06-Really Old Stuff
One nice thing about the archival 78 collection at The Internet Archive is that it's not restricted to any one style or era of music. Though their funding does appear to prioritize non-classical music, just about everything else is fair game. And the 78 era covers a wide range of stuff. But frequently the early acoustic recordings are a tough listen, so I decided to put some of the really early stuff together into a single post so if you don't like that sort of a challenging listen, you can just skip it. I tried to skip some of the recordings that I was familiar with, there are plenty of collections out there that focus on the early acoustic stuff, and Christmas was a popular theme in those days, even if it was a record you couldn't play other times of the year. These few selections should be less familiar, and hopefully listenable at the very least. I tried and tried to get at least one good rip from a cylinder recording dating back to 1896, but I just couldn't get anything close to listenable out of it. My skill level with these things is not where it should be, but you can always get the originals from The Great 78 Project if you want to try your hand at it. Everything I'm sharing here and a lot, lot more is available from their collection. The songs in this download were released between 1904 and 1928, so it's all over 90 years old, and most of it's over 100! That's impressive!
Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.
1. Posadas And Monaku-Christmas Eve-Hawaiian Guitar Duet
2. Percy Pitt Conducting The B.B.C. Wireless Symphony Orchestra (By Special Permission Of The B.B.C.)-Christmas Overture Part 1
3. Thaviu's Concert Band-Ice Skating Waltz
4. Columbia Stellar Quartette-On the Old Bob Sled
5. The Gulf Coast Seven-Santa Claus Blues
6. Charles Harrison-Tenor, Orchestra Accompaniment-Star Of Bethlehem
7. Columbia Orchestra-The Merry Sleigh Bells
8. Haydn Quartet With Orchestra-Winter
9. Percy Pitt Conducting The B.B.C. Wireless Symphony Orchestra (By Special Permission Of The B.B.C.)-Christmas Overture Part 2
10. Wilfred Glenn, Basso, Orchestra Accompaniment-Nazareth
11. Columbia Quartette-Snow Time
12. Henry Burr, Tenor With Orchestra-The Night Before Christmas
13. Broadway Quartette-Winter Medley-Introducing: Jingle Bells; My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean; How Can I Love Thee; Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party; Good Night Ladies
This is a great collection - I am particularly interested in the Percy Pitt record, which I've not seen before!
ReplyDeleteNot sure who Percy Pitt is, but I assume you do. I need to look into some new software to address the crackle that's frequently left on these older 78s when I do my cleaning. It seem to be confined to a pretty narrow frequency band, so I have to assume there's a good way to tame it, but it falls outside my usual process. Something for next year. :)
ReplyDeletePercy Pitt was just an old-time English conductor. I actually am interested in the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor piece on the record!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried the de-crackle feature of Click Repair? At about a setting of 50 it seems to do a reasonable job.
ReplyDeleteYou sure you weren't a deep sea diver in your early life? I'm a chronic bottom feeder at the Internet archive and all of this music escaped me. Maybe I need new scuba gear. Better yet, I'll let you go pearl fishing for me. Great job. I just hope thousands discover the work you've been doing on their behalf. Keep discovering, uncovering and, above all, recovering vintage music.
ReplyDeleteBuster-I saw that Samuel Coleridge Taylor credit and flip flopped it in my head and started wondering why I didn't know he wrote Christmas music. I think I finally figured out it was someone different, but it took a bit.
ReplyDeleteDavid-I've learned that the search function at The Internet Archive isn't as good as Google. Some things are fully indexed, but often not the names of the acts. Benny Goodman will not return anything entered as Benny Goodman And His Orchestra. It's kind of a pain, but it leaves a lot of room for obsessive keyword testing. :) And certainly not all of the Christmas music is tagged as such. The similar-to suggestions at the bottom of their pages can yield some interesting results sometime, too.
Yeah, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a different fellow than Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Thanks! It instantly transports me to a 1920s village museum near here (which is only open in December, but which sadly won't be open this season due to covid - good thing I have all these 78s to listen to.)
ReplyDeleteGreat set! I'm eager to hear the Coleridge-Taylor side. I've put up two different versions of his once-famous "Viking Song"--one by a 1926 glee club in what was essentially a live recording.
ReplyDeleteEnglish composer, mixed-race. Had to deal with a lot of racism. Talented guy--due for rediscovery, I think.