. ↑ The Purcell Club, Volume I: Purcell Dido and Aeneas Z.626, Dido: Nancy Evans (contralto), Belinda: Mary Hamlin (soprano), Aeneas: Roy Henderson (baritone), Sorceress: Mary Jarred (contralto), First Witch: Gwen Catley (soprano), Second Woman/Second Witch: Gladys Currie (soprano), Sailor: Sydney Northcote (tenor?), Spirit: Olive Dyer (soprano), A Capella Singers, Charles Kennedy Scott (chorus master), Boyd Neel Orchestra, Bernard (later Boris) Ord (harpsichord), Clarence Raybould, recorded 9 and 10 October 1935, issued February 1936 in album of 7 discs, Decca X 101-07 (12-inch)
   For analytical review, see A[lec].R[obertson]. 'The Purcell Club', The Gramophone, Vol.XIII No.151, December 1935, pp.283-85
6. ↑ 'The Decca Company is spending £20,000 on the great enterprise of recording Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas without cuts.' 'The Purcell Club', in 'Turn Table Talk', The Gramophone, Vol.XIII No.150, November 1935, p.228
   Concurrently with Volume I, Decca Records issued a leaflet promoting the Purcell Club and describing it as 'A Society of Music-Lovers interested in the preservation of Henry Purcell's Masterpieces, in the best possible performance, by means of Gramophone Records'; a section entitled 'The Future of The Purcell Club' explained, 'All plans for future records of Purcell must depend upon the desire of the public. A membership and order form is therefore subjoined for the initial issue of Dido and Aeneas, and a space is specially reserved for suggestions of works that each member particularly wishes to have recorded. Further announcements will be made from time to time, and it is much hoped that the public response will be such that an immediate and comprehensive plan may be made and issued.' The leaflet included this 'Membership and Order Form', designed to be cut out and posted, and reading, 'To the Decca Record Company Ltd., 1-3 Brixton Road, S.W.9. I desire to enrol as a member of the Purcell Club, and enclose remittance for 35/- for the first issue of Dido and Aeneas, seven 12 in. records in an album. I shall be glad to hear of further records as they are made. I note in the space below my special wishes for works by Purcell to be recorded.' I am grateful to Peter Adamson for images of this leaflet; personal communication, 30 September 2018
7. ↑ The sole study of the wider gramophone society movement in Britain, where it apparently originated, remains Bryant, Eric Thomas The Gramophone Society Movement: a history of the gramophone societies in Britain, including their links with public libraries [MA thesis], Queen's University Belfast, 1972; this does not cover record-issuing 'societies' such as the National Gramophonic Society. Standard histories of recording usually mention classical 'society' issues briefly, and mainly those of H.M.V., see e.g.:
   • Gelatt, Roland The Fabulous Phonograph 1877-1977 (2nd, revised edition), New York: Collier Books, London: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977, pp.259-61
   • Gronow, Pekka and Saunio, Ilpo (translated Moseley, Christopher) An International History of the Recording Industry, London: Cassell, 1998, pp.61-62
   A more extensive treatment, covering the National Gramophonic Society:
   • Day, Timothy A Century of Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000, pp.67-73
   For the USA, a preliminary but still useful survey is:
   • Brooks, Tim 'A Survey of Record Collectors' Societies', ARSC Journal, Vol.16 No.3 (1984), pp.17-36
   It is not known to what extent Japanese and foreign 'society' issues have been studied or documented in Japan
8. ↑ 'A propos de l'APGA (Association Phonique des Grands Artistes): c'est une société créée en 1906 qui produit ses propres enregistrements et permet aux interprètes de toucher un pourcentage sur les ventes, alors que les grandes marques ne proposent qu'un cachet unique par enregistrement. En 1911, cette grande idée prend fin, le conseil d'administration est poursuivi pour fraude. Pathé rachète le fonds et négocie avec les 80 artistes lyriques et de café-concert qui avaient signé des contrats d'exclusivité avec APGA. Pathé édite les enregistrements de l'ex APGA en reversant tout de même aux interprètes concernés 10 centimes par disque vendu.' Fauconnier, Alain 'Le Café-concert (1870-1914)' (lecture given on 12 April 2007), [Bulletin of the] Société des Amis des Arts et des Sciences de Tournus, Vol.CVI, 2007, pp.185-218 (on pp.188-89)
   A detailed contemporary account of APGA and the legal proceedings which led to its winding up can be found in 'L'Association Phonique des grands Artistes contre Messieurs Muratore et Parier', La Revue judiciaire, 2e année, No.7, 25 July 1909, pp.210-224, and No.8, 25 August 1909, pp.247-56
9. ↑ In 1916, Deutsche Grammophon AG, the German subsidiary of Britain's Gramophone Co., had been seized by the German government as an enemy enterprise, and in 1917 sold to Leipziger Polyphon Musikwerke AG; by the mid-20s, it was part of a group of companies owned by Polyphonwerke AG, see Fetthauer, Sophie Deutsche Grammophon: Geschichte eines Schallplattenunternehmens im "Dritten Reich", Hamburg: von Bockel, 2000, pp.49-50, 54
10. ↑ Seemingly undocumented, this Swiss label is known to the author mainly from copies of its issues held in institutional and private collections or offered for sale, see e.g. holdings of the Swiss National Sound Archive
11. ↑ 'Gabinetes fonográficos españoles Sres. Hugens y Acosta, de Madrid', Boletín Fonográfico, Vol.1 No.5, 5 March 1900, pp.72-73; see also Gómez Montejano, Mariano El fonógrafo en España: cilindros españoles [with CD-ROM], [Madrid]: M. Gómez, 2005 (not consulted)
    A catalogue of Hugens and Acosta cylinders for the year 1900 can be viewed in the 'Digital Memory of Catalonia' digital repository, and a selection of its cylinder box labels in the Basque Music Archive
12. ↑ Bonini, Eleonora Simi '"Rue de Paradis" Le edizioni discografiche di musica sacra della casa parigina SEMS', i suoni, le onde, No.27, 2^o semestre, 2011, pp.10-11
13. ↑ The Society of Participating Artists has been documented by Dr. David Patmore, in three articles:
    • 'The battler from Saratoga', Classic Record Collector, No.40, Spring 2005, pp.38-43
    • 'The Third shall be first', ibid., No.41, Summer 2005, pp.38-43
    • 'A catalogue of intellects, ibid., No.42, Autumn 2005, pp.34-39
14. ↑ Little is currently known about the Haydn Society's early terms and conditions; the first issue was a limited, numbered edition of 250, available only to subscribers at a price of $15.75, see announcement and subscription receipt offered for sale as part of ebay item 253929090345 '78 rpm x7 Rare Limited Edition (141 of 250) Joseph Haydn Society all grade NM', ended 18 October 2018; believed to be the only Haydn Society issue on 78 rpm discs, this consisted of Haydn's Missa solemnis in B flat major Hob.XXII:14 ('Harmoniemesse'), Trude Konrad (soprano), Imgard Dornbach-Ziegler (alto), Ludwig von Haas (tenor), Heinrich Seebach (bass), Karl Otto Bortzi (organ), Munich Cathedral Choir and unnamed orchestra, conducted by Ludwig Berberich, recording date and location unknown, issued April 1949 in album Series A Volume One, discs TR 4001-07 (12 inch), with booklet of 'Analytical Notes'
15. ↑ Raeburn, Christopher 'H.C. Robbins Landon and the Haydn Society: a pioneering musical adventure', in Biba, Otto and Wyn Jones, David Studies in Music History presented to H.C. Robbins Landon on his seventieth birthday, London & New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, pp.227-33
16. ↑ 'Die Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft (DBG) wurde [...] im April 1924 gegründet. 1929 hatte die DBG 500.000 Mitglieder, darunter etwa 100.000 im Ausland, und lieferte pro Jahr etwa 14 Millionen Bücher aus. Im Rahmen eines professionellen Werbekonzeptes wurden in den dreißiger Jahren bereits Sonderprodukte wie Schallplatten, Plattenspieler und Radioapparate zu günstigen Preisen und mit besonderen Zahlungskonditionen angeboten, daneben aber auch verbilligte Eintrittskarten für Kino, Theater und Konzerte, ja sogar Urlaubsreisen.' Fischer, Ernst and Füssel, Stephan (eds.) Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Die Weimarer Republik 1918-1933. Teil 2, de Gruyter, 2012, p.265
    The use of the word 'Sonderprodukte' in the above statement seems to imply that the DBG made recordings or had them made exclusively for issue on its DeBeGe label, but this remains to be verified
17. ↑ Morgan, Nick The National Gramophonic Society, Sheffield: CRQ Editions, 2016, pp.39-41, 157-59
    NB Very large-scale discographical surveys remain to be done before an accurate, precise picture of the relative proportions of repertoire issued on commercial records can be drawn
18. ↑ Morgan, Nick The National Gramophonic Society, Sheffield: CRQ Editions, 2016, p.193
19. ↑ Evans, Edwin(? unsigned) 'Gramophone Notes', The Dominant, Vol.I No.10, August-September 1928, p.37
20. ↑ Information from German collector Georg Richter, via www.tedstaunton.com, and from German collectors' forum grammophon-platten.de
    The earliest and latest catalogues located in institutional collections are:
    • Schallplatten-Volksverband Clangor-Schallplatten GmbH (launch brochure), 1931; German National Library, Leipzig, shelf mark 1931 A 13103
    • Clangor-Schallplatten-Katalog, 1941 (reprint), Düsseldorf: Hans Sieben, 1984; Eichstätt-Ingolstadt University Library, permalink
21. ↑ Early recordings sponsored by the Danish Society are documented in Aagaard, René Det danske Selskab En illustreret diskografi, 2011
22. ↑ 'From quite early on, Seltsam [...] had a rival in the person of William Speckin [1913-1990] of Chicago. He too, over a period of several years, produced similar-size runs of pressings, though seldom overlapping the IRCC production, under the aegis of the Historic Record Society (HRS). [...] Though the HRS produced quite a few records [...] the number was not as great in total as the IRCC issues.' Peel, Tom and Stratton, John Seventy Years of Issues Historical Vocal 78rpm Pressings from Original Masters 1931-2001, Toronto & Oxford: Dundurn Press, 2001, p.8
23. ↑ 'William H. Seltsam [1897-1968] of Bridgeport, Connecticut, founded the International Record Collectors Club (IRCC) and, over the next 20 years, was the main producer of these semi-private issues. From him they were obtained either by subscription or from fairly regular bulletins. In the earliest days, both Columbia and Victor in America pressed records for the IRCC, but by far the majority of his issues from original masters were done by the Victor Company and are therefore often referred to as IRCC Victors.' Peel, Tom and Stratton, John Seventy Years of Issues Historical Vocal 78rpm Pressings from Original Masters 1931-2001, Toronto & Oxford: Dundurn Press, 2001, p.8; see also the brief obituary in Shawe-Taylor, Desmond 'The Gramophone and The Voice', The Gramophone, Vol.XLVI No.551, April 1969, pp.1403-06 (on p.1406)
24. ↑ Mead, Rita H. Henry Cowell's New Music 1925-1936. The Society, the Music Editions, and the Recordings, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981; Hall, David 'New Music Quarterly Recordings: A Discography', ARSC Journal, Vol.16 Nos.1-2, 1984, pp.10-27
25. ↑ Sprout, Leslie The Musical Legacy of Wartime France, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013, pp.86-91; see also Piniau, Bernard with Tio Bellido, Ramón L'action artistique de la France dans le monde, Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998, and Chimènes, Myriam (ed.) La Vie musicale sous Vichy, Paris: Editions Complexe, 2001 (not consulted for this page)
26. ↑ Andrews, Frank 'The A.F.M.C. Series of Educational Records and The A.F.M.C. Series of Educational Gramophone Records', in 'We Also Have Our Own Records Part 1', Hillandale News, No.213, December 1996, pp.163-69 (on pp.168-69); Wright, David C.H. The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music A Social and Cultural History, London & Woodbridge: ABRSM in association with Boydell & Brewer Ltd., 2013, p.121
27. ↑ Miller, Philip L. 'In Memory of the Carnegie Set', ARSC Journal, Vol.4 Nos.1-3, pp.21-28
28. ↑ Pringle, Mary P. 'The University Library', in University of Hawaii Bulletin, Vol.XVII Number 1, November 1937, (Report of The University of Hawaii 1936-1937), pp.52-54 (on p.53)
29. ↑ In WERM, the label's sole issue is listed by its catalogue number (see below) and glossed 'Edition nationale' [sic], while in the 'List of Record Makes', the catalogue prefix FF is glossed 'Foetisch Frères', which remains the only evidence to date linking the two
30. ↑ The sole issue by Editions nationales du disque comprised
    • Debussy String Quartet in g minor Op.10; Haydn String Quartet in D Op.64 No.5 - (iii) Menuetto: Allegretto (filler), Quatuor de Lausanne: André de Ribaupierre & Rose Dumur (violins), Henry Baud (viola), Franz Walter (cello), recorded c. June 1942, see 'Quatuor de Lausanne', Gazette de Lausanne, No.164, Sunday 14 June 1942, p.1, issued in set FF 1001 (8 sides, 12-inch)
31. ↑ In 1975, Foetisch was absorbed by the Zurich-based publisher and retailer (and occasional record producer) Hug, see 'Maison Foetisch frères Lausanne', although in 2004 Hug divested itself of the Foetisch catalogues of printed choral and vocal music, see 'Historique'; see also Erzinger, Franz & Peter Woessner, Hans Geschichte der schweizerischen Schallplattenaufnahmen, Teil 2, Zürich: Buchdruckerei An der Sihl, 1990 (not consulted for this page)
32. ↑ Clough, F.F. and Cuming, G.J. World's Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music, London: Sidgwick & Jackson in association with the Decca Record Company, 1952, p.xv
33. ↑ Page, Tim 'Trailblazer: Aaron Copland and the Festivals of American Music', in McGee, Micki Yaddo: Making American Culture, New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, pp.31-40