GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 14, 17 January 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

ARTISTS AND THEIR RECORDS.

(By SOUNDBOX.)

There is in souls a sympathy 'with sounds; And, as the mind is pitched the ear is

pleased L , , ... With melting airs, or martial, brisk or

grave; / Some chord in unison 'with -what -we hear, Is touched within us, and the heart replies. ! _w. Cowper.

Madame Galli Curci's legion of admirers will welcome her singing of two ■well-loved English hymns, "Abide With Me" (Monk) and "Lead Kindly Light (Dykes). (His Master's Voice, DAB 64, 10-inch.)

Elsie Suddaby, an English soprano who does not record as often as one would wish, sings "Rejoice Greatly," from "Messiah," and "As When the Dove," from "Acis and Galatea." I quote from the supplement, "Elsie Suddaby's clean, bright tone is particularly suited to the singing of Handel. Listen to the accuracy of her attack, smoothness of legato and intelligent phrasing. (His Master's Voice, C 1742, 12-inch.)

"La Habanera" and "Carnival" are played by the Cordoba, Philharmonic Orchestra. Both compositions are by Lucena, who must, I think, be a modern, as I can find no mention of him in my few books. The Spanish idiom that can be so infectious is apparent in both, and as here played and recorded they provide an attractively tuneful ofFering. (Columbia, DOX77, 12-i'nch.)

who has built a gramophone, asks my advice'regarding the reproducer to use. For two reasons I find the question difficult to answer. I am not technically minded and have not studied the why and wherefore of good reproduction, and, further. I do know that soundbox, tonearm, and amplifying chamber require to be matched. A box that suited one design of amplification might be quite unsuitable -with another shape. I sugge&t that you ask a dealer who stocks motors and other accessories for the home builder to select what, he thinks will suit the amplification you describe to him, and lie may even allow you to take se\ crul types 011 loan to test them, which is the only sure way.

A writer in the "Phonograph Monthly Review" of America has a very interesting article entitled "A Peep Into the Phonograph Future," in which he deais with the development of the gramophone, and finishes with a message to those who, for fear of the possible scrapping of the present-day system of recording, hesitate to purchase a gramophone and records. He deals with longplaying records, recording on steel wire, and television, and continues: "All of these devices are already existent, but all of them are still in the experimental stage, between which and the practicable one extends a tremendous gulf. The long-playing record that is attained by using narrower grooves has been proved impracticable; the instrument of the future will probably employ a roll of film or paper or wire." .... "Another consideration is still more important. The phonograph manufacturers have expended in developing the present process, millions more are tied up in instruments already manufactured, and in the myriad of records that go to make up a catalogue, and the introduction of new instruments and records would be a suicidal wiping off the slate of all the present great investments." He goes on for quite a time on these lines, and then, as a finale, "The man who hesitates to invest in a phonograph or records to-day for fear that they will have to be scrapped within a few years is conjuring up an imaginary bogy, and denying himself a wealth of pleasure that he might otherwise enjoy."