GreatViolinMusic.com

Violin

Vocal - Classical, Opera

Instrumental - Classical

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Napoli Violins

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Welcome to this site.  It's purpose is to make publicly accessible, a private collection of rare (and not so rare) historical recordings.   Many scholars and students of the violin have no easy access to the recorded history of their field of study.  Young students, especially, cannot shell out lots of money for CDs.  But they all, it seems, know how to download from the Internet.  Maybe here I can help keep our art form alive for at least another generation.

There are no restrictions imposed here as to the use of these recordings.  Although, I would  appreciate notification about their use, if you are so inclined.  Also, feedback and suggestions are greatly welcomed!

The collection, in toto, was amassed over about a thirty year period (I started in college), contains about 2000 individual discs, and is still being added to today.  (Mostly via auctions.  The days of wading through huge piles of 78s in the dusty back rooms of thrift shops are long past.)  The collection comprises a wide range of 78 RPM records.   A large portion of the recordings - those recorded before 1924 - are now in the public domain, and can therefore be reproduced and copies distributed at will.  Those are what this site will contain.

Since I am a violinist, a violin historian and pedagogue, it will be no surprise that the bulk of my 78 collection comprises violin recordings.  (My large LP collection is not much different!)  There are also some fine vocal selections, and some "popular" catalog as well.  Most of the stuff will be indexed by artist(s).  There are many crossover items with which I'll try to do multiple indexing.

Today, there are many companies and individuals making and selling "transfers" of early acoustic recordings.  Many are very fine indeed, using very expensive and sophisticated modern reproduction equipment.  However, even though the original recordings are in the public domain, the transfers themselves can be copyrighted, and most are.  The transfers on this site are not copyrighted.

For these transfers, a moderately priced restoration turntable and a Stanton, .07 mil, truncated restoration stylus were used, along with a graphic equalizer, preamp and modern amplifier.  From the amplifier, discs are recorded directly to digital, without further modification.  Not perfect, but simple.  From these transfers, you can hear much of the sound from the original disc, surface noise and all.  There is no digital filtering or other alterations.

All of these recordings were made before 1924 and are therefore in the public domain.  All are acoustic - that is, sounds were captured and played back without the use of electronics - no microphones or electrical amplification.

In acoustic recording, everything was done acoustomechanically.  Neither the microphone nor electronic sound amplification had yet been invented.  A "horn" was used to amplify sounds which created changes in air pressure which was captured by a transducer or diaphragm.  The diaphragm, in turn drove a recording stylus (or needle).  On playback, the process was essentially reversed.

Most of the collection has not yet been digitized.  As discs are digitized onto CDs (right now the best long term storage medium for hard copy), each one then needs to be transferred into an mp3 for use on the Internet and then uploaded and indexed.

Anyhow, to browse and listen to the collection, go to the categorized links in the left column on this page.  On each new page, the recordings will be indexed by artist, title, date, label, record number and other pertinent information, along with a link to an mp3 file.

I'm sure my system will evolve, and these pages will evolve as well over time.

Unfortunately, due to space limitations, the mp3's cannot be of the highest quality, but should be serviceable. Things will be added on a weekly or monthly basis.  The projected time to finish is about one year.  Maybe more.  Please be patient, as the index continues to expand. These things take time.  Lots of it!

Also, individual requests can be made.

Here is a link to the database of the collection in PDF format.

Enjoy,

Marty Hackl

  M_Hackl@ameritech.net