I've just made the New Year update to my site. The first record rings in the
New Year with the chiming of Big Ben, along with the bells and organ of St.
Margaret's Church, Westminster, and the noise of London traffic
(deliberately recorded!). The organist is Stanley Roper on this 1926 HMV
record.
Then, rather than the traditional Strauss waltzes, polkas and so on, there
is a group of Gramophone Concert records of music of a similar type but by
lesser known composers and performers. The "Warschawsky Polka" is played by
Warschawsky's Orchester (an accordion ensemble), recorded in Moscow in 1903.
The American bell player Chris Chapman is heard in the Kremer's "Southern
Girl Gavotte", with orchestral accompaniment, from a Victor matrix of 1907.
Waldteufel's "Toujours ou jamais" Waltz is ostensibly played by "Clarkes
London Concert Band." This turns out to be the Musique de la Garde
Républicaine recorded 1904 or 1905 in Paris. Curiously, after the end of the
Waldteufel, there is a gap in the grooves, and then another track - a few
seconds of a steady single note on a trumpet. Lumbye's "Salut for August
Bournonville - Galop" is credited to the "Elite Orkester" as a Danish
orchestra, but this is in fact the Black Diamonds Band, recorded in London
in 1910.
http://www.damians78s.co.uk/html/currently_available_recordings.html#2011-01-01
Damian Rogan
