Hi David:
Of course I can't put my hand on any of Bert's articles about those days right now (I believe he
wrote about it some for Radio & TV News in the 50's and then later at greater length in Audio
magazine in the 70's), but I think he was running snippets of the sessions onto tapes,
experimenting with mic placement and maybe levels or the like. The Magnecorder, I think, used 7"
reels, so if he was going at 15IPS he'd have to be changing tapes frequently. He may have been
told to only record X minutes of any session but I'm not sure about that because I was under the
impression that he was pretty much given carte blanche. I imagine it was a trip working with
Stokowski in what was by far the highest-fidelity stereo medium yet at that point. Stokowski was
veteran of Bell Labs stereo disk recordings in the 30's and Fantasound optical recordings, so I
imagine he was tough customer about what sounded right from tape. And he and Bert worked together
again when Stokowski recorded for Everest.
Speaking of Bert Whyte, he wrote a really nice column after he was introduced to Mercury
3-channel stereo:
http://www.wendycarlos.com/surround/surround6.html#column2
Fact correction: the listening venue was actually Fine Sound Studio C at 711 5th Ave. (today it's
the Coke building, owned by Coca-Cola Co.). I agree with Bert -- there should have been a
3-channel consumer medium but it was thought just too complex and expensive at the time (and,
based on how well quad and later SACD did in the marketplace, perhaps the thinking was right --
plus no one had any ideas about a 3-channel disk medium). One other interesting thing -- Ampex
was able to build 3-channel tape machines as early as 9/53 (Ross Snyder of Ampex wrote an article
for International Sound Technician magazine that showed pictures of a 3-track headstack and
described 3-track magnetic recording on 1/2" tape), but no one started recording music in
3-tracks until 1955.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 7:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?
Tom,
Thanks for this very helpful answer. That basically answers my question,
although in this case:
I'm not sure how much tape Bert ran that day but one would think that if a
tape of the piece you cite existed it would have been issued on that CD.
There may be hope. "Tabor" is tagged on to the end of a disc that otherwise
consists of a Stokowski concert in stereo from Detroit, 11/20/1952,
consisting of Jacob Avshalomov's The Taking of T'ung Kuan with the
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. It was included, in part, as the recording was
at one time mis-marked as being by Stokowski, but was matched to the Kubelik
performance through comparison. Certainly if there are other bits and pieces
of Ma vlast in stereo, they would not have fit on the 65 minute CD.
Not that I would throw away my Mercury of "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields;"
it's still great. But it would be interesting to hear Whyte's recording if
anything survives of it.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
"To collect [folksongs] without a phonograph - until there's something
better - is mad and criminal." - Percy Grainger, 1907
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 6:07 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?
Hi David:
As widely written about through the years by Bert Whyte, my father took him
along on some of the
early Mercury single-mic sessions and Bert was allowed and indeed encouraged
by those present to
make experimental binaural (what 2-mic recordings were called back then
although the definition of
binaural has been refined to mean something else now) recordings on his
Magnacorder staggered-head
machine. I think Bert used a pair of U-47's but I might be wrong. Apparently
the copyright owner of
these sessions, Universal and/or the CSO, is OK with the CD release of some
of Bert's tapes (at
least I haven't read about any copyright-infringement actions). The
Stokowski recordings are the
Bell Labs disk recordings from the 1930's, which I believe are PD but might
not be because an
elaborate agreement was made between Bell Labs and the Stokowski family and
the Philadephia
Orchestra when Bell Labs issued their LPs in the late 70's (this according
to the original mastering
engineer; I did some investigating about reissuing a CD from those master
tapes under AES auspices
but too many rights issues involved). Again, I would assume the issuer of
the current CD cleared all
these rights or they would have been sued.
I'm not sure how much tape Bert ran that day but one would think that if a
tape of the piece you
cite existed it would have been issued on that CD.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:00 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?
According to Music & Arts' "Stokowski and Kubelik conduct Experimental
Stereo Recordings from 1952" (MUA 1190) contains an experimental stereo
recording, made by Bert Whyte, during the sessions for Rafael Kubelik's
Mercury recording of Ma vlast. The piece is "Tabor," and annotator Edward
Johnson writes "Other such experiments from THAT and later Kubelik/CSO
sessions are known to exist but this is the first to be released..."
What "other such experiments" from this session "[is] known to exist?" I'm
particularly - strongly, in fact - interested in any stereo takes of the
movement "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields" from this December 1952
session.
Even in mono, this performance is positively electrifying.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
"To collect [folksongs] without a phonograph - until there's something
better - is mad and criminal." - Percy Grainger, 1907
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