From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-NannestadGeorge, I sent them photos of real Strohs and referred them to the history published by, I think, Hill and Dale Magazine for better quality than I could supply.
Hello Steve and other readers
My just-published article referred to in the subject line expands and rewrites
the history of American orchestral recording.
----- congratulations, it was high time, and it spreads the message far beyond ARSClist!!
Part one was retitled by the magazine, "Classic Record Collector" as "Strohs
in the Wind." Even if you get the English magazine and glance at the table of
contents, you'd be hard pressed (cut?) to know this was the topic.
----- you were also shortchanged on the picture side. The Stroh instruments
that are shown in detail in no way resemble those that were used at
orchestral sessions. Googling brings you much truer results (but perhaps
reproduction rights to pay). Mauricio Kagel in his "1898" used an Austrian
variety that also was a far cry from those used in recording orchestras.
In 1986 I acoustically recorded an acoustic piano trio in period pieces and
with period Stroh instruments (the piano was an upright): a Stroh violin and
a normally stringed Stroh cello (both from the Musical History Museum in
Copenhagen and restored by violin restorers Emil Hjorth & Sons in
Copenhagen). At the ARSC annual meeting in New York in 1986 I showed pictures
of these. Just to complete the story I should report that the recording horns
were horns I had been able to borrow from the EMI Music Archives.
George, It's the third- more than one string to a part, as I believe I implied, and not an ensemble assembled only for recording purposes. I state that it is a group which charged admission for their performance. Perhaps this was edited out and, me being too close to the text, didn't notice on the final draft they sent me.This research brings the timeline back to the 1880s. It changes the dates and
sequence of orchestras which made non-commercial and commercial recordings and
will untangle, in part 2, to appear this summer (?) a number of misascriptions
made for reasons not quite clear.
----- I am still a bit uncertain about your personal definition of an
"orchestra". It seems that one criterion you use is "massed strings", but
several criteria are imagineable. Another could be that at least one
instrument per voice in the original score should be represented in the
recording personnel. A third could be that the players are all chosen from a
well-known orchestra, albeit reduced, with corresponding arrangement, but
under one of their regular conductors. What is an orchestra?
We do know for a fact that in the Victor Orchestra (conductor Walter Rogers)George, This is a difference of opinion between us. I can't imagine the string players chosen for recording being asked to learn to play Strohs, at least without some anecdotal survival of that experience making it down the years. The publishers of CRC also publish Strad and, I assume, infused that magazine's past content to filter my article.
in 1905, all the first and second violin & viola were Stroh instruments. A
trombone for 'cello part and another trombone for the trombone part, and a
Helicon bass for the bass part. Calvin Child said "We have been unable to use
the local musicians [i.e. musicians not from New York] to any advantage, as
their style is extremely loggy and heavy". For this reason I doubt that
technical recording staff were mixed in with the proper musicians to handle
the Strohs.
----- you mention a mirror used by some of the players to see the conductors.George, That was one of the reasons I liked this picture. Incidentally, the horn player is Bruno Jaenicke who remained first when the NY Philharmonic and the NY Symphony merged and into the late '30s, perhaps longer. He's the soloist on the Brunswick Toscanini "Midsummer Night's Dream" Nocturne. Labatte is the oboist (who made a solo disc for U.S. Pathe), Simon Barere the clarinetist, Guidi the first fiddle (he also recorded for Gennett), etc.
One may actually be seen in front of the French horn player in the "manned"
Ginn studio.
The "von Beulow" cylinder mystery is solvedGeorge, Posting the examples will be a first for them, I believe. I'm not sure how the footnotes and bibliography I supplied will be treated, as I appended them to the end of Part 2.and some press reports whose subject is early recordings are degarbled.
----- incidentally, I also reported on one "igloo" situation in 1986. However,
that was in connection with a discussion of VTMC's remarkable DR recording
setup. Is there any connection here?
You can't download it, so you'll have to read all about it in the magazine.
I'm hoping part two will be accompanied by examples posted on the magazine's
web site. It's in England, where such early recordings are pd, unlike in
another country I could mention.
----- I was not aware that CRC made examples available in connection with
their articles; do you have the web address for that? Also, may we hope for a
bibliography as well as a "black disc discography" at the end of part two?
Kind regards, and thanks,
George
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