I've been away from this blog since 2015 so as this is a New Year and time for resolutions, I thought also to do something to distract me from the real world. Not sure if my resolution or the world will stop first but I won't think too deeply about that for now and just stick to the music.

Edward de Jong, flute & [Madame Adami], piano

c. Wednesday, 8th May 1907

Traditional : Auld Robin Gray

Gramophone & Typewriter 9199 [6008e]

Stephen Foster : Old Folks at Home - The Swannee River

Gramophone & typewriter 9198 [6011e]

Two FLAC selections in one Zip file 44.1kHz/16bit [23Mb]

(If you are not familiar with FLAC I can recommend Foobar2000 player)
Both pieces can also be streamed as mp3 @ 192 kbps below each label

Edward de Jong (1837-1920) is the oldest surviving flute player to have recorded.  I find it quite staggering that someone who played flute with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the 1850's can even be heard today, but that he also played with Jullien's Orchestra also before he went on to become first principle flute of the Hallé Orchestra at its inception 160 years ago even more amazing.

Edward de Jong

De Jong studied at the Cologne Conservatory until 1850 when he moved to Leipzig to take private lessons with Wilhelm Haake (1804-1875). A pupil of the flautist Anton Bernhard Fürstenau (1792-1852). Haake had joined the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1821 and de Jong often deputised for him in the Gewandhaus Orchestra. At this period the orchestra was conducted by Julius Rietz (1812-1877) who if he is remembered today is through his most celebrated pupil Sir Arthur Sullivan. It was at this time that de Jong met with Franz Liszt, whe encouraged the young flautist and gave him a number of letters of introduction. In 1855 de Jong had moved to become a flautist in the Amsterdam Orchestra under August Mann (1825-1907), but being dissatisfied there he travelled in 1855 to London arriving so he said with with only 1s 6d of Dutch money in his pocket, nevertheless he still succeeded in joining the famous Jullien's Orchestra. [One wonders if he actually travelled back with Mann, who had incidentally only gone to Amsterdam to conduct the orchestra before returning to London to take up the conductorship at the Crystal Palace?]

Louis Antoine Jullien in the late 1850's

Louis Antoine Jullien (1812-1860) is now rather difficult to assess, he was certainly a showman, probably a charlatan, certainly a bankrupt fleeing his Paris creditors and lastly mad.  Little wonder that his career was so interesting having to live up to his full name of Louis George Maurice Adolphe Roche Albert Abel Antonio Alexandre Noë Jean Lucien Daniel Eugène Joseph-le-brun Joseph-Barême Thomas Thomas Thomas-Thomas Pierre Arbon Pierre-Maurel Barthélemi Artus Alphonse Bertrand Dieudonné Emanuel Josué Vincent Luc Michel Jules-de-la-plane Jules-Bazin Julio César Jullien. Despite the bejewelled baton, the gold chair and certain enhancements of the storm sequence of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony by shaking vigorously a large box of dried pees, Jullien generally did try to bring more 'serious' music to his concerts despite the boos from his devotees!

Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, 1857
I digress, but this image is looking east from Saloon A to C - the picture to the right of the empty
frame leaning on the floor in the middle distance is Franz Pourbus the Younger's Portrait
of Henry Duc de Guise. This was exhibit 514 and lent by the  Spencer family at Althrop.
It is still there in the same frame, so to add some colour it is shown in at the foot of this page.

In 1856 Charles Hallé was asked to form an orchestra for the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester that scheduled to open the following year. The first concert was held on the 6th of May 1857 and it is quite probable that the jubilee of this event prompted de Jong to make his recordings fifty years later. De Jong, recalled that he had been interviewed by Hallé in London before going to Manchester to perform with the Orchestra at Manchester which was made up from an amalgam of Jullien's and Hallé's musicians. This event must have been of some significance to de Jong by 1907 and surly prompted the recordings. This exhibition although not as famous as some, probably had the largest collection of art put ever put together in one place. 

Edward de Jong looking left!

He clearly preferred to stay in Manchester and on the founding of the Hallé Orchestra in following year de Jong became their first principle flute participating at their inaugural concert on the 30th of January 1858. De Jong held this position until 1870 when he left to established his own orchestra at Manchester, much to Hallé's ire.  Much of de Jong's time was then taken up as an active conductor at the large exhibitions and popular resorts including posts as Musical Director of the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, Southport and Buxton. He was something of a showman in the Jullien way, although without anything like the same extravagance, he did not as Hallé aim to satisfy the public with too serious a program of classical music but aimed at the lighter and more popular music of his day. From 1893 until 1906, de Jong taught flute at the Royal Manchester College of Music before retiring from this position in 1907 at the age of 70.

Royal Manchester College of Music c. 1911

A fuller account of Edward de Jong career and the other flautists of the Hallé can be read and downloaded through this link  Stuart Scott's Hallé Flutes: Flautists of the Hallé Orchestra 1858-1993. Historical account surveying the contributions made to music making in Manchester (UK) by the Hallé Orchestra's flautists over a period of 135 years. Sale, Chester, 1998.

By good fortune there is a contemporary review of of these two records given in The Manchester Guardian, this must have been one of the earliest sustained series of record reviews to appear in a British newspaper for this time.  In the July 16th 1907 issue the following was penned 'Another good record is the one of Mr De Jong's flute-playing which must be still in the memory of older concert-goers in Manchester. The flute tone in very well reproduced; the lower notes are remarkably real. But the kindly, inoffensive old."Swannee River" is surely, getting too venerable to be subjected to such irreverent variations.' 

Alas the copies I have are not in the best of conditions. They appear not to have lasted in the catalogue more than a year although Auld Robin Grey got to a second stamper showing some popularity but The Swannee River may only have managed a first stamper.  With the opening of the Hayes pressing plant it appears not to have proved worthwhile to transport these matrices with the other 'English' titles from the Hanover pressing plant and instead they would have been destroyed with other redundant material. The spelling 'de Jonge' on The Swannee River label is likely to have been miscommunication between London and Hanover, indeed the name is spelt 'De Jange' on the recording sheets, seems very unlikely that the record was withheld for such a reason a more likely reason was the records wore out quickly on earlier gramophones. Another point worth pointing out are that very few recordings were issued of the flute by G&T up to this time. In total twelve 7" sides and seven 10" had been issued before De Jong's two sides came out with only a further nineteen solo, concerted or concerto sides issued before 1927 in any format marketed by G&T and HMV. 

Fred & Will Gaisberg 1912

Dating of the records

Only the dedicated discographer need read further but I thought I could explain the dating of these discs and thereby by default the probable dates of Vladimir De Pachmann's first recording.  

Will Gaisberg who recorded these records returned from the Bombay on the Wednesday 1st May 1907 and so is known to have begun recording at the City Road studio sometime that month.  On his return the block of 10" matrix numbers was restarted at 6001e the last number used by Will in India being 5560e. Vladimir De Pachmann was the first person recorded by Will Gaisberg on 6001e, 6003e and 6004e [6002e was not issued], there is then a short gap before de Jong's two issued matrix number 6008e and 6011e [6009e and 6010e no doubt being rejected]. There is then a long gap of twelve unknown matrix numbers before a choir composed Fishermen of the North Sea Trawlers (in conjunction with the National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen) recorded three selections beginning with 6024e. 

Will Gaisberg doubtless took a couple of days off after the voyage so probably did not actually start recording again until Monday 6th May. So to get a fix on the date of de Jong's recording sessions so I suggest the following chronology. De Pachmann gave his last concert in London before his two year tour to America on Wednesday 8th May and the The North Sea fishermen must surely be connected with the annual meeting of the National Mission held at Exeter Hall on Friday May 10th 1907. This last was advertised as including 'One Hundred North Sea Fishermen [who] will attend and take part in the proceedings.' So these recordings by the fishermen could very probably have been made on the following day, I would presume that working fishermen were very unlikely to remain in London too long after the meeting was over. I suspect the recordings by de Jong were made on or about Wednesday the 8th May just a few days after de Jong had celebrating his jubilee. I also suspect that De Pachmann recorded on Monday or Tuesday that week but also feel he returned to the studio for a second second session on the Thursday or Friday. It is this second session that may partly account for the missing matrix numbers after de Jong's 6011e. There is a similar gap of four matrix numbers in the De Pachmann's 12" series recorded at the same time, so it is also possible that de Jong may have attempted a longer composition during his recording session.

Vladimir de Pachmann 

This is all quite speculative but but it would seem a sensible plan as The Gramophone &d Typewriter Ltd may have thought to make enough good recordings of De Pachmann before he went abroad for a two year period of concert tours, Enough time then to have tests approved before De Pachmann left the UK sometime in the middle of June 1907 [he arrived at New York on the 27th June].

One final point is that I have ascribed the piano playing to Madame Adami with no proof whatsoever. although it is very probable that she is playing on these records for from 1907 she had become the house pianist at G&T and featured quite prominently in some publicity at this time - more about this mystery woman in a later post.

Franz Pourbus the Younger's Portrait

of Henry Duc de Guise

Victorian melodrama

The Broken Melody is one of those pieces that make many of us groan but before you pass this up this a recording with a difference.

It is difficult to get a real idea of what Victorian melodrama was like, early cinema was just in time to give a visual record but still it is nice to know that a very few fragments of sound have also survived. Unlike all other recordings this particular composition the example sets the music within the stage play as van Biene intended. The declamatory style and sentimentality can be heard performed here with all the passion one could expect of the period.

August van Biene, (1849-1913) cellist & actor

August van Biene: The Broken Melody

Cello Scena with orchestra

Gramophone Co. Ltd 07853 

[2010f]

Recorded: on or about Friday, 20th September 1907

Link (FLAC file, 9 MB)

Auguste van Biene commissioned The Broken Melody, A Musical Comedy-Drama in Three Acts, from Herbert Keen and James T. Tanner with the first performance  given at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London on Thursday evening the 28th July 1892. The critics thought it was terrible but the public just kept coming and van Biene eventually gave something approaching 6,000 performances worldwide. As he cast himself in the role of the main protagonist it meant that he had to perform in every one of these performances so it is hardly surprising that he decided in 1912, as much for his own sanity as anything else, that he really ought to stop.

I have not been able to locate a copy of the play in print, doubtless it was never printed although a copy would have been lodged with the Lord Chamberlain for his seal of approval and should still be lodged in the Dept. of Manuscripts at the British Library. In any case, as the play was reviewed wherever it has staged, it has not been too difficult to construct a general synopsis  of how it was staged by van Biene.

I have italicised the section that the record presents:

The leading character is Paul Borinski, (August van Biene) a musician and composer of genius, The first act of the play he is shown struggling along with his young and devoted wife in London lodgings, and trying to dispose of a much-rejected opera. The genius of Borinski has attracted the admiration of the Duchess de Verviers, who does the musician at once a service and an injury, for while she uses her influence to gain acceptance for his opera, she, desirous of supplanting the young wife in her husband's affections, tells her that Borinski has been discovered by General Ivanoff (of the Russian police) to be a proscribed Polish count, and that his only hope of safety lies in her instant flight. The explanation of the position is a little complicated, but the distracted Mabel Borinski is convinced, writes a letter of adieu to her husband, and hurries off. When Paul Borinski returns in the hour of his triumph - that is with his opera accepted - he finds his wife gone and only a letter remaining,  the interpretation of which is distorted in friendly way by the Duchess, and makes it appear that his wife has left him for ever.

Van Biene as sketched by Phil May for Black & White magazine, 1902

In the second act Paul, now all honoured composer, is seen as the lion of an evening at the Parisian salon of the Duchess, where, he gives a 'cello recital that affords the audience great enjoyment. Paul's wife is also in the house, but she has been warned by the Duchess that in the presence of Ivanoff, who is happens to be a guest, she must continue to deny her husband, which she has had to do once already to Ivanoff, and in consequence a dramatic scene ensues, in which Paul's passionate appeals to his wife are met with a cold denial, and which culminates when Paul reveals his rank and name to Ivanoff, strikes him, and challenges him to the duel, the latter having presumptuously interfered between husband and wife.

In the third and final act Borinski, convalescent as the result of the duel and pretty well heartbroken by his wife's apparent faithlessness, is shown apparently more than ever in the toils of the Duchess. His enlightenment is at hand, however, and the revelation of the true character of the Duchess is due mainly to Ivanoff, who produces and gives to Paul the portion of his wife's letter that her rival had suppressed. Convinced that his wife has been cruelly wronged the lonely musician takes up his 'cello once again, and plays the melody that his wife loved, and had been "broken" by the discovery or her flight, and, as faltering he drops his bow, he looks up to find his wife has stolen to his side, and their lives are then happily reunited.

Not a dry eye in the house one feels – I'm sure that with so many performances Van Biene must have got it down to a fine art. It also allowed for several cello pieces to be played including Kol Nidrie, Home Sweet Home and Salut d’amour etc. He made several versions for various recording companies but as far as I am aware nobody has reissued this particular dramatised version and in truth I was only aware of it myself once I read the label and played the record. The record seems to have been popular as it had already reached an eighth stamper by the time my copy was pressed. Stampers wore out after about 500-1000 pressings so even including mishaps several thousands would have been sold. Too few of the pressing seem to have survived as this type of record not being a for a long time thought worthy of collecting and so many copies would have been destroyed or recycled.

Early collectors of this type of record

However there where a few intrepid collectors, one being Frederick Burden Junior who contributed an article for the Gramophone Magazine's  Collectors Corner in January 1941 on musical theatre – he at least saw the value of these records – He mentions the 10” version on GC 7878 but it was much later in an answer to another correspondent to the magazine in a  letter published in July 1955 that the present record is described for the first (and seemingly last) time.

'The Broken Melody - In reply to the letter from Mr. J. F. C. Newitt of Wolverhampton in the June issue of the Gramophone, I trust the following information will help clear up several of the queries regarding the late Van Biene.

Apart from the records mentioned by Mr. Newitt, [Edison Bell 3355 apparently recorded two days before the cellist death!] Van Biene also made a ten-inch single-sided disc for Gramophone & Typewriter in 1903, [GC 7878 (6464b) 9 Jan 1905 reissued on Zonophone X-47852] a twelve-inch double-sided Zonophone in 1909 (Broken Melody/Koi Nidrei) [Zonophone A60 (ac5545f/ ac5546f)  6th Oct 1911], and finally a twelve-inch single-sided Gramophone Monarch No. 07853, also in 1909 [GM 07853  (2010f)  on or about 20 Sept 1907], which was described as a Cello Scena spoken and played by Auguste Van Biene, this, of course, being a condensed version of the famous music-hall sketch that he played all over the world for so many years. He died on the stage at the Brighton Hippodrome rather tragically on January 23rd, 1913. He went right through his sketch without faltering, as usual, and as he reached the final scene he fell back in his chair and the bow slid from his fingers. This had been the end of the sketch for many years, but in this instance it was the passing of the famous old 'cellist and performer. I have all three of the above records mentioned above in my own collection. A graphic account of the above incident is given in Vaudeville Days by W. H. Boardman, published in 1935 and also in The Talking Machine News for 1913.  Peacehaven, Sussex. Frederick Burden.

The errors in dating discs are due, in part to a lack of knowledge of matrix numbers. – a topic for another day

Van Biene's biography and technique

A short biography of van Biene by Dr Brenda Scott of Duke University can be found at this link although there is plenty to find on the web. Of van Biene's playing Arthur Broadley in his  Chats to 'Cello Students 1899 is depricating 'Van Biene is of the exaggerated artistic order, all the time he is playing constantly striking some fresh attitude. If Van Biene had again to take to concert work, I have no doubt that he would calm down a little in this respect, his exaggerated style while being very effective on the stage, would not be tolerated on the concert platform.' No matter the public could not get enough of his act and I think the illustration by Phil May gives a fairly good impression of the theatricality of his role in the illustration above. The portamento is possibly a bit excessive, but then it had to be to bring the house down.

Recording in 1907

Anyone who has got this far down the page may be interested in how this was recorded - As far as I can judge there would have been two horns used, one directed at the cello,and one directed at the orchestra with van Biene in between. In the picture below, also from 1907 it shows the arrangement for Edward Lloyd (tenor), Madam Adami (piano) and I think W.H. Squire cello. For the van Biene recording the orchestra would be place where the piano is and further back with van Biene directly in front with  two horns directed at the bridge of the cello and another to van Biene's face.

Thus van Biene's head being blocking some of the orchestral sound and it is only at the end of the recordwhen  he would have moved his head aside the the orchestra volume increases. There may actually have been yet another horn directed towards a Stroh cello [a modern YouTube video can be found through this Link and gives you a good idea of the sound it makes], this together with a tuba can be heard enhancing the the lower notes of the solo passage.

The arrangement of the horns meant that they had to be fixed together with a hard rubber joint - fluid dynamics come into play in this arrangement - if you play into one horn some of the sound goes towards cutting the disc but also a certain amount comes out of the other horns - that together with the internal resonance of the horns themselves meant that some notes sound 'odd' - in the photograph can be seen a couple of bands of tape round one of the horns to dampen this problem. one of these problems of resonance can be heard on the A note at 1.42.

Not another Leonora No 3 - I need to get a life

Probably a bit cheeky of me putting up yet another version of Beethoven's Leonora No. 3 but as it may well be the first attempt at an extended piece of Beethoven,  in anything like a complete version, I think it needs an outing.

Beethoven : Leonora Overture No.3, Op.72b. 

H.M. Band of the Coldstream Guards  

conducted by John Mackenzie-Rogan 

G&T GC 2-262, 2-264, 2-265, 2-266

[6881e, 6882e, 6883e, 6884e]

Recorded: Nov/Dec 1907 

John Mackenzie-Rogan and the Coldstream Guards recorded extensively for the Gramophone & Typewriter Co. and later HMV.  Most of the output were marches popular hits and arrangements - true deckchair and bandstand stuff - that usually fitted onto one sided records but here the work had to be accommodated on four 10 inch sides.

The recordings are a bit of an oddity as who exactly was the intended audience - was G&T trying to break into the high brow market, but then would any self respecting person with 'musical taste' a) buy a band arrangement and b) even own a gramophone. The records in the UK were never doubled or indeed re-issued on the cheaper HMV 'B' & 'C' series that most band music was moved to from 1912. Real orchestral work remained on Black Label single-sided issues until 1918, that is they still cost real money.

I believe the records were withdrawn soon after the three NSO/Ronald discs had been issued so some demarcation lines were being drawn. The Gramophone Company was not about to keep records in the catalogues which either failed to attract an audience or failed to sell. Further, the price of these four discs came out at 5s each, while the three NSO Landon Ronald discs were 7s 6d each, so a band performance would set you back £1 and the orchestral version £1 3s 6d - for a bob & half a crown I think your average punter would go for the orchestra and so the band arrangement was doomed for deletion.

I have pitched the recording at A = 452Hz which was then the standard pitch for military bands, this means the original disc play at 75 rpm

Band records always seem to suffer more wear than most but I have cleaned it up as much as I really want to.

I have joined the four sides together into one Flac file, HERE at Mediafire. [about 36Mb]. Score if anyone would like to note the cuts and Wikipedia [Fidelio] entry.