Gramophone Company


The Gramophone Company Limited , based in the United Kingdom and founded on behalf of Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the His Master's Voice label, and the European affiliate of the American Victor Talking Machine Company. Although the company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931 to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited, its name "The Gramophone Company Limited" continued in the UK into the 1970s.

History

First recordings

The Gramophone Company was founded in April 1898 by William Barry Owen and Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams in London, England. Owen was acting as agent for Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone record, whilst Williams provided the finances. Most of the company's early discs were made in Hanover, Germany at a plant operated by members of Berliner's family, though it had operations around the world.
In 1898, Fred Gaisberg moved from the U.S. to London to set up the first disc recording studio in Europe; it was situated in Maiden Lane. Among early artists he recorded was Syria Lamont, an Australian soprano whose single "Coming through the Rye" was one of the first ever issued. In December 1900, Owen gained the manufacturing rights for the Lambert Typewriter Company, and the Gramophone Company was for a few years renamed the Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. This was an attempt to diversify the business model, in response to a series of lawsuits by Edison Bell.

Lawsuit impact

In 1900, the U.S. parent of Gramophone lost a patent infringement suit brought on by Columbia Records and Zonophone, and was no longer permitted to produce records in the U.S. Its hardware manufacturer, Eldridge R. Johnson, of the Consolidated Talking Machine Company, left with a large factory and thousands of Gramophones with no records to play on them, filed suit that year to be permitted to make records himself, and won, in spite of the negative verdict against Berliner. This victory by Johnson, which may have been used in naming his reorganized record company the Victor Talking Machine Company the following year, may have been due in part to a patent-pooling handshake agreement with Columbia. The agreement allowed Columbia to produce disc records themselves, which they began doing in 1901; Columbia had previously been manufacturing cylinder records.
Contrary to the belief by some, the Victor Talking Machine Company was never a branch or subsidiary of the Gramophone Company, as Johnson's factory, which had been making talking machines for Berliner, was his own enterprise with many patents that he owned, and were valuable in the agreement with Columbia.
Thus, Victor and Columbia began making disc records in the United States, with the UK Gramophone Company and others continuing to do so outside of the US. This left Edison the only major company manufacturing cylinders; Columbia continued to market cylinders in diminishing numbers until 1912. Emile Berliner established Berliner Gramophone in Montreal, where he became Victor's Canadian distributor and held the rights in Canada to the "His Master's Voice" trademark. Edison would eventually join the flat record market with his diamond discs and their players.

Hidden discs

A public relations effort of 1907 involved Alfred Clark, a New York representative of the company. Clark persuaded the Paris Opera to seal and lock 24 records in two iron and lead containers in a basement storage room. These were to be opened in 100 years. In 1912, 24 more records were added in two additional containers, along with a wind-up gramophone and a supply of needles to ensure the records could be played when unsealed.
In 1989, it was discovered that one of the 1912 containers had been opened and emptied and the gramophone stolen. The three remaining containers were moved to the French National Library. When opened in December 2007, some of the records were broken, but copies of the missing and broken records were located in the French National Library. EMI digitized the collection and released it on three compact discs in February 2009 as Les Urnes de l'Opera.

Logo change

In February 1909, the company introduced new labels featuring the famous trademark known as "His Master's Voice", generally referred to as HMV, to distinguish them from earlier labels which featured an outline of the Recording Angel trademark. The latter had been designed by Theodore Birnbaum, an executive of the Gramophone Company pressing plant in Hanover, Germany. While the general public came to refer to the records and company as "His Master's Voice" or "HMV" because of the prominence of the phrase on the record labels, The Gramophone Company was never officially known as the HMV or His Master's Voice Company. The painting "His Master's Voice" was made in the 1890s with the dog Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph.
In 1899, Owen bought the painting from Francis Barraud, the artist, and asked him to paint out the Edison machine and substitute a Gramophone, which he did. In 1900, Emile Berliner acquired the US rights to the painting and it became the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. UK rights to the logo were reserved by Gramophone. Nipper the dog lived from 1884 to 1895 and is honoured in England with a celebrated grave marker.

Formation of EMI

In March 1931, Gramophone merged with the English Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd. The "Gramophone Company, Ltd." name, however, continued to be used for many decades, especially for copyright notices on records. Gramophone Company of India was formed in 1946. The Gramophone Company Ltd legal entity was renamed EMI Records Ltd. in 1973.

Acoustic Recordings

From the 1890s to mid-1925, recordings were made without any electrical equipment, relying instead upon the energy inherent in the sound waves generated by the performers, to activate the recording apparatus.
Matrix numberCatalog numberYear recordedYear reviewedComposerWorkArtistNotes
05672; Cc 344-1D 5761921BachPrelude & Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848Scharrer, Irene
3-0826 cc1935 III; 3-0827 cc1936 II; 3-0828 cc1937 IID 683,41922-10-051923BachBrandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048, G majorGoossens, Eugène; Royal Albert Hall Orchestra
2-07920 A15560; 2-07918 A15561; 2-01922 A15562DB 587; DB 5881915BachConcerto for two violins, BWV 1043, D minorZimbalist, Efrem, Kreisler, Fritz, 1875-1962, String Quartet
Cc4550, Cc4614 through Cc4617, and Cc4690 through Cc4692HMV D 953 through D 9561924-06BeethovenQuartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 Virtuoso String Quartet:
Marjorie Hayward, violin I
Edwin Virgo, violin II
Raymond Jeremy, viola
Cedric Sharpe. cello
HO2732af1917-07BeethovenTrio, piano, strings, op.1. no.2 Hambourg, Mark, 1879-1960, Hayward, Marjorie, 1885-1953, Warwick-Evans, C
3-07975 cc3392 I; 3-07976 cc3398 II; 3-07977 cc3399 II; 3-07978 cc3400 III; 3-07979 cc3401 II; 3-07980 cc3406 II; 3-07981 cc3407 II; 3-07982 cc3408 III; 3-07983 cc3413 II; 3-07984 cc3414 IID 767; D768; D769; D770; D7711923-09BeethovenViolin Concerto op 61, D majorMenges, Isolde, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra ; Ronald, Sir Landon
05694 cc1182 I; 05695 cc1183 I; 05696 cc1184 III; 05697 cc1185 IV; 05698 cc1186 II; 05699 cc1187 I; 05700 cc1188 II; 05701 cc1189 IV; 05702 cc1190 III; 05703 cc1191 IID 625; D 626; D 627; D 628; D 6291922-04BeethovenPiano Concerto 5, op 73, E flat majorLamond, Frederic, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra ; Goossens, Eugène
3-0798 cc1812 IV; 3-0799 cc1813 III; 3-0800 cc1814 IV; 3-0801 cc1815 I; 3-0802 cc1948 II; 3-0803 cc1949 I; 3-0804 cc2017 I; 3-0805 cc1950 IID 665; D 666; D 667; D 6681922-09-12BeethovenSymphony no. 5, op 67, C minorRoyal Albert Hall Orchestra; Ronald, Sir Landon
4-0511 cc3655 III; 4-0512 cc3696 IV; 4-0513 cc3704 I; 4-0514 cc3705 II; 4-0515 cc3706 III; 4-0516 cc3707 III; 4-0517 cc3708; 4-0518 cc3735; 4-0519 cc3736 I; 4-0520 cc3737; 4-0521 cc3738 III; 4-0522 cc3813 II; 4-0528 cc3814 II; 4-0524 cc3815 III; 4-0525 cc3816 II; 4-0526 cc3817 IVD 842; D 843; D 844; D 845; D 846; D 847; D 848; D 8491923-10BeethovenSymphony no. 9, op 125, D minorSymphony Orchestra; Coates, Albert
HO 2231 af056291916-10ChopinNocturne in C minor Op 48 No 1 abridgedScharrer, Irene
Bb 536-1;E 2551921-10ChopinPrelude in F sharp minor Op 28 No 8Scharrer, Irene
4-2781 HO_2862_abE 781914-06MozartZauberflöte: O IsisRadford, Robert
HO 4536-2 af