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----- Original Message ----- From: "Thornton Hagert" <[log in to unmask]> > Begin forwarded message: >> From: Thornton Hagert <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: June 17, 2009 12:01:21 PM EDT >> To: [log in to unmask] >> Cc: Annie Stanfield-Hagert <[log in to unmask]>, Lawrence Gushee >> <[log in to unmask]>, David Sager <[log in to unmask]> >> Subject: Recording Speed >> >> In response to Dave Lewis' recent message "I Heard the Voice of the >> Chipmunk" - about recording speeds, I have noticed instances of >> recording companies deliberately recording at other-than-playback >> speeds, for various reasons. The following examples come to mind; >> if I check them more carefully, this message will never be written. >> Edison 51056, Broadway Dance Orchestra "Russian Rose", plays >> back in the key of F but was clearly performed in Eb and recorded >> "slowly". See my notes for the Smithsonian album DMM2-0518, "An >> Experiment In Modern Music" Paul Whiteman at Aeolian Hall. How >> often did Edison do this ? >> Okeh 40675, Cookie's Gingersnaps, "Love Found You for Me" >> plays back in the key of B natural (which seems unlikely) Why the >> speed-up ? I don't know. (I haven't checked the others recorded >> at this session.) >> Vocalion 1108, Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, >> "Forevermore" plays very slow (I forget what key); the song was >> published in C, and the orchestration in Db which is the key that >> Guy Lombardo recorded it. My guess is that Vocalion wanted the >> recording to fill the whole record and so recorded it at a faster >> speed. >> I'd be interested in other such examples. >> Thornton Hagert, Vernacular Music Research. > Well, as a harmonica player, I often try to play along with blues or blues-related recordings I own! I own the original 78 issue of Fats Waller's "Your Feets Too Big"...but in trying to play along with it, I discovered it seems to be in something like "E flat and a half"...at least it is audibly NOT in the key of any of the many harmonicas I own! My guess is that it wasn't recorded at exactly 78.26 rpm...?! Steven C. Barr