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| Author |
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| 25 new of 74 responses total. |
orinoco
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response 41 of 74:
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Jan 19 01:23 UTC 2000 |
Wow. Hard to picture two more unlikely partners.
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dbratman
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response 42 of 74:
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Jan 19 22:31 UTC 2000 |
Musical Heritage Society is still around. I am still getting occasional
mailings from them begging me to rejoin: since they kicked me out in the
first place because I didn't buy enough, I'm not inclined to do it.
They do sound desperate, though, as the latest ads actually say things
like "Not Your Father's MHS" (though I can't tell any difference in the
inside, save that instead of being 90% Baroque, their offerings are now
down to about 85% Baroque, or so it seems).
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krj
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response 43 of 74:
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Jan 20 22:01 UTC 2000 |
I found a website for MHS, but it's closed for renovations.
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keesan
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response 44 of 74:
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Jan 20 23:43 UTC 2000 |
Does MMS still exist? They seem to have published mainly the better known
works of better known or somewhat known composers. I have a set of 10"
records by them (thanks to John Morris). Musical Masterworks Society.
All high quality performances and recordings. Only problem is that my
auutomatic turntable automatically heads for 12" (or 7" on 45s and I had a
7" 33, from Albania). The older turntables also had 10" settings.
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krj
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response 45 of 74:
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Jan 21 03:42 UTC 2000 |
Another correction to my resp:39 :: at Borders tonight I saw a big
stack of Seraphim CDs in the $7-and-less classical bin. So that
imprint has been revived for a super-budget line of discs.
It's just a brand name, the small print on the discs identify them
as coming from EMI Classical.
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keesan
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response 46 of 74:
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Jan 30 04:39 UTC 2000 |
Today at Kiwanis I found a record of Favorite Popular Music produced by
Plymouth Merit on Genuine Vynil (sic). They also had Music of the Rocco.
I expected the worst, but the music was played and recorded well.
We enjoyed ourselves listening to whatever made it to the ten cent end of the
rack (meaning nobody bought it for about a year already). Another musical
by the composer of Music Man, about Santa Claus. Not as good. Several
selections of Hawaiian Music. There are many copies of Tijuana Brass.
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md
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response 47 of 74:
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Jan 30 20:25 UTC 2000 |
Music of the Rocco? Like my cousin Rocco from
the North End?
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keesan
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response 48 of 74:
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Jan 31 14:03 UTC 2000 |
Don't know, all they gave on the jacket was a long list of record titles, many
of them starting 'One hour of favorite...' Possibly the French Rocco, not
the Italian branch.
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md
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response 49 of 74:
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Jan 31 16:01 UTC 2000 |
You mean "rococo": 18th century, elegant, ornate.
The music of Rocco is mostly Sinatra and Lois Prima.
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keesan
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response 50 of 74:
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Jan 31 19:09 UTC 2000 |
They probably meant rococo but they wrote Rocco. For a budget line too cheap
to hire a proofreader for their only record jacket, they picked good music
and good performances.
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keesan
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response 51 of 74:
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Feb 13 23:58 UTC 2000 |
From a book by EMI. The company was founded by several mergers, including
one with a branch of Columbia (later CBS, bought by Sony). At one point they
also produced radios, TVs, refrigerators, etc., and owned some restaurants
and hotels, but undiversified. Had licensing contracts with RCA Victor and
Columbia but antitrust laws ended this, so they bought Capitol Records in
1955, the fourth largest US record company. (What was the third largest?).
Also marketed under Angel/Seraphim.
First produced records in the 1890s, wax cylinders which were cut.
After about ten years switched to flat disks, first in the US then Britain,
where people were understandably reluctant to have to purchase a new
grammophone to play the new shape records. Until around 1925 records were
recorded by making loud noises into a horn, they they got electric
microphones. Eventually record players also electrified, somewhere around
the thirties when radio became more widespread. You could buy a grammophone
or something that plugged into your radio for amplification.
Stereo was first developed in the thirties but not marketed.
LP records (microgroove, on unbreakable vinylite instead of shellac,
which was short during the war), were sold starting in the later forties.
78s were also sold at the same time for the next ten years (cylinder and disk
coexisted for about ten years earlier), but by the late 1958s only 33s and
45s were produced. At which point everyone had had to buy a new record player
and new records. In the late fifties the record companies then started to
make stereo records, meaning for the next ten years they sold both stereo and
mono (you could buy a special cartridge letting you play stereo records on
a mono player) and then only stereo. Meaning people again had to replace
their record collection and record players. (There was really no point in
coming out with stereo and LP at the same time, you would only have sold half
as many total records).
By the late 60s only stereo records were made, and once everyone had
switched over they tried marketing quadraphonic, which flopped (but made a
comeback in the nineties). Stereo records lasted 20 years before CDs came
out, but were seriously challenged in the seventies and eighties by 8-track
(a flop) and then cassette tapes.
Can someone bring us up to date since 1987? How widespread are formats
other than CD and cassette tape? After 13 years are CDs due to become
obsolete? We have noticed many working single-CD players coming in to
Kiwanis, so presumably the manufacturers managed to convince some people that
they had to replace their players with CD changers. When do we start seeing
more working tape decks when people start replacing those with DAT?
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keesan
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response 52 of 74:
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Feb 15 17:39 UTC 2000 |
'When they are good, they are really really good, and when they are bad they
are horrid.'
I had promised to record some cello concertos for my new Serbian neighbor and
instead of my slightly scratchy records decided to get out library CDs. The
first three got stuck at one spot. Why do they do this? One of them got
stuck at several spots. Have not tried the other three but one of them looks
pretty scratched up.
A few 10" records sounded awful, very faint sound alternating with not so
faint, not a scratchy but a dull sound. They looked very dusty. In
disintegrating cellophane jackets with corners missing. Wiping off the dust
had no effect. No visible scratches. So I took them all to the kitchen sink,
ran water over them, noticed water-repellent areas, squirted dish detergent
onto these on the theory that it was grease holding dust which causes the
needle not to seat in the groove, and rubbed the detergent around for a while
then let it sit. Repeated this up to ten times then left them to dry at an
angle propped against and on a linen dishtowel. This has done miracles
before. No sign of fingerprints, maybe they stored them in the kitchen.
The paper labels stayed on despite being rinsed for a while.
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oddie
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response 53 of 74:
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Feb 16 05:05 UTC 2000 |
re #51:
DVD is one thing that is supposed to replace CDs in the next few years,
though at the moment it seems that it is being used more for videos. (I think
it can hold about four times as much stuff as a CD, and I also think DVD
players can play CDs too.) Someone else can probably give a better answer than
me...
DAT is used in recording studios IIRC, but I don't know if it is going to
become a distribution format or not (didn't they already try that and find
that it was a commercial flop?)
re #52:
Scratched CDs tend to "skip" if they are scratched-probably it has something to
do with the laser not focusing properly. If it is a bad enough scratch the
player could skip for several seconds or possibly just "freeze" at that point.
Portable players generally come with "skip protection" these days (as jarring
the player will also make it skip). Perhaps a stationary player doesn't have
this kind of protection? I have borrowed CDs from the library that were
scratched enough to make several tracks unplayable too.
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orinoco
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response 54 of 74:
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Feb 16 09:30 UTC 2000 |
I've never seen skip protection on a stationary player, but it's also been
years since I bought my CD player, and I haven't really looked to hard at
features since then. And it's possible to scratch a CD (or shake a CD player)
so hard that even skip protection won't do you any good.
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md
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response 55 of 74:
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Feb 16 12:13 UTC 2000 |
I don't know why skip protection would be needed
on a stationary CD player. Maybe for people who
live in earthquake zones? As to CD vs DVD, our
DVD player will play any ordinary music CD. Hook
it up to your amplifier and you're in business.
I note that there are DVDs of operas and "great"
performances. (Karajan conducts Dvorak's "New World"
symphony, etc.)
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keesan
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response 56 of 74:
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Feb 16 17:48 UTC 2000 |
A friend in Prague asked me to send her some American spirituals, on DAT.
Is this format more common in Europe? What does a DVD cost?
I have seen CD players skip when someone heavy walked across the room.
The washed records no longer sound dull, but now they sound scratchy. The
dust must have done some damage. Another record that sounded dull but was
not dusty washed up like new.
A Kiwanis volunteer explained that when cleaning CDs you should wipe them
radially (outside to inside or vice versa) as opposed to records, which you
should wipe in a circle (to avoid the dust or grit breaking down the
partitions between grooves). CD players have built-in circuitry to average
out anything that messes up the sound for a fraction of a revolution so a
radial scratch can be corrected, but cannot deal with circular scratches.
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keesan
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response 57 of 74:
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Feb 16 19:12 UTC 2000 |
Record companies that I have run across:
European:
Deutsche Grammophon - Germany
Erato - France (imported by RCA?)
EMI-Angel-Seraphim (bought Capitol) - England
Argo/Decca - England
London 'division of Polygram Classic NY' (British or American?)
EMI - England (also bought Capitol and owns Angel/Seraphim)
Supraphon - Czech
Melodiya - Russia
Philips - Netherlands
Did I miss any?
The larger US companies:
Columbia - Masterworks and Odyssey
RCA Victor - Red Seal
Capitol - sold to EMI in 1955 Capitol Classics, mostly pop
MHS Musical Heritage Society
Vox- Turnabout NYC
Vanguard
Mercury - affiliated somehow with EMI
Smaller companies - are any still around on this list?
Westminster - Gold
Quintessence Critics Choice - MN
Pickwick International Design Spotlight Series
Musical Masterworks - recorded European performers and conductors
Lyrichord Stereo- NYC
Dover Publications - NYC
Book of the Month Club
Connoisseur Record Corp NJ
Concert Hall Society (red vinyl)
Musical Treasures
Plymouth Merit (an hour of ....)
MGM Records - Heliodor
Murray Hill - I have two multirecord sets, one of all the greatest classical,
and one of Japanese classical.
Collector's Library of the World's Musical Masterpieces (European world, that
is). 16 Magnificent Long-Playing Records. All selections are complete and
performed by leading ARTISTS, CONDUCTORS, and ORCHESTRAS.
Steinberg, Krips, Stokowski, Sargent, Goossens, Etc.
(Has anyone heard of Sargent and Goossens? Less well-known conductors include
Poliakin with the NY Stadium Symphony, Ludwig with London SYmphony, Dixon and
the Rundfunk Symphony, the Musical Arts Symphony, Wand and Cologne
Philharmonic). Murray Hill was on Park Avenue in NYC.
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orinoco
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response 58 of 74:
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Feb 16 19:14 UTC 2000 |
Oh, _that's_ why they can deal with some scratches but not others. Makes
sense. cool.
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keesan
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response 59 of 74:
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Feb 16 19:20 UTC 2000 |
What is a Stadium Symphony? I have run across them three times.
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md
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response 60 of 74:
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Feb 16 20:17 UTC 2000 |
Malcom Sargent was a British conductor.
I don't know much about him, except that
he was the conductor on one of the first
LPs I ever acquired, Holst's Planets.
Eugene Goossens is remembered for being the
person who commissioned Aaron Copland's
"Fanfare for the Common Man." Other than
that, I don't know anything about him.
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krj
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response 61 of 74:
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Feb 17 16:58 UTC 2000 |
My resp:39 covered much of what Sindi was asking in resp:57.
The classical record labels are more like brand names
now, than independent companies.
And they are all getting traded around like baseball cards.
Just to pick one example from Sindi's list: There was a venerable
British company called Decca, which has been one of the biggest names
in opera recording for decades. Decca marketed its American products
under the London name, for some reason.
At some point, I don't know when, Decca/London got absorbed by
Polygram, the Dutch firm which also now owns Deutsch Gramophon
(originally German) and Philips (originally Dutch, I think).
Last year, Seagrams, the Canadian liquor company which is now much
more of a media company, merged its MCA music operations with
Polygram's music holdings to create the Universal Music Group.
So, London/Decca, Deutsch Gramophon and Philips all report to
Canadian management now.
And, as far as I can tell, the London name is now being retired.
The same CDs used to be issued as Decca in the UK and London in
Europe, but now they are coming out as Decca worldwide.
I believe this is being done to streamline marketing, and also to
reflect the globalization of the classical music business.
In particular, I think the main classical music magazines are now
all British publications; I can't think of any big American
classical music magazine.
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keesan
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response 62 of 74:
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Feb 18 13:12 UTC 2000 |
Andy fixed a CD player, after cleaning both the player and the CD did not
prevent skipping, by pushing on something, which somehow realigned the gears.
A lot of things can go wrong with CDs and players.
What did Argo have to do with Decca?
Also found Epic, Monitor, and Summit (CMS records NYC).
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dbratman
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response 63 of 74:
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Feb 18 21:33 UTC 2000 |
Re the "Stadium Symphony": orchestras you've never heard of with
English-language names (German ones are mostly authentic obscure German
regional orchestras) are mostly either 1) pick-up studio orchestras
consisting of whoever the company could hire to sit in that week, or 2)
famous orchestras recording under pseudonyms for contract reasons.
Sometimes they're a combination of both.
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keesan
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response 64 of 74:
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Feb 19 01:46 UTC 2000 |
Such as the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscanini? Were there any other good
studio orchestras?
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keesan
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response 65 of 74:
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Feb 19 02:41 UTC 2000 |
Another 'label' - Camden, a product of Radio Corporation of America. With
Gruve Gard and PLUS fidelity on 12 inch Long Play Records.
A budget series? Classical, Light Concert (Song of India, Blue Danube, I'm
Always Chasing Rainbows), Specialty (marches, movies) and Popular Standards
(star dust melodies, musicals, Guy Lombardo).
Classical Orchestras (from probably late forties or early fifties?)
Warwick Symphony, Centennial Symphony, Stratford Symphony, World Wide
Symphony, Regent Symphony under Charles O'Connell (the others had no conductor
mentioned), Festival Concert, Globe Symphony, Cromwell Symphony, Sussex
Symphony, Century Symphony, With Orchestra (presumably also With Conductor),
Soloists Chorus and Orchestra, and Golden Symphony Orch. Leonard Bernstein
Conductor.
Are these orchestras as British as their names, or might they be put together
at the recording studio?
A couple more on the other categories: Mitchell Ayres Orch, H. Coates Orch.
Janssen Symphony of Los Angeles W. Janssen Cond.
Raymond Paige Orchestra and American Youth Orchestra.
Some titles: The Heart of the Symphony (excerpts from 8 symphonies)
Richard Crooks Sings Songs of Faith: Six Arias by Handel and Mendelssohn
and Oratorio Arias: Six Songs, including Ave Maria--Panis Angelicus-Were You
There (With Orchestra)
I have an interesting description of how Toscanini was electronically
reprocessed for stereo to type in some other time. It actually does sound
like stereo. I also have the original 1953 mono recording. For best
reproduction High Fidelity phonographs should be adjusted to the New
Orthophonic characteristic. Where it is not designated on the instrument it
can be obtained by selecting the A. E. S. position and then, using the tone
controls, boosting bass and reducing treble, each by a small amount.
Alternatively, the LP characteristic with the bass and treble each boosted
by a small amount may be used.
A Kiwanis volunteer was explaining that the better receivers processed signals
from the old ceramic phonographs differently from tape inputs. Probably they
boosted bass etc. A couple of our receivers have a switch between magnetic
and ceramic, and between two types of tape input.
Sounds like early record listening was somewhat of an art.
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