GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 9 June 1923, Page 12

GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

4 (By M.X.P.) As was suggested last week, we take the gramophone too much for granted. ! It is simply marvellous. If we stop ! to think of the "how," we come to a' ful stop. The gramophone instrumeiit j in it-self is not, perhaps, so hard to ! understand as the record, and the "why" of the record. Take 100. re-1 cords, all different. At first glance: they look precisely alike. On examin-! ation beneath a powerful magnifying. glass it is found that the grooves along ! which the needle travels are made in tabulations, and it is by these undulations that the high and low notes are rendered differently. But when we come to consider that there are in circulation at least 20,000 records, all different, it seems inconceivable that they can be so different, and yet so very much alike! to everything except the needle. If four unlabelled records are taken—*>ne a Caruso; one a Kreisler violin solo; one a Black Diamonds Band piece; and the fourth a- Billy Williams comic song—it would be impossible to tell one from another by any nieans except playing them over on the gramophone. Twenty thousand records in circulanon seems a very big number, but add to i-1.-at all the thousands that are now unobtainable and are only to be found in old collections, and you have upwards of 100,000. It would be a joy inded to spend a. day—or shall we say eight hours a day for a month—in the H.M.V. file-rooms. Here are kept a sample (or more) of every record that has ever been manufactured by the British Gramophone Company, Ltd., London, in its long history. They also file there a sample of the-majority of records made by other manufacturers. Their Majesties King George V. and Qneen Mary have been graciously ■\ pleased to make a gramophone record. v ■ One side is composed of a speech by ear-h in the form of a, message to the children of the British Empire. On the reverse side are popular British folk-songs, terminating with the National Anthem. It was hoped to have A this record in circulation for the Empire Day celebrations on the 24th of last month, or, at the latest, on His Majesty's Birthday on the 3rd of this month, but it is not yet available and will probably be released on His Highn.ess n the prince of Wales' Birthday, on o oi inst- T]le r^cord is to sell at Hs 6d, and should be possessed by all owners of gramophones in New *Zea- ' land. It is hoped that it will be played in every school in the whole Empire ' It is a privilege, indeed, to be able to near Their Majesties voices in our own home. Strange as it may seem, there i are still people m the world who scoff " at the gramophone, and the idea of having one in their homes. They are to be more pitied than blamed. " It is the scott ot ignorance. ■ They do not know of the beauty of the modern gramophone and retain only the memory of c J" deous scree^h of the phonograph of 20 years ago. Perhaps the fact of their■ beinnr able to hear the voices of i ou, r. -Kjng and Queen will change their > „ attitude towards the gramophone in < gfeneral. "The Home of the Gramaphone: the i place where all the best Records can < be obtained " This is what the Hawera - Uristol has gradually become known i as. ftehave stockgcof Caruso, Galli- < Corci. Clara Butt. Rosina Buckman, i •McCormack, Harry Lander et" —M 1 Kineton Parkes and Co. 12-5 ~'Hio-h i Street opp. H.B.—Advt. ° s