Re: [ARSCLIST] Komitas

["Prentice, Will" <Will.Prentice@xxxxx>]

hi Dave

My area of discographical knowledge is so narrow I'm rarely called on to share it, but you've just landed on the magic square, so I hope you're sitting comfortably:

In a nutshell, there are no cyl recordings on the CD, and the 1912 date is at least partially wrong.

The Trad Crossroads CD("The Voice of Komitas") breaks down as follows:
Tracks 1-6: recorded by the Gramophone Company in May 1909. 8 solo Komitas (voc) sides and one duet with Vagan Ter Arakelyan were made, with all but 2 of the solo sides being issued soon after. They were recorded either in Alexandropol (Gyumri today) or Etchmiadzin - the disc labels are ambiguous.
Tracks 7-10 (exc 8?): from a set of 20 sides released by Blumenthal/Orfeon. Komitas (pno), Armenak Shah Muradian (voc). No date or location, but labels are in French and ASM is described as being "de l'Opera de paris". I've seen one disc in the set with a dealer sticker on it, showing a Constantinople address.
Tracks 11-15 (+8?): released by US Columbia, rec NY, 1917-18 (see EMOR for details). Armenak Shah Muradian (voc). I've seen nothing to suggest Komitas plays on the Columbia sides.

Some of the GramCo and Orfeon sides were reissued on vinyl by Melodiya at different times, usually with the date 1912 on them.
 
Regards

Will Prentice 
British Library Sound Archive


Dave Lewis wrote:

Can anyone give me a little detail about the provenance of the cylinders
made by 
Komitas in Paris in 1912? Mainly what I'd like to know if these were
made available
commerically as cylinders or were recorded privately and belong to a
collection. The
Traditional Crossroads CD release is unclear on the matter - they just
identify the
recordings as "cylinders." 


David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
 
Maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man.
Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental
language in the most extravagant sense. ~ Charles Ives

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