THE BALTIC DISCOGRAPHY of the Gramophone Company from 1901 to 1939
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ALAN KELL V and REiNO SEPP THE BALTIC DISCOGRAPHY of The Gramophone Company from 1901 to 1939 PART O N E: E S TONiA " Th~ Gr ophoo e C mpa y" E ... sti heiisa .estnsed " Eest i Fi l a t e lis t " nr 3 2 - 1988 lis a Supplement to "Eesti Filatelist" No 3 2 - -~ --~- 3 PREFACE Discography listed here is a part of a larger work entitled "His Master's Voice" - The Russian Catalogue" to be published by "Greenwood Press" as Volume 3 in their Series of international discographies. Here "Russian" means not only the Czarist Empire but also includes records for Russians in exile after WW I and the independent Baltic republics and Poland. Baltic Discogarphy is divided into three parts ~ the chronological !ists of the recordings for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It is a pure coincidence that both the alphabetical and the geographical orders of these three countries from North to South coneur with the arnount of The Gramophone Company recordings: Estonia - 800, Latvia -500 and Lithuania -200. For practical reasons only the part one is published in this No of "Eesti Filatelist". Parts 2 and 3 will follow in the next No of EF together with corrections and addenda to Part I as well with an Index to it. The Gramophone Company made Estonian records intermittently. Only following years occur in the statistics: 1901, 1904, 1908, 1911, 1913, 1927~1931 and 1936~1939. Seven times a greater recording session was arranged, three times thereof with serious Estonian music: 1908, 1928 and I 939. Our !ists are ordered as in a table and in the order of increasing Matrix No 's. Columns from left to right are: Matrix No Catalogue No Performance Prefixal Catalogue No Matrix No (in the first column) given to the master recording, isa combination of digits (always one figure higher than the preceding No) and suffix or prefix letters containing a code specific to the sound engineer concerned ~ and also to the size of the record. Each sound engineer used a separate number series of his own beginning with I for each record size (7", I 0" and 12"). A vast majority of recordings are made for JO" size, e g all Estonian discs from 1908 to 1938. When mare than one recording of a piece was made, the two takes were distinguished by being marked, for example, 7847L and 7847!L in the early days and, again for example, BE2533-1 and BE2533-2 in later times. In our table only every tenth Matrix No is printed in its entire Jength. On the intermediary positian stands only the last digit and the code of the second take (e g "~ ", " 2 "). A closer presentation of The Gramophone Co Matrix No system is presented elsewhere I I I. Catalogue No (in the second column) before 1929 conlained a code designating the country concerned and type of the performance (orchestra, speech, male song solo etc) as expiained in Table No I, "Eesti Filatelist" No 31, 1987, p. 72. From 1908 to 1911 they also included 4 Ll-lt: vrdl·z lcttc; X (SC( oi., ..J Ult iast cohiülll. Prcfixal C4ta11J~uc No's). A closer study of the calli-.. .. Cdt:üogur No's is tounJ eL;cwhere '2!- i\:Jfon.1ance U:1 tne third cctumn) partiy prcscr:.1s th\' tcxi irvm the lahel of eacil itPm (afte!· ..:vrrcclion of trro~s) ,ü.1li paltly acJds ..:u.iilpl..::ntenrary infon-ilation for iJentifying J1t.: musieal :.lriU. lü\.:röi:y .;;o:.uces: ar"llSl (n an: e a~ Lilf':i.1 in L:S•') aCC0111p<.~.n.in1E11t ( "'li'/p" dencte~ '"·'/ith ria1l.Cn, "wjo" '\~Jith orches~ra", "\riacc" "with accordion-·, \v/r'' '\vith violine") ·1ock 1cpcra. ej>os etc) from wluch taken, in Estcnian Estonian title. uscu at the parlicnlat recording (it means that diffcrcnt rccordin:;s of th'' sarnc so ng may occur under cliffcrent ti~ks) parcnthescs () including the composer. followed by J Ja,h "-",and foliowcu by the autlwr of Estoni3n lyrics. if known ,"\.::rk (opera. epos c~c) fron1 \;Jiüch taker... ii·: original (if Ccrn1:111, Fn:nch cr ltalian) vr in English tilk in crig11:al (if Grrman. Frencb O!" itlli:Jn) nr in English. It is always tlH' same. ma tehing the Liüe g.i.~'en b~, the con1poser. As such ihc forcign titlc aiso norn1alizcs the list. English :ran:slalivns are takt:n fron1 i.wo stanuard r('i'ercnce books: flurry c)/z: Estoma n Music, 1 alhnn ; 980 Ln:Jet 1\bk: Estonian Literaturc, Talliru". 1970 an.j fr~Jnl Esioniar. recu1ds l-JTOduu.:d abroaU in EJ.1giish·s11eaL1ng eur m:t ie:;. if uol fou{1d 111 soL;:·~cs menÜ.Jtltl1 al'uv ... the t_...ansiat1nr 11J<:Hk l""~ the :'c,-,'Jil0r f'-.,l"fcl::ilh ,·c1 :lli-. list For latu publicat1ons \'·e upprc.:üd.c cv~n ptOlH)'l<-~l Cor a tnorc o.dequatc ti'dJ,,~L..itiOll. Estonian Christian names are exchanged for Engh>h enn (renlindlilg the originai as C:osely as pcssible). Otherwtse a foreigner can not know if an Estonian proper name Jesignates a man or woman, city or anilnal or whakvcr else. lf a name may cause confusion. e g if one person has had scvera!Hames or scveral composers havc had the same name, the name is completed also with first name. A typical case is Miina Hc.ma11n (family name before 1935) who appears as Miina Härma after 1936. Theolher two llcr manns are Otto and the very productive composer and writer Karl August. Here "Otto Hermann" and the abbreviation "KAH" are used. Russian composers are transcribcd as in Et;glish usage. Three different ways art used to denote an unknowü author/~omposer/pcrfonner: "anorz·' -- if we could not find ilis/hcr/their ::arne "trad" - if we have not fo und the con1p0ser but the music is well-known "Esronian", "German,. etc-- folklore of carlier ongin In brackets I I compiementary information is given: allern&tive translations, questwn marks regardiilg unknown original spelling of the title (sometimes deformed to a riddle due to use of handwritten notes and technicians who did not understand Estonian) etc, 5 Prefixal Catalogue No (in the fourth column) finally presents the Catalogue No 's with prefixes EK , EL, EO , P an d X (onl y for 1904). All of t hem occur twice, except the X-5eries, thus in di cating which two recordings belong together on the same disc. Malehing pairs of the -series are easiest fo und in " Eesti Filatelist" No 3 J, 1987 p. 7 5- 82, column 3 via reversc side Title No 's. Acknowledgement to all these people who very kindly have helped us with complementary information , first of all to Karleric Liliedahl (Trelleborg), who systematical! y worked through the files of Skandinavisk Gra:mo phon Aktieselskap until 1934 and Heino Pedusaar (Tallinn) who checked all the earlier Zonophone discs fo und at the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum in Tallinn. I owe very m uch gratitude also to Johann Daendler (Denmark), Jari Fors blom (Helsinki). Pekka Gronow (1-l elsink.i.), Sule1> Kasvandik (Pärnumaa), Tiir Lääne (JÕgeva), Sulev N urmiste (Stockholm), Valter Ojakäär (Tallinn), Elmar Ojasre (Göteborg) , Veste Paas (Tallinn) , Hugo Sa lasoo (Sidney) and my aunt Ma rta Sepp (Kuressaare) who have supplied us with valuable information u.nd Koidu Nerep (S tockhohu) who transfered all this material to a beautiful typescrift. 6 EESSÕNA VÕib tunduda uskumatuna, et Eesti heliplaatide ajalooline loetelu on koostatud välismaal ja mitte Eestis. Miks? Eesti häält hakkasid salvestama muulased, enne kÕike "The Gramophone Company", mis oli asutatud grammofoni leiutaja Emil Berlineri poolt. Sel Inglismaa firmal oli kaua juhtiv asend Eesti grammofoniturul, mida näitab siintoodud nimekiri umbes 800-st tütlist ajavahemikus 1901-1939. Seega pole ime, kui TGC perioodi kattev materjal Eesti kohta leidub just Inglismaal ja mitte Eestis. Alan Kelly hiigeltöö katab ajastu kuni aastani 1931. Selles toodud andmete kontrolli misel ja täiendamisel, samuti sellele järgnevate aastate kaardistamisel on olnud abi ka Eesti allikaist, nagu näha allpool toodud kasutatud kirjanduse loetelust /3-10/. VÕidakse ütelda, et käesolev töö tuleb avalikkuse ette enneaegselt, näiteks ilma kõiki olemasolevaid plaate läbi kuulamata ja etikettidega võrdlemata. Et valik ometi langes vöimalikult peatse avaldamise kasuks oleneb kahest asjaolust. Esiteks on viimne aeg teha vanade plaatide nimekiri alusena nende kultuuriväärtuste puht füüsilisele korjamisele, et neid unustusest ja hävingust päästa ning talletada planeeritavas Eesti Rahvusfonoteegis. Teiseks kujutab Eesti heliplaadi ajalugu eneses suurt, mitte kellegi teise poolt päälesunnitut valget laiku meie rahva muusika-, lavakunsti-, kirjandus- ja olmeloodes. Peame "avalikustama" plaatidel jäädvustatud hääled, muusika, sündmused ja sõnumid, mis on lahutamatu osa Eesti kultuuriloost. Osalt pole palju asju muul teel enam üldse võimalik taastada (näiteks ainult mitmed rügimeeste kõned a. 1939, Eesti esimene operett "Jaaniöö" (Adalbert Virkhaus- Paul Pinna) viie salvestusega a. 1911 ja rida meie klassikute partituure, mis ära põlesid Tallinna pommita misel 1944 ja mis leiduvad nende 200 salvestuse hulgas, mis tehti Tallinnas a. 1939). Keegi ei tea, kui palju sün loeteldud plaatidest või nende matriitsidest on enam olemas. Diskograafia olemasolu aga annab nüüd võimaluse nende süstemaatiliseks tagaotsimiseks. Eriti kriitiline olukord on salvestustega, mis sattusid jääma maailmasõdade jalgu. Praegu on haruiduste hulgas nü 1913-nda a. sügise (katalooginumbrid kuskil P 94 ja P 493 vahel) kui ka 1939-nda a. maikuu heliplaadid (katalooginumbrid alates EK 1200 ja EL 1200). Ehkki vümaseist tehti a. 1952-54 väliseestlaste tellimusel 31 heliplaati tiraaliga 300 eksemplari, pole neist kodumaa muuseumides ja erafonoteekides rohkem kui vaid üksikud. On ilmne, et paljudes väliseesti kodudes seisab kasutamata suuremaid või väiksemaid His Master's Voice 'i 78-türuliste heliplaatide kogusid, mida oleks hädasti vaja kodumaa fonoteekide täiendamisel.