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Re: [ARSCLIST] Bartok booklet

Here's an interesting Peter Bartok story. I heard this story from a friend of Bartok's and didn't believe it until he then e-mailed me a scan of a photo of Bartok at work at this contraption. Bartok was very well regarded as an audio man. He built his own LP cutting amplifier and modified just about everything in his studio. As I said in a previous post, he was instrumental in the early success of Caedmon records. I'm not exactly sure how the two young ladies who started Caedmon met Bartok, but it was good for everyone because he was the imaginative and helpful audio man they needed and they were a good, steady paying gig for him. I believe he did all the early editing for them, although I know at least one of the ladies became very handy with the splicing block, according to someone who was friends with all involved. By the way, if you ever want to read a really great success story in a tricky business, study the Caedmon ladies. In fact I recently found a NY Times article describing how they were one of the earliest beneficiaries of what you'd call an "angel investor" today. Alas, many of their colleagues in the early 1950's independent record business had to borrow money from the usual suspects (literally), unless they were wealthy from another line of work or a family fortune (which can be burned in no time in the record biz).

Anyway, back to Bartok. He was a real ace blade-and-block man (editor), on par with the best broadcast guys except he was very musical to boot, according to his friend (the friend, no slouch as a technical person or an audio man, described Bartok as a genius). He apparently spent a lot of time editing tapes, I would guess some being his father's music and some the Caedmon spoken word sessions and other work he did in his studio. He was not comfortable sitting in front of a tape machine so he built an Ampex 300 into his editing table (an oak door). The entire setup was optimized for editing, including an indentation to keep his marker pencils and a place for his splicing tape rolls. The editing block was built into the table at a good ergonomic position and the reel tables were such that he could rock tape over the heads without standing up or leaning too far forward. Naturally, this tape deck was less stable and likely more flutter-prone than a stock 300, but it was more than fine for an editing deck and his smart solution probably led to many more comfortable editing hours. The trick of an editing table is of course old hat to folks in the movie business, but most of us audio guys just suffer the creeky neck and back and hunch over our tape decks. Boy I don't miss the block and blade days. First time I saw a non-linear waveform editor, it was love at first mouse-click.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 8:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Bartok booklet


Strange..with Mozarella Thunderbird on Windows 98 it opens to a home page with a menu on the left, listing

Books
CD's (sic)
LP's (ditto)
Sheet Music
Manuscript Facsimiles

And hey, who wouldn't want to shell out thirteen bucks for a 40-year-old LP containing 15 minutes of music a side?

As I say, I wonder if he has extra booklets for the Bluebeard's Castle album. I got the card entitling me (or the original buyer, RIP) to one!

dl

Tom Fine wrote:
There's only a menu on the right side of the screen here and no LPs listed. Windows XP, Internet Explorer 7.

But, uh, to a larger question, why not just buy the CD's? I'm sure Peter Bartok did a very good mastering job.

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Ross" <johnross@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Bartok booklet


Look in the menu on the left side of the screen.

John Ross

At 10/15/2007 03:11 PM, Roger wrote:
http://www.bartokbela.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

The site doesn't list any.
David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
> http://www.bartokbela.com/home.htm I guess they finally sold out
of the vinyl,they were offering a few years back.
>
>                                      Roger

Says differently here (and in a recent article in Classic Record Collector):

"Many "Long Playing" phonograph records, produced in the years 1949 through
1969, are also available"

dl

> Tom Fine  wrote: Just FYI, for the files of obscure knowledge ...
>
> Peter Bartok was the recording and mastering engineer for most of
the early Caedmon records,
> including the famous series of Dylan Thomas readings. Three of my
personal favorites, all of which I
> think were made by Bartok, are Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and
Eudora Welty reading their works. I
> think all three were reissued by Caedmon's current owner,
HarperCollins.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Richter"
> To:
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 6:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Bartok booklet
>
>
>> David Lennick wrote:
>>> I just came across Bartok 310/11, Bluebeard's Castle, mint
condition (it was in a collection I
>>> picked up a few years ago). No notes, but there's a postcard
inside.,.with 2 cents prepaid..that
>>> says "The purchase of this record album entitles you to a free
copy of a book containing the full
>>> English translation, Hungarian libretto, and other information
regarding this work. Please fill
>>> in the information below, and the book, now in preparation,
will be mailed to you in February,
>>> 1955. Thank you."
>>>
>>> Wonder if Peter Bartok still has copies of the booklet lying
around? (In Florida these days, not
>>> at 135 Central Park West, New York 23.)
>> I encountered a similar offer years ago and slipped the postcard
and a note into the offerer at a
>> current address. Eventually, I received a courteous response: no
booklet, but an appreciative
>> note.
>>
>> I should try it again with some of the libretto offers from
prerecorded tapes where I already had
>> the libretto from the LP release, so did not ask.
>>
>> Mike
>> --
>> mrichter@xxxxxxx
>> http://www.mrichter.com/
>>
>
>


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