I certainly wasn't disputing the logic that Columbia could and did consider men's choruses singing in German "ethnic" even when the the group was based in New York City and singing classical (as opposed to traditional) compositions. I just found it interesting and quaint that an attitude of several decades ago has shifted so markedly. In any case, you were quite right about it being "ethnic". Spottswood's book (Vol. 1) lists it and gives a recording date of ca. March 1926. This recording is of interest to me because of the notation "Mit Waldhorn Quartette". I have spent a lot of time tracking down historic recordings of the horn and this is one of the few that I have that predate Aubrey Brain and Max Zimmolong's pre-WWII recordings of Mozart concerti by a considerable margin. There is an Edison Amberol recording (478, Blue Amberol 2444) of Gustave F. Heim, trumpet player in the Boston Symphony around the turn of the twentieth century, playing a cornet solo "Die Post" with a quartet of hornists from the BSO that was recorded in New York Feb. 26, 1910 (Koenigsberg says Feb. 10). This recording has been my holy grail and my quest has not been fruitful to date; if anyone out there knows of a playable copy for sale or otherwise accessible, I'd love to know. There is a beautiful publicity photo of the group in the July 1910 Edison Phonograph Monthly, for anyone interested further.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Hirsch" <punto@xxxxxxxx>
Steven C. Barr wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Hirsch" <punto@xxxxxxxx>
Steven Smolian wrote:
Can you supply the matrix numbers? Some records in this series are in Columbia's dubing maxtrix number series, made years after the original, and can be misleading. Check Spottswood's Ethnic Music on Records.
I believe the matrix number on one side (I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I did scrawl something on a piece of paper) is 205298. Does that sound like a kosher matrix number for a Columbia 78?
Possibly, for a 12" ethnic 78; the 10" matrix series had reached 113xxx by 1934, and the 20xxxx may have been the related 12" series. ...stevenc
Thanks. I find it somewhat unlikely that Mendelssohn partsongs would be considered "ethnic", but I wouldn't be surprised if that is what they were considered for marketing purposes way back when. I'll try to look at the Spottswood book next chance I get to see if it helps date the disc.
Well, the criterion for calling something "ethnic" is which demographic the label expected a disc to appeal to...and this was a German-oriented group doing a work titled in German, so they probably figured German speakers were most likely to buy it... ...stevenc http://users.interlinks.net/stevenc/