Gramophone at 100

[Bryn]

Regarding "no ads", I gave up on The Gramaphone shortly after they stopped restricting full-page ads to non-editorial pages (a practice which applied to the continuation of the sheet of paper the other side of the staples which were used before any change to perfect binding).

[richardfinegold]

I found early copies of The Gramophone on the Internet Archive including this poem in the Nov 1923 edition written by the great Irish Doctor, Politician and sometime poet Oliver St John Gogarty- immortalised as Buck Mulligan in Joyce’s Ulysses ( and later indeed in a Temple Bar pub). The poem is a meditation on how voice recording has transformed death and life.
I’m just quoting the first and middle verse as the layout of the Gramophone doesn’t lend itself to copying.



“Verses to the Editor of the Gramophone By Oliver St. John Gogarty.

The immemorial decency of Death
Was silence ; but it is no longer true:
For who can say now * With his latest breath
He parted,” when his words thou canst renew ?
Aye ; and canst make them last and later, latest,
When on his record with thy “ style ” thou gratest,
Bringing Life's platitudes back o’er the Border ?
The rest is—” What? Implacable Recorder. “

Nice quibble on style . He later uses Gramophone as a verb / gerund

“Think,, in those States, so much worse than the first,
How cheerful will the graveyards soon become
With epitaphs that into song will burst,
Making a noisy nightmare of the tomb ;
When every vault, endowed for gramophoning,
_ The records of the dead will keep intoning ;
Telling, perchance, how poppa swelled the till
In quaint redundant Copperanopolisville.”

Not the worlds greatest poem but quite possibly the very first ode to vinyl (or shellac I guess)

IThis inspired me to write a poem about my streamer. I will call it “Ode to ones and zeroes”

[smittims]

Like many others I have fond memories of Richard Osborne's reviews, not quite verbatim, I'm afraid , but something like this (re Artur Schnabel's late 1930's Schubert) :

'These performances were recorded at a moment in history when the tradition which had nurtured them had reached its fullest extent and was at the same time threatened with total extinction.'

He goes on to quote Seneca (no less) : ' "when the state is beyond repair the wise man retires and writes for posterity." Fortunately for us Schnabel did not retire but gave us these recordings. '

[Master Jacques]

Like many others I have fond memories of Richard Osborne's reviews, not quite verbatim, I'm afraid , but something like this (re Artur Schnabel's late 1930's Schubert) :

'These performances were recorded at a moment in history when the tradition which had nurtured them had reached its fullest extent and was at the same time threatened with total extinction.'

He goes on to quote Seneca (no less) : ' "when the state is beyond repair the wise man retires and writes for posterity." Fortunately for us Schnabel did not retire but gave us these recordings. '

Osborne - like Steane - was a first-rate teacher, able to call on wide cultural references as well as being able to incorporate them seamlessly into the thread of his writing.

We'd search in vain for that quality in today's Gramophone. One reviewer in the current issue even strained to make a modish Formula One metaphor work for its keep: if you insist on bringing Lewis Hamilton into your review, you (or your editor) needs to know that he drives a Mercedes, not a McLaren - Lewis has not sat in one of those for over a decade!

[Alison]

Strangely advertisements were more pleasing to my eye when occupying their own page.

[Petrushka]

Strangely advertisements were more pleasing to my eye when occupying their own page.

I never did mind the adverts - still don't - as it was a good way to learn of a company's new or future releases. Of course, the internet now performs that function but there are still those whose issues don't seem to get on to Amazon or Presto future release lists, notably ICA Classics and Profil.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Osborne - like Steane - was a first-rate teacher, able to call on wide cultural references as well as being able to incorporate them seamlessly into the thread of his writing.

We'd search in vain for that quality in today's Gramophone. One reviewer in the current issue even strained to make a modish Formula One metaphor work for its keep: if you insist on bringing Lewis Hamilton into your review, you (or your editor) needs to know that he drives a Mercedes, not a McLaren - Lewis has not sat in one of those for over a decade!

Schnabel was the Fangio of piano players - fast but prone to the odd error.

[Master Jacques]

... and Lipatti the Ayrton Senna, brilliant but doomed to an early death.

[Ein Heldenleben]

... and Lipatti the Ayrton Senna, brilliant but doomed to an early death.

Senna’s death was an entirely preventable disgrace. With modern crash protection he would still be alive and gone on to delight us for years. Had Lipatti the benefit of modern treatment for Hodgkins he would have had a 90 chance of surviving 5 years and playing on magnificently . When any one tells you things are getting worse don’t believe them .

[Mal]

One reason for giving up was that the Gram catalogue a) stopped giving a reference to the review date and b) became very expensive...

(a) The entries in reviews database give you the review date & reviewer name "up front", (b) if you just buy the database it's less than £5 a month with the current discount.

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews

Is the "free internet" good enough? In searching the internet the gramophone reviews do come up quite often, and usually seem more interesting than the average free internet comment... they allow you to read five for free each month... and I think it's worth paying to get full access.

[Master Jacques]

[...] Is the "free internet" good enough? In searching the internet the gramophone reviews do come up quite often, and usually seem more interesting than the average free internet comment... they allow you to read five for free each month... and I think it's worth paying to get full access.

There lies the rub. "Free internet" reviews lack the kind of quality control one expects from a publication coming in at £6.95 per month.

Another concern, browsing through the March 2023 issue, is this very question of editorial control. I don't expect to turn to a review claiming to be "an album of early Spanish music", only to find that it is an album of Italian, French and Flemish music, without one Spanish note in it. I don't expect to turn to a comparative review of "The Magic Flute on Film", which fails to make any reference to Ingmar Bergman's film version of the opera (a classic by any standards, and a totally baffling omission, presumably because it's 'only' in Swedish!)

I don't blame the reviewers: this is the sub-editors and editor falling asleep on the job.

[smittims]

...and in many cases simple ignorance, lack of education. One sees it everywhere now. Spotify cut up 'Pelleas et Melisande' into three-minute 'songs' with a short break between each, wrecking the continuity for anyone who loves this opera.

[gurnemanz]

...and in many cases simple ignorance, lack of education. One sees it everywhere now. Spotify cut up 'Pelleas et Melisande' into three-minute 'songs' with a short break between each, wrecking the continuity for anyone who loves this opera.

78rpm discs divided all recorded music into 3 minute chunks. It's easy to find negative aspects of the modern scene but as a classical music lover for well over 50 years, I find I have never had it so good and don't find myself hankering after any supposed good old days.
I was a regular subscriber to Gramophone from 1971 but I hadn't bought it for quite a few years when I recently acquired the 100th Anniversary Edition. It seemed OK to me.

[Mal]

There lies the rub. "Free internet" reviews lack the kind of quality control one expects from a publication coming in at £6.95 per month.

Not always. The latest search turned up a free, quality review from the Financial Times. Though I suspect an article limit will quickly come into play! It would be good if someone could colate *all* reviews - if Spotify can get its act together to provide (just about...) *all music* then surely that would be possible? That would be worth £6.95 a month.

I don't expect to turn to a comparative review of "The Magic Flute on Film", which fails to make any reference to Ingmar Bergman's film version of the opera (a classic by any standards, and a totally baffling omission, presumably because it's 'only' in Swedish!)

An intern doing a quick Google search? Did the article have a named author? Good to see the reviews have named authors up front, and I've heard of several of them. (Though I still can't read any of them - I phoned Gramophone and an intern answered, no idea how to fix it, said it might be fixed today, "bank holiday and all that"...)

[Mal]

...and in many cases simple ignorance, lack of education. One sees it everywhere now. Spotify cut up 'Pelleas et Melisande' into three-minute 'songs' with a short break between each, wrecking the continuity for anyone who loves this opera.

Gapless playback is available in the advanced settings - that *should* get rid of the short break. I tried and it seems to work... For Abbado/VPO Amazon Music has the same breakdown... The streaming services are probably just following the track breakdown on the CD. Does anyone have the CDs to compare?