Sounding Like New

 

Seventy Years of Issues: Historical Vocal 78rpm Pressings from Original Masters 1931-2001, complied by Tom Peel and John Stratton

 

 

A review by Michael Richter
 
This volume is unique in subject and scope. It is indispensable to the dedicated collector of vocal recordings, but will be incomprehensible to others.
 
First, it is important to note that the discs involved are issues or reissues of 78-rpm recordings, not transfers to another medium. They are pressed using original metal parts so they are identical in form and content with those which were or might have been issued at the time of recording. Playback requires a turntable capable of nominal speed of 78 rpm and a stylus suited to the original groove width. Given the variation in the originals, the speed must be selectable over a wide range and the stylus will have to be selected for appropriate radius. Other adaptations may be needed, including cartridges of different weights, adaptation for hill-and-dale recording and equalization.
 
During the first two decades covered, appropriate hardware was readily available and record collectors were regularly accumulating 78s for which they had suitable playback equipment. While today the specialized hardware is more difficult to locate, it is still on the market, but casual 'collectors' now use other media - CD, LP, tape, MiniDisc - for 'sufficient' quality through transfers. The discs catalogued here are today collected only by those dedicated to experiencing the original materials with the highest possible fidelity to the sound when they were recorded.
 
The bulk of 'Seventy Years of Issues' consists of a catalogue of all known (re)issues organized in chronologic order of the sixteen issuing labels. Bracketing the catalogue are an informative, technical preface of four pages and a ten-page cross reference by singer. In the center is a beautifully produced, sixteen-page overview illustrated with photographs of the labels representative of each series. A one-page Foreword by the Earl of Harewood suggests the dedication of the collector for whom this volume was produced.
 
Without the resources to assess the accuracy of the catalogue, one can only accept it at face value and admire the dedication of those who compiled it and of those who will rejoice in its publication. The conventional collector will find a few familiar artists, more whose recordings are known through rare transfers and many completely new names. Perhaps that collector will be inspired to seek the rare title now that the catalogue can provide a label and number, but that will be a tedious and costly search. Many of the titles here had lain unissued in the vaults of the companies which recorded them; some were once issued in small quantity, so that these releases are reissues of material effectively unavailable before.
 

The labels of the International Record Collector's Club (left) and of Historic Masters (right)
 
Cost may be suggested by those issues which are still being produced. Historic Masters, Ltd. is represented not only by the 312 sides already released but also by the 14 anticipated at publication. In fact, a welcome interruption in the sequence has occurred and the next volume from HM is of 16 sides recorded for Phonotype by Fernando de Lucia. The price of that set of sixteen sides ranges from 70 pounds in England to 85 pounds outside Europe, the US and Canada. Needless to say, the sides issued decades ago by other institutions are even more costly when they can be found at all.
 
It is not possible fully to illustrate the effect of hearing an issue from an original master without experiencing the disc directly. However, we can approximate that by comparing a release from Historic Masters, the A side of their disc 21, with an EMI LP reissue from 1987. Historic Masters had carefully prepared the stamper with which a vinyl disc was pressed. That disc was lovingly transferred, leading to this recording (schipaMASTER.mp3) which has been compressed for download from the Internet. For comparison, I have transferred the same recording (schipaLP.mp3) - Tito Schipa's 1913 'Che gelida manina' - from LP using the same compression parameters. The issue at hand is not which sounds "better" in any sense, but how great the difference is in clarity and quality between the two recordings. The reissue catalogued in the present volume allows us to hear as nearly as possible the sound of the original recording of nearly ninety years ago. The EMI reissue is clearly not that.
 
While respecting the passion of the dedicated collector, one can only wish that the recordings catalogued here were systematically available in high-quality transfers to a medium more practical for those less committed or wishing to review the offerings before purchasing. With the quality of transfer provided by Ward Marston, now a member of the Historic Masters Board, CD release would provide a practical alternative without demanding investment in equipment and development of skills needed for the issues themselves. Perhaps better still would be a full catalogue on CD-ROM, which could easily accommodate the entire Historic Masters series and might include all the catalogued sides still extant. Indeed, such an audio catalogue, representing the sound as issued, might well inspire an ordinary collector to commit the resources to acquire these near-originals, pressed with commitment to reproducing the sound as heard by the most fortunate collectors of generations past.
 
© Michael Richter, 17 July 2001
mrichter@cpl.net
 
Tom Peel and John Stratton, Seventy Years of Issues - Historical Vocal 78rpm Pressings from Original Masters 1931-2001 is published by Dundurn Press, 2001, 128pp plus 16pp of colour illustrations, ISBN1-55002-352-7 and is available from Roger Beardsley, 16 Highfield Road, North Thorseby, Lincolnshire DN36 5RT, England; email roger@beardsley75.freeserve.co.uk , fax +44 1472 841105, telephone +44 1472 840236. The price is 20 pounds sterling (UK), 22 pounds (Europe), 22 pounds or US 32 dollars (USA/Canada/rest of the world) - credit cards, cheques and money orders accepted.
 
Related website: Historic Masters Ltd www.historicmasters.org
 
Michael Richter was born in Philadelphia in 1939. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1960, he worked in various technology fields, largely aerospace systems engineering, until being disabled by heart disease in 1989. His love of music emerged early, attending symphony concerts in Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. An obsession with music for the voice began with the discovery of Mozart's operas in the early 1960s and has never abated. For the past decade, he has combined professional and musical interests in efforts to preserve our common musical heritage, transferring recordings and publishing volumes of an Audio Encyclopedia, as described at his WWW site www.mrichter.com . He has published numerous articles in engineering journals together with a book on computer programming, but his writings, in both the Opera Quarterly and The Classical Singer, now focus on music and recording technology.