Early Brass Band 78 rpm Recordings.
Work still in progress on this page
(December 2009)
Bands represented so far:
Besses
O’ Th’ Barn Band
Black Dyke Mills Band
St Hilda Colliery Band
Wigston Temperance Prize Band
Massed Brass Bands – see below for details.
THE BESSES O’TH BARN BAND FIRST RECORDED IN 1903, AND
THUS, AS FAR AS I CAN TELL,
WERE
THE FIRST BRASS BAND TO MAKE RECORDS IN THIS COUNTRY.
This photo. is of unknown date. However,
it is an unused post-card, and the space for the stamp reads: ‘Inland Halfpenny
Stamp.’, so it ought to predate June 1918, when the stamp for a post-card went
up to 1d. On the back is written in pencil the band name, and: ‘Winter Gardens.
Bournemouth Fri. May 4th 1906.
Anyhow, to the purpose of this page…
After 50 years devoted to old 78s of Jazz and Hot Dance music, our attention
has turned, within the last year or so, to brass band records. This is not such
a revolution at it appears, because it is concurrent with family research into
the life & times of one of my great-great grandfathers. H.J. Metcalfe,
based in Wolverhampton, England, wrote, arranged and published brass band music
between the early 1860s and his death in 1906. There is now a web-page devoted
to him on this site: click here to visit it.
Naturally, we wondered what bands playing
his music sounded like. The likelihood of any of his compositions or
arrangements ever having been recorded is very slight. But he lived nearly into the first great ‘record
boom’ that took place in this country: it began ~1910. So, the brass bands who
recorded then, and representing the finest in the land, tell us what a really
good, top rank band sounded like at that time.
There are doubtless many web sites
already that support this sort of material, so this is just our own ‘local
page’; and we can only hope our first efforts in transferring old brass band 78
rpm discs will meet with the approval of anyone who may listen to them.
To be sure, old 78s of brass bands have
been grossly neglected by vintage record enthusiasts until fairly recently.
Collectors were usually looking for rare Operatic or Jazz discs, or other
exotica. Thirty years ago, one collector asking another how they had done,
might well be told: ‘Oh, I found a big pile of 78s in a junk shop, but they
were all rubbish: brass bands and that sort of thing’.
Those days are now over! The splendid
‘Brass Band Cylinder and Non-microgroove Disc Recordings 1903 – 1960’ by Frank
Andrews appeared in 1997. Published by the Piccolo Press (Winchester), its 238
pages list all British brass band records that the indefatigable Frank Andrews
has catalogued over many years. I should point out that Frank is not a person
who took up Discography because he became interested in brass bands: on the
contrary, he was always a supporter of brass bands: and is also become one of
this country’s leading Discographers of all
forms of recording, as his many publications attest. His Brass Band Discography
is ISBN 1 872203 25 6. Get your local library to obtain a copy for you to
examine, or better still, Google for it and purchase your own copy – it is
quite inexpensive by specialist book standards.
I have begun with two records, both - as
it happens - by the St. Hilda Colliery Band. One of them has been in my collection
for several years; the other I purchased at a collectors bazaar recently (30th
June 2007).
First is this disc, a double-sided
Columbia of ‘William Tell’, made in 1912 or possibly early 1913. The
arrangement is by William Rimmer, who needs no
introduction to brass band enthusiasts! (This isn’t the original label it would
have had in 1913. As a standard item of repertoire, it would have remained in
the catalogue for some time, and this label is the style current several years
later. Actually, it was totally re-made some years later, but that’s not
important right now…)
Columbia pressings of this time are
rather noisy when played on modern equipment, though the underlying fidelity is
quite good. The perpetual dilemma, when ‘restoring’ 78s, is: how much noise do
we take out? The problem here is that the remaining noise (once we have taken
out obvious defects like thumps due to pressing defects, odd clicks &
scratches &c.), tends to be a hiss. This residual white noise is rather
broad-band, and so it is very much intermingled with the music. We can be
tempted to make a clinical-sounding, totally de-noised version. But in our
opinion, such transfers are a mistake. Removing the hiss in this way also takes
away much of the musical content of the sound. Prolonged exposure to the
‘underwater’ tone of heavily digitally de-noised sound can cause severe
listening fatigue, which denies us the pleasure of simply hearing the music.
Again in our opinion, as long as the residual noise is even & constant, our
ears rapidly become accustomed to it & ignore it.
Recently, this post-card of the St. Hilda
Colliery Band turned up, so along with the Besses
photos. above, you can see two of the most famous brass bands of former times.
Of course, there were - and are - thousands
of brass bands!
Here is a link to the current version of
this record (July 2007). There are several things wrong with it, and we will be
addressing those in the future. The worst thing by far, is we don’t know what
pitch it should be in. If I say it myself, I am pretty good at correctly
pitching British & American 78s of Dance Bands and Jazz up to the 1930s. We
know that these bands virtually always used Low Pitch. This was A=439 in
Britain and A=440 in the U.S., at that time, the difference being practically
negligible. We also know the range of keys favoured by Dance & Jazz bands.
But as regards British brass bands, well, that’s a new thing for us. Above all,
we need to know whether the St. Hilda Band were
playing in High Pitch when they made this record: that is, A=453 or
thereabouts, as many brass bands did, some even into the 1950s. We do know that
Columbia recorded nominally at 80 rpm at this time, so we have transferred the
disc at that speed. Also, we don’t yet know what keys William Rimmer’s arrangement of ‘William Tell’ employed, which
would be a great help. When these crucial factors have been established, we
will be able to correct the pitch of this sound file.
Besides this, there is the problem of
matching the sound at the ‘join’ of the two sides. Practically no early Dance
& Jazz records are spread over 2 sides, so we have rarely encountered this
problem before. The audio quality and indeed the surface noise on a disc record
are quite different at the beginning and the end of the side. This is because
of the change in groove velocity between the start & the end of the disc.
To hear the music, go back to the label above and click on it!
To read more about the principles &
practice of decrackling 78 rpm records, click
here.
We have used this technique on the
‘William Tell’ disc above. It is still very noisy to modern ears, we agree. But
most of the crackle has gone, leaving more of a ‘hiss’. Alas, crackles are
specific ‘events’ in an audio file, but hiss is a broad-band phenomenon, and is
much harder to deal with, as its frequency range is intermingled with the
music.
More work here…
On a lighter note, here is the same band,
recorded probably in the last quarter of 1922. It must be admitted that
‘Novelty Rags’ were a little passé by
this time, but it is a spirited performance nonetheless. Indeed, we have read
on the ’net that the St. Hilda band tended to be rather conservative in its
repertoire - but whether that applied at this period we don’t know. Again, we
emphasise that we are 78 record enthusiasts, not experts in the history of
brass bands; though we are keen to learn all we can in this field. We do know,
however, that selections from Operas were definitely regarded as the highest
class of material for brass bands in the late 19th century, and indeed well
into the 20th century, before noted composers such as Gustav Holst began to write for brass bands. So what could be more
natural than A. de Lieuw (whoever he was) arranging a
selection of quotes from operas, and adding a dash of Ragtime?
Again, we are not as yet certain of the
correct pitch for this recording. As soon as we find out what it is, we will
correct it. I don’t suppose you, gentle reader, happen to have a score for ‘Operamania’?
8^) But if you do, please let us
know what keys it’s written in, OK?
In order to hear it, just click on its
ACO label above….
Now let us do some more Time Travel into
the past, back to the 13th June 1912. On this day, the great &
long-established Besses O’ Th’
Barn Band undertook a very long recording session at Hayes, Middlesex, the
headquarters of The Gramophone Company. That company’s principal label was of
course ‘His Master’s Voice’, or ‘HMV’. (Their ‘Dog & Gramophone’ trade-mark
was for long the most famous image in the world, until it was eventually
displaced by that of the Coca Cola company.) Yet besides this prestigious marque, they also produced other records: at
this time, principally Zonophone records. Zonophone had been an irritating competitor in the early
production of disc records, so the Gramophone Company bought them out; but
decided to keep the label going, as a kind of early ‘budget label’: as it were
a foil for their own issues. Curiously, like the Columbia above, this Zonophone is a later pressing – probably c. 1924, so it does not have the
original label design either.
Anyway, on that 13th June 1912, the Besses O’ Th’ Barn Band made no
less than twenty-four sides, consisting of 21 titles and 3 second takes. Almost
all of these were of hymn tunes or sacred songs, otherwise one would be
wondering about how many bottles of beer were consumed during this mammoth
recording session! Recordings artists have almost always recorded what their
record companies want. Certainly, the first historic Besses
recording session in 1903 consisted largely of this type of material. On the
other hand, another session (13 sides on one day in 1911) was practically all
marches, 9 of which were composed by Rimmer - William
Rimmer, we assume.
The point is, that the Zonophone label illustrated above is a hymn tune, and we
happen to have a fair condition (but very crackly copy) of this to hand. It
lived for some years in a damp cellar, which accounts for the crackle. It is
presented it to you here, as an example of the importance of hymn tunes in the
repertoire of early British brass bands. Actually, quite a lot of clicks and
‘mini-crackles’ have survived our processing. We can only say that we are
working on this problem, and hope that the results will get better over time!
But before providing you with a link to the mp3, we illustrate a postcard of
the tune.
Rimington is a village in
The reverse of this card (which had not
been postally used), bears the printing:
NOW READY! “The Rimington
Hymnal,” containing all the 18 Hymn Tunes by Mr. Duckworth complete with words,
along with “Invocation” and “Vespers.” Beautiful Edition, Copy de Luxe, price 1/6, from Stationers and Music Dealers, or
direct from the Publisher, FRANCIS DUCKWORTH, Colne,
Lancashire, 1/8 post free.
TREASURED IN THOUSANDS OF HOMES. NEW EDITION NOW
READY.
Over 2,000,000 copies of this Tune are now in
circulation, and the Gramophone is giving it out the world over.
(For the benefit of anyone not familiar
with the ‘old money’ used in the U.K. before its decimalisation in 1971, ‘1/6’
meant one shilling and sixpence (7.5p); ‘1/8’ was one shilling and eightpence – i.e., the same plus two pence for postage).
Now listen to it, if you so desire!
Besides being ‘crackly’ because of damp, the record is rather worn as well; but
I’m sure you will agree, it will do for the present as a small tribute to
Francis Duckworth, and the Besses ’o ’th Barn Band? Just go back to the Zonophone label & click on it to hear it.
We have just acquired another version of
‘Rimington’, and so are putting it here. It was
recorded 29th January 1932, and is part of a distinct feature of brass band
recordings in the 1930s: several bands playing together, or ‘Massed Brass
Bands’. There are many such recordings, and because I know little of brass band
history, am not sure whether brass bands used to gather to play en masse previously? Or perhaps this was
part of a general tendency, as sound recording got better, for record companies
to put up large ensembles simply because (at long last!) it was possible to
record well on such a large scale? Anyway; this recording also has a male
chorus to sing the words, and the participating bands are named on the label.
Actually, the label titling is slightly ambiguous; it might imply that there
were very many bands on this disc, amongst
which were included the four named ones… Frank Andrews, however, lists only
the 4 so named. (‘G.C. & Met.’ is an abbreviation for ‘The Great Central
and Metropolitan’). Which Concert Hall was used is not known, though it was
probably in
It is high time the celebrated Black Dyke
Mills Band was mentioned. By happy chance, my brother Malcolm possesses an
Edison Bell Winner disc of theirs, and has allowed me to transfer it. It was
issued in late 1927, and so probably recorded a few weeks earlier. As yet, we
have no photo. of the band, but that will soon be remedied. The Black Dyke
Mills recorded 52 sides for Winner between 1927 and 1933. The later ones will
be scarce, in view of the Great Depression of that time. This one is a
two-sided ‘novelty’ arrangement of ‘Comin’ Through The
Rye’, a piece which was often used for a set of variations. As opposed to the
previous sides on this page, which were recorded by the acoustical (or
mechanical) system, electrical recording had come in by 1927, so the band
played into a microphone. The sound is therefore a little more modern. The disc
is not in mint condition, so major clicks due to scratches have been removed
manually by software, and then the decrackling
process described elsewhere on this website was applied. We will not pretend
that the result gives ‘Hi-Fi’; but no digital
de-noising has been carried out, so the sound is entirely ‘natural’.
You will notice an interesting thing
where I have joined the two sides. This occurs at about 3 mins
5 secs into the file. After a long note on a bass,
there is a figure played once: then side 1 ends. When side 2 begins, the band
plays that same figure twice. Now 1 + 2 = 3; and while a figure may be played
once, twice, or four times, it is almost never
played three times! So: it seems, that in order to facilitate the turning
over of the record, the band went back
and played the last figure on side one again at the beginning of side 2,
resulting in it being played, altogether, three times. This was very
commendable of them, but leaves us in a small quandary 82 years later. Shall we
preserve the entirety of the recorded sound, even though it results in the
anomaly of a figure being played, improbably, three times? Or shall we edit out
one of the figures, so it is only played twice, as it almost certainly was
during an actual performance? Dealer’s choice! I freely admit that my own
inclination is to perform the edit, though I have not done so. Anyhow, here is
the Black Dyke Mills Band in 1927: click the Edison Bell Winner label above to
hear it…
There is no doubt that selections from
Grand Operas formed a core part of the repertoire of brass bands for many
decades. This was the ‘high class’ music to which they aspired. About December
1926, the Wigston Temperance Prize Band made a
session for Parlophone, in which they included this
two-sided ‘Medley of Popular Overtures’. In Frank Andrews’ Brass Band
discography, the arranger is given as ‘Debroy
Somers’; he was a popular bandleader in the 1920s and 1930s, and was much given
to arranging medleys. While he was leader of the famous ‘Savoy Orpheans’, he made the long-lived ‘Savoy Christmas Medley’,
‘The Savoy Scottish Medley’ and so on. He may well have made this medley of
Popular Overtures as well? Perhaps his real name was not Debroy
Somers, but Karl Somers? Who knows; and, does it really matter? In any case,
here is the Wigston Temperance Prize Band playing it;
to hear it, just click on the Parlophone label.
If your taste inclines towards massed
brass bands, here are five more sides from the early 1930s. (The sixth has
already appeared above.)
‘
Next comes ‘Deep
Harmony. Sweet is the Work, My God, My King’, this being the coupling of the ‘Rimington’ which appears above, with details.
At the right appear ‘The Crusader March’
and ‘The Gladiator March’, both by J. P. Sousa. They were recorded 26th January
1933, but which bands participated is unknown in Frank Andrews’ discography. To
hear any of these, just click on the label as usual.
In any case, all these six great massed brass
band sides were conducted by James Oliver, who was the ‘legendary conductor’ of
the St. Hilda Band; and if this be the case, probably the St. Hilda Professional
Band was present on the ‘Crusade’ and the ‘Gladiator’ marches? (Just a tentative suggestion!)
Note also, that these discs also bear
later label designs than the original issues; they were obviously retained in
the catalogue for a long time – this alone being a testimony to their
popularity. Also, I have not performed any
‘audio restoration’ on these 6 sides. They are of course recorded quite loud,
which in itself tends to overmask the crackle on the
discs. All three discs involved are in excellent condition, but are indeed
crackly, as you can hear from time to time. But the general policy on playing
‘old 78s’, is to just let them play – with the correct size stylus of course –
and only intervene if it becomes necessary.
We hope that you will enjoy them! It is
the intention to upload other examples as they come to hand…
Any comments & observations will be gratefully
received! Please email:
Page started 12th July 2007.
Revised 15th June 2009.
Revised 24th October 2009.
Revised 14th December 2009.