Abstract
The companies of the phonographic industry were already globally acting corporations around 1900. Between 1902 and 1910, the U.S. and European companies expanded their business activities into the most remote regions of the world. For instance, in 1910 a sound engineer of the British Gramophone Company gave an account of a recording tour through the Caucasus where he recorded the folk songs of the native Cossacks onto record (Noble 1913, cited in Gronow 1983, p. 58). But the sound engineers from Paris, London, and New York were also sent to other regions of the world, such as Central Asia, India, China, Southeast Asia, South and Central America, North Africa, etc., in order to record locally performed music. Subsequently, the central record plants in Europe and the U.S. reproduced these recordings and re-imported them as records to the music’s countries of origin.
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Notes
- 1.
Another reason to build such record plants abroad was to circumvent high import duties levied on records.
- 2.
See Martland (1997) for a discussion of the history of Columbia Phonograph's European subsidiary.
- 3.
During the 1890s, the brothers Charles and Emile Pathé operated the "Bar américain" at the Place Pigalle in Paris. At a fair in Vincennes they had seen an Edison-phonograph and imported the machine from England in order to install it in their bar to amuse their patrons. The success was so immense that the brothers decided in 1894 to have the machines rebuilt in the Parisian suburb of Belleville and, simultaneously, to manufacture the requisite cylinders in the suburb of Châtou. They called their company "Les Phonographes Pathé", which produced a technologically very simple cylinder, the "Le Coq." The rooster concurrently served as the brand sign for the wax cylinders. The Pathés furnished the sound studios at their Parisian headquarters in the Rue de Richelieu where locally well-known singers and musicians of the Parisian music scene recorded popular songs and music pieces. In 1899, the Pathé catalog already listed 500 titles.
- 4.
The Pathé brothers were primarily active on the French market. The A.C.I.I., in existence since the late 1890s, mostly focused on the Italian market, just like the Sociéta Italiana di Fonotipia, which was founded by opera composer Umberto Giordano ("Andrea Chénier" or "Fedora") in 1904.
- 5.
The Gramophone & Typewriter Company became once again the Gramophone Company in 1907.
- 6.
Since the Löwenherz Bank was Lindström's largest creditor, former bank employees Max Straus, Heinrich Zuntz, and Otto Heinemann had first-hand insider information at their disposal about Lindström's solvency.
- 7.
When the stock company was founded in 1908, capital stock amounted to 700,000 Marks. In 1909, an increase of capital to 1,250,000 Marks occurred, in 1910 to 2 million, 1911 to 3.5 million, and finally, in 1913, to 5 million Marks (Schulz-Köhn 1940, p. 21).
- 8.
In 1904, Columbia-U.S. had already produced records that could be played on both sides, but they temporarily had to seize production due to a provisional court order requested by International Talking Machine. Only in 1907, after a settlement with International Talking Machine, was Columbia once again allowed to manufacture double-sided records.
- 9.
In 1912, Columbia stopped producing phonographic cylinders, whereas Edison's Phonograph Company continued to supply the market with music cylinders until 1929.
- 10.
The French Pathé had already seized production of cylinders in 1906 in order to attend exclusively to the production of records.
- 11.
Gramophone's profits had decreased from £150,000 to £25,000 in 1920 (Martland 1997, p. 77).
- 12.
Polyphon was founded in Leipzig in 1885. They first produced all kinds of music machines and in 1903 started to manufacture cylinders following the Edison method (see Wicke 1998, p. 97).
- 13.
After the near bankruptcy of its U.S. parent company, Columbia Graphophone emancipated itself under the leadership of Louis Sterling. External signs of this emancipation were the name change to "Columbia Graphophone Company" (instead of "Columbia Phonograph Company General") in 1913 and the creation of a limited company in 1917. In the same year, Columbia Graphophone acquired the Herford Record Company and its attendant record plants that previously belonged to the Lindström Corporation.
- 14.
Riess (1966, pp. 7–80) recounts in great depth and with all anecdotal details how the first recording of an opera star occurred.
- 15.
On March 18, 1902, Caruso, accompanied on piano by Maestro Cortone, recorded in Gaisberg's hotel room "Questa o quella" from "Rigoletto," "O dolce incanto" from "Manon Lescaut," "Una furtive lagrima" from "L'elisir d'amore," "Giunto sul passo estremo" and "Dai campi, dai prati" from "Mephisto," "E lucevan le stele" from "Tosca," "Serenata" from "Iris," "Celeste Aida" from "Aida," as well as "No, non chiuder" and "Studenti! Udite!" from "Germania."
- 16.
The first record contract was already signed on October 15, 1898 by the darling of London music halls, Albert Chevalier. In this contract, Gramophone guaranteed Chevalier a payment of 1 shilling per 12 records sold (see Martland 1997, p. 55).
- 17.
Adelina Patti (her real name was Baroness Cederström) was an already aging opera diva who, at the age of 63, recorded her first record. In 1905, she recorded for Gramophone a number of songs and opera arias for the "red label" series. Nellie Melba, too, was a celebrated opera star who made some recordings for Gramophone in July 1904 (see Riess 1966, pp. 102–110; Martland 1997, pp. 59–60).
- 18.
Legend has it that The Met's artistic director, Heinrich Conried, first heard Caruso at Gramophone's Parisian office and immediately hired him there.
- 19.
These recordings were an aria from Verdi's "Ernani" and "La Traviata," as well as a vocal arrangement from Strauß' "Spring-Voices Waltz".
- 20.
During this period, Caruso made 234 recordings, not counting the ones he made for A.C.I.I. In contrast to this, The Met paid him $960 per performance in his first year. Only later, when his performances became more scarce, did Caruso demand $2,500 for each performance (Riess 1966, pp. 178–179). Hence, Caruso would have had to appear 800 times to match the income he derived from his recording activities.
- 21.
The $3.50 cost of a Caruso record equaled the weekly earnings of a trained worker.
- 22.
The label "His Master's Voice" depicted a dog that attentively listened to a Gramophone. French painter Francis Barraud, who lived in London, created this brand sign. Out of enthusiasm for the Edison-phonograph, he painted his dog Nipper in front of such a machine. Since the Edison Company could not use this painting, Barraud approached Gramophone, which used the artistic rendering after painting over the Edison-phonograph with a Gramophone.
- 23.
The International Talking Machine Company, founded by former Zonophone chairman F. M. Prescott, produced for the Odeon label recordings of the already 60 years old former Wagner heroine, Lilli Lehmann and of the young tenor John McCormack. The Sociéta di Fonotipia, located in Milan, tried to position itself with the help of a number of artistically authentic recordings of arias, including recitations in their original length, directed by opera composer Umberto Giordano ("Andrea Chénier" or "Fedora"). The French Pathé Company initially produced operas on cylinders; these, however, were first complemented with the Pathé disc in 1906 and then fully replaced by it. Although Pathé managed to establish a monopoly position in France, its activities remained limited to the French market, with the exception of a cooperation with the Anglo-Italian A.I.C.C.
- 24.
In addition to Franz Léhar, Oscar Straus with "A Waltz Dream" (first performed May 2, 1907 at the Carl Theatre in Vienna) and Leo Fall with "Der fidele Bauer" (first performed July 27, 1907 in Manheim) were part of the founding members of the "silver operetta era".
- 25.
On June 22, 1906, Gramophone recorded the most popular songs of the success operetta with the first "Merry Widow", Mizzi Günther and the first "Danilo", Louis Treumann. As well, the Viennese operetta stars Fritzi Massary and Alexander Girardi worked for Gramophone.
- 26.
Noteworthy are, for instance, the revues “Berlin Laughs” (1899), “Specialties” (1900), “One Only Lives Once” (1901), “Berlin Remains Berlin” (1902), “Maxim's Gentlemen” (1904), “To the Metropol” (1905), or “The Devil Laughs” (1906).
- 27.
Translator's note: The author puns here on the German word for “popular song”, “Schlager”, which carries connotations of “punching” or “beating” (“schlagen”). In German, therefore, a popular song is a song that is “eingeschlagen”, that has entered listeners' ears with force, or with a “punch”.
- 28.
In order to render the violin usable for acoustic sound recordings, the London instrument builder Charles Stroh invented in 1901 the aptly named “Stroh violin”, the resonating body of which was directly connected to the recording funnel. The first successful orchestral recordings were made by the Deutsche Grammophon together with bandleader Bruno Seidler-Winkler, who managed to rearrange original scores so that a similar effect could be achieved on record as in a concert hall.
- 29.
In order to boost sales of their own artists, publishing houses hired their own “song-pluggers”, whose job it was to make sure certain songs would be used in variety programs. “A song-plugger visited the singer backstage, sang a song, and tried to persuade the singer to perform it in his show; the plugger went to managers, band-leaders, and visited beer gardens. He always carried a bunch of so-called sheet music with him” (Kuhnke et al. 1976, p. 213; translation from the original German).
- 30.
Around 1900, most music publishers were both publisher and composer in one person such as, for instance, Charles K. Harris, who used to work as a pawnbroker.
- 31.
ASCAP is short for “American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers”.
- 32.
One of the first and most successful revues was the one by Vernon and Irene Castle and their dance ensemble, which essentially triggered the dance boom.
- 33.
The African–American Scott Joplin was born 1868 in Texas, but he was trained in the European tradition of music composing. In addition to more than thirty Rags, including the famous “Maple Leaf Rag” or “The Entertainer”, Joplin also composed a symphony and two operas.
- 34.
Berendt and Huesmann (2001, p. 21) characterize Scott Joplin's piano-Rags as the “highpoint of a long development of a range of Ragtime styles”.
- 35.
Examples of this style are the Ragtime songs of Tin Pan Alley composer Irving Berlin such as “Play Some Ragtime” (1909), “Stop that Rag” (1910), “Dat Draggy Rag” (1910), “O, That Beautiful Rag” (1910), or “Alexander's Ragtime Band” (1911).
- 36.
By now, research has shown that local Blues traditions also existed outside the Mississippi Delta and that New Orleans was not the only birthplace of Jazz; yet, both regions clearly play a special role in the development of their respective music styles.
- 37.
We can trace back commercial minstrel shows to 1842 when four unemployed actors, so-called “black face entertainers”, conceived of the “Virginia Minstrels” and successfully performed in New York. “Black face entertainers” were really “white” actors who imitated African–Americans in a racist manner during breaks of theater performances. Minstrel shows turned this filler into the main attraction consisting of funny dialog, slapstick comedy, and music performances; overall, these shows depicted “blacks as thieves, idiots, dimwits, and lazy people” (Kuhnke et al. 1976, p. 125). In contrast, minstrel shows that were exclusively performed by African–American entertainers did not emerge until 1867, that is, until after the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
- 38.
Ma Rainey herself claims that she had first heard the Blues played by a young woman on a stop of her touring minstrel show in a small town in Mississippi. Ma Rainey learned from this woman a song complaining about the loss of a lover and incorporated it into her repertoire.
- 39.
Handy maintains that he first heard the Blues played by an amateur band that performed upon audience request at a dance festival in Cleveland, Mississippi where his orchestra played as well.
- 40.
On February 26, 1917, Victor Talking Machine recorded with ODJB the “Original Dixieland One Step” and the “Livery Stable Blues”.
- 41.
French music theoreticians Robert Goffin (1932) and Hugues Panassié (1934) coined the term “New Orleans style”.
- 42.
“Dixieland” was the folksy term used for the American South.
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Tschmuck, P. (2012). The Music Industry Boom Until 1920. In: Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28430-4_3
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