Posted on 02/16/2009 10:38:46 PM PST by Cincinna
a group of bewhiskered men gathered in the bowels of the Paris Opera to launch a project which, by definition, they could never see to fruition. First, 24 carefully-wrapped wax records were placed inside two lead and iron containers. These were then sealed and locked away in a small storage room, with instructions that they remain undisturbed for 100 years.
The man behind this musical time-capsule was Alfred Clark, a New Yorker who headed the London-based Gramophone Company and provided the records. And, in truth, once the ceremony was over, he had achieved his primary objective of drawing attention to his company and to the new flat disc records that it was promoting to compete with better known cylinder records.
"I know of no other case where a commercial firm has obtained so much free publicity as we have," he wrote to a colleague two days later.
The Paris Opera displayed a more elevated sense of history. Through this selection of opera arias and instrumental pieces, it announced, future generations could discover the musical taste and the quality of sound recording of the early 20th century.
French officials also predicted radical changes in recording technology. So, in 1912, when they added 24 records and two more containers to the trove, they included a new hand-cranked gramophone, along with instructions on how it worked and a score of spare stylus needles.
The 100 years were up more than a year ago and, after lengthy examination, cleaning and digitizing of the records, EMI, the heir to the Gramophone Company, is reissuing them in three CD's. The collection will be released in France later this month as "Les Urnes de l'Opéra" and in the United States in early April with the English subtitle, "Treasures from the Paris Opera Vaults."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
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You might be one of the very few FReepers who might appreciate this.
Thanks Lexinom. I really do appreciate Poulenc.
You would be astonished as to how many music lovers there are here at FR.
But how can that be ? I thought we were gun toting, Bible holding, tobacco chewing, pickup truck driving.. philistine hicks.
I guarantee you there’s more real music on one of those discs than there was represetned on that cruddy Grammy fiasco.
Any lover of orchestral music must check out the book THE REST IS NOISE: LISTENING TO THE 20TH CENTURY by Alex Ross. It is an amazing and amazingly enjoyable look at the sound of 20th century orchestral music. It’s one of those books you open to read a few pages, and you look up 100 pages later and it’s after midnight.
That does sound interesting. I was an accomplished amateur pianist at one time (have some recordings on the Web), but the stress of current realities has sucked the joy and desire necessary for music out of my soul.
I bet you would enjoy this book. It’s some of the very best writing about music I’ve ever read because he makes you want to hear the pieces he’s writing about, but he never forgets the larger picture, how the composers got along with and were inspired by each other, how the public and critics reacted, and how as the century progressed composers got away from 19th century romanticism and moved towards atonal and serial writing. It’s a unique book because I enjoy the writing even if I don’t agree with his enthusiasm for certain types of music.
I just couldn't get into 20th century orchestral music. I mean the Mahler's and the Bruckner's and the likes. Mahler's #1 is ok, but the rest is not for me. Give me good old classical to mid Romantic any day.
I agree—which is why I am enjoying this book. If it can make ME interested in serial music, it’s got something going on.
Oh my gosh, that got me on a 1/2 hour wasted listening to Cello... etc. Youtube must be an enemy tactic to keep people from their work....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6yuR8efotI
Mischa Maisky He’s so good. Wow.
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Dear CzarNicky,
Great ping! Thanks!
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sitetest
Ping!
“I just couldn’t get into 20th century orchestral music. I mean the Mahler’s and the Bruckner’s and the likes. Mahler’s #1 is ok, but the rest is not for me. Give me good old classical to mid Romantic any day.”
The same here.
‘You would be astonished as to how many music lovers there are here at FR.’
Oui :)
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