Scandinavian
Recordings and Labels
[Author’s
note Scandinavia includes the
three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. The other Nordic
countries, Finland, Iceland and the
Faroe Islands, are also sometimes included
because of their close historic and
cultural relations to Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark.]
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7-inch
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Stockholm,
March 1903
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10-inch
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The
first recordings in Scandinavia were
119 7-inch discs in the A suffix
series made by William Sinkler Darby
in Stockholm on December 3-4, 1899,
followed by 96 more in Copenhagen in
late December, 1899.
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7-inch
Stockholm, March 1903
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7-inch
Copenhagen, April 1903
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In
March 1903 Franz Hampe made 82 seven-inch
and 74 ten-inch recordings, using C
(later k) and z (later L)
suffixes, respectively, in Stockholm,
and a further 81 seven-inch and 67 twelve-inch
recordings in Copenhagen in April 1903.
On June 13 The Gramophone Company established
the Danish branch, Skandinavisk Grammophon
AS, in Copenhagen, and on September
28 the Swedish branch, Skandinavisk
AB, was founded in Stockholm. In Norway
the Brødrene Johnsen Company
was given the sole agency for Skandinavisk
Grammophon A/S in December 1904. One
should note here that some of the latter
recordings have labels with Stockholm
as the recording location, as seen in
the figure on the right above. Will
Gaisberg made further recordings in
Stockholm in February 1904 and in Copenhagen
at the Hotel National in March 1904.
Will
Gaisberg made the first gramophone recordings
in Norway at the Grand Hotel in Kristiania
(now Oslo) on Thursday, December 8,
1904. The photography pioneer Adolf
Østbye had the honour of being
the first gramophone artist, with his
parody of "Terje Vigen". The first recording
sessions lasted until Saturday, December
10, and among other participating artists
were: accordionist Carl Mathiesen, revue
artists Agnes Haglund and Oscar Lerdahl,
actor Henrik Klausen (see below), opera
singers Gabrielle Bidenkap, Nathalie
Hansen, Clara Hultgren, Halfdan Rode
and Thorvald Lammers, plus the Guldberg
Quartet. Before this time several Norwegian
artists had made recordings other places
than in Oslo. Edvard Grieg had made
his piano recordings in Paris in May
1903, while the opera singer Ellen Guldbranson
in Copenhagen and the singers Inga Berentz
and Magna Lykseth-Skjerven recorded
in Stockholm in October 1904.
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Kristiania,
December 1904
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Pre-DOG,
Stockholm, 1907
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The
disc shown below was recorded in St.
Petersburg. Liliedahl lists this recording
with the matrix number 157zo,
and places it in 1901/2. Kelly lists
it in his Old Zonophone Catalogue and
in the Russian Zonophone Catalogue,
as having been recorded in 1904 in a
zo matrix series of 360 recordings
assigned to Franz Hampe beginning in
Berlin. In November 1904 Will Gaisberg
made a series of 42 7-inch, 52 10-inch,
and 2 12-inch recordings in Helsinki
(then Helsingfors), following the series
made in Copenhagen in March 1904. See
also below under Zonophone Labels.
French
Recordings and Labels
The
first French language discs were Berliners.
The three discs shown below were all
recorded in Paris and processed in Hanover.
They all have REPRODUCED IN HANOVER
on the reverse. The top disc, Berliner
35048, matrix 3325, is from the
unlettered series, and was recorded
in July 1899. All entries are sunk,
indicating that all were entered on
the original zinc plate.
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Berliner
35048, matrix 3325
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The
two discs shown below both show raised
entries throughout. The top disc, Berliner
30036, matrix 3644, was recorded
by Fred Gaisberg in Paris in August-September
1901. The lower disc, Berliner 30092
X, matrix 208F, was recorded
in Paris by Cleveland Walcutt.
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Berliner
30036, matrix 3644
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The
Paris Office of the Gramophone Company,
opened in May 1899, had been responsible
for the French market since June 1901
and for the Spanish and Belgian markets
since September 1905. Two new processing
plants were established, one in Ivry
outside of Paris in 1907 and one in
Barcelona in 1908. Prior to the completion
of the Ivry plant, recordings from Spain
(Barcelona and Madrid), Portugal (Lisbon),
and Belgium (Brussels) were processed
at the Hanover plant.
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Berliner
30092 X, matrix 208F
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Labels
printed for discs processed at the Ivry
plant were designed mainly for audiences
who spoke French, Spanish, or Flemish.
Thus, both GRAMOPHONE RECORD
and GRAMOPHONE CONCERT RECORD were
rendered as DISQUE POUR GRAMOPHONE,
while GRAMOPHONE MONARCH RECORD
was retained for 12-inch issues.
The words TRADE and MARK became
MARQUE and DE FABRIQUE,
and the company designation was modified
to read La Cie, The Gramophone and
Typewriter, Ltd., Et Societés
Filiales. Company designations included
both G&T and pre-DOG, and either
the Recording Angel or the His Master’s
Voice trademark might be used. The pressing
plant in Barcelona seems to have become
operational after February 1909, since
no pre-DOG pressings have been noted.
The Barcelona plant remained under the
authority of the Paris branch until
1915.
Recordings
made by Fred Gaisberg in Paris in September
1901 of France’s outstanding baritone,
Maurice Renaud, were first issued with
black labels. Renaud was accorded Red
Celebrity label status before a secondary
stamper became necessary, as shown above
and below. In the pair above, the disc
on the left has a blank reverse, except
for the phrase REPRODUCED IN HANOVER.
The two record sleeves are typical
of those used by the Companie
Française Gramophone at that
time. All four discs have flush labels.
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Paris,
September 1901
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Paris,
November 1901
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Both
labels shown above are almost entirely
in the French language. Most notably,
the words "PATENTED" were
removed from the trademark and replaced
with "MARQUE" and "DE
FABRIQUE," the French equivalent
of "TRADE" and "MARK."
The four records shown above are first
stamper pressings, and all have flush
labels 107 mm. in overall diameter.
The Red Celebrity labels were probably
issued before May 1902, when the first
records with raised labels appeared.
Occasionally the black labels with gold
lettering appeared in various shades
of grey, as shown below.
The
two labels shown below were for seven-inch
discs recorded in Paris and Madrid,
respectively. That on the left is a
retake recorded in 1904, while that
on the right, according to Kelly, was
recorded in Madrid in July or August
1902.
Early
matrix numbers of recordings made in
Paris and other locations by the two
assigned recording experts, Cleveland
Walcott and Charles Scheuplein, are
somewhat confusing because the director
of the Paris branch, Alfred Clark, ignored
the directives of the Gramophone Company’s
Head Office and decided that all recordings
made under his authority, regardless
of size, should be assigned matrix numbers
consecutively, and all should have the
suffix F, for the Compagnie Française.
In early 1902 Cleveland Walcott was
given a block of matrix numbers from
1F through 7000F, which
he used mainly in Paris, Antwerp, Brussels,
and the Netherlands, while at about
the same time Charles Scheuplein
began his allotted block with 7001F,
and recorded principally in Spain, Portugal,
and North Africa. The system started
to fall apart when Walcott had recorded
matrix 6999F, which occurred
in Brussels some time in 1906. By that
time Theodore Birnbaum, who was now
the Managing Director of the entire
company, had overridden Clark’s directive
and directed him to begin to use the
triplet letter suffixes n/o/p
and t/u/v, assigned
to the Parisian recordists. Clark continued
to use the F suffix into 1908,
when the triplet system finally prevailed.
By that time seven-inch recordings had
ceased to be made, so that Walcott retained
only the suffixes o and p.
Scheuplein continued with the matrix
number 202t, 9671u, and 0701v
for 7, 10, and 12-inch, recordings,
with in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and
Scandinavia. (from Alan Kelly)
The
figure on the right above shows an original
sleeve from 1903.
