A pleasant group of holiday numbers played on a Regina Style 50 Music Box--from vintage music-box discs, we can assume. And the fidelity is amazing, and not just for Pickwick--this may have been digitally recorded, especially given the release year (1980).
Howard Brinkman's liner notes are unusually elegant for this label group, even if they're the standard content hype. Er... Well, actually, his prose is pretty clunky. When I first skimmed it, it seemed fancier than usual for a cheap-label essay, but on closer examination... ugh.
For instance: "The idea of authentically reproducing music and other sounds, not just mechanically producing music, is what really fed the phonograph market, not any qualitative preference." That reads nicely, but it doesn't make much sense. Of course, Brinkman--who wrote the liner notes for at least seventeen Pickwick albums (mostly rock)--was filling space with words on the back of a Pickwick cover, so we can excuse the nonexistent grammar of that sentence. But can the early-20th-century public truly be faulted for preferring early sound reproduction, which only provided a rough replication of vocal and instrumental sounds, over the "crystalline voice of music boxes"?
A question we've all struggled with at some point in our lives, I'm sure.
The way I see (or, rather, hear) it is that even a crude reproduction of "real" sound (and I love early 78s to death, so please don't get me wrong) was epically more interesting and exciting than tunes played on a musical comb. (See below.)
Which is not to dis music box technology--it was pretty amazing as a pre-recording medium. Regina boxes sounded gorgeous, as this LP demonstrates. But music boxes couldn't provide the sheer range of sounds, however crudely replicated, that the phonograph provided: singing voices (solo, quartet, choral), bands (marching, concert, dance), and, to an extent, authentic percussion. As in, sort of'/kind of authentic, at least prior to electrically recorded audio. Even a horn-recorded cymbal crash gives us a record (literally) of that audio event, whereas the bells, drums, etc. of carousel organs are mere special effects. And I'm starting to sound like Brinkman...
It's true that, in the beginning, the phonograph couldn't yet match mechanical music for a vivid and immediate musical experience, but it offered a far greater variety of sounds, however muffled. 1905 concert band recordings, for example, sounded more like real concert bands than the fanciest carousel organ could ever approximate. They were analog: I.e., analogous to the real-world source. And what the heck am I babbling about?
Music boxes had a gorgeous sound, but it was the same sound from one perforated disc to another. Also, it would seem from this set of selections that music boxes had a limited range of pitches. Which is to say, all twelve of these selections are in the same key: F-sharp (or, if we're thinking "down," G-flat). While ripping these, it occurred to me midway that "Hey, these all sound like they're in the same key." Because, as I realized upon review, they are. At first, I used a Youtube Middle C video for a reference tone, and I determined a tritone (three whole steps) difference between Middle C and the key of the Regina. (I don't have perfect pitch, but my relative pitch is good.) Plugging in my Casio WK-3800 (which, despite the brand, is a fine synth), I confirmed the key--F-sharp. Or G-flat. A weird default key for a music box, but then why not?
It's not a cut on mechanical music devices, which were state-of-the-art tech for their day, to note that the phonograph had more to offer. Just as TV has more to offer than radio. Then again, radio has made a comeback by way of internet radio and digital music streams (analogous to radio playlists), so maybe mechanical music will stage a comeback. The probability seems low, but what do I know? Hey, that rhymed...
DOWNLOAD: Original Music Box Favorites Vol. One.zip
O Holy Night
Christians Awake
Cloister Bells
Come Hither Ye Children
Under the Mistletoe Bow (Mother Goose Song)
On the Christmas Tree the Lights Are Burning
Holy City
Song of the Virgin Mary
Still Night Holy Night
Monastery Bells
Good King Wenceslas
Skaters Waltz
Lee
15 comments:
I've heard Regina music boxes live, and they are impressive. But you're right, they are limited in what they can do, so a little goes a long way.
I was quite surprised by the single key center. It suggests a limited tesiatura, wherein F-sharp is chosen as the default key because it allows a three-octave spread. Moving out of that key center would limit the notes available.
Buster,
And a "three-octave spread" is just a rough guess. But the Regina discs would logically exploit the full range of the box.
Thanks for this, Lee. Music boxes are a unique but popular wing of Christmas music. Not quite as popular as chimes & carillons, but more popular than zithers or handbells. :)
Hey Lee! Is there a volume 1? Looks like this is volume two, but in the download link you call it volume 2. (I also think I have another comment that may have gone to your spam folder. I'm commenting too many places lately and Blogger thinks I'm a spammer.)
Ernie,
Yikes--you're correct that I've tagged it as "volume 2." I like to think that I'm usually more careful, but... And, apparently, during my post revisions I removed the part about how I can find no evidence of a "volume one." I've checked Discogs, eBay, and made a general/overall Google search, and no volume one. My assumption is that it never existed. I'm guessing this is just typical cheap-label carelessness on the part of Pickwick.
Ernie,
And I rescued your comment from the Spam folder--you're right; that's where it went. And, ever since Blogger decided (God knows why) to mess with the comment-notification function, I've been missing instances of comments falsely labeled as spam--yet another standard Blogger glitch.
Nice one. Reminds me of a CD I have called 'Music Box Nutcracker Suite.. As Performed By The Porter Twin Disc Music Box'. Also, I hadn't though that the music box would be a specific key, but it does make sense.
I do have one suggestion on the artwork you are attaching to the MP3s: You may want to consider attaching a 'thumbnail' version of the artwork, that is in the 600x600 area. When you attach the cover art to the MP3s and the art is 4MB, the entire MP3 becomes 4MB bigger. So, certainly include the full art (which was a great scan) which you are already doing, but for the MP3s embedded artwork, use the thumbnail version of the art which will be 100KB extra per MP3 vs 4MB per MP3.
Listening to the album now and it sounds great, but it make me want to take a nap...... sooo sleeeeepy. Zzzz
Well, a year prior to this album coming out, Pickwick did release two instrumental Disco Christmas albums; Yuletide Disco and Disco Noel, from a group called "Mirror Image" swapping with Springboard using their "Misletoe Disco Band" material. Plus, it is the same production company that this music box album was posted! I was only a year old when this came out in 1980.
Lee,
Got this, but haven't listened to it, yet. Heard a couple music box Christmas recordings over the years and in fact, had one, back when I was a kid. It was a ten-inch 33 1/3, with a chunk missing from it, probably the whole first song, going into the second, which was, as I remember, Oh Come All Ye Faithful(whatever the punctuation is supposed to be), in B. The other songs were in different keys, with (oddly) the last cut of the record being Auld Lang Syne in D, done with a Celeste Music Box, you know, the smaller, regular music box type. It's not odd that the song was the last on the record, I'd expect that, it's just the contrasting instruments, you know. I believe I got the record in like third grade, from my Braillest. Anyway, enough of my childhood memories and rambling therewith/of, thanks, love and prayin' for ya.
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Church Podcast: https://www.sermonaudio.com/pleasantviewky
Personal Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/back-to-the-old-paths--4074743
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
At least you found it. It was tagging my own comments on my own blog as spam for a while, but that issue seems to have gone away so far this year (knock on wood...).
Many thanks, Lee, for your generous Xmas shares, but particularly for this volume of music box delights. A personal favorite. Seasons greetings from the Frosty North!
Thanks, everyone! dc_animal, Thanks for the image-size advice--For some reason, I thought that Microsoft's Media Player app was automatically resizing/reducing the image size, but... nope. But I'm finding that 900X900 is best--otherwise, the image is a bit too small. And these tracks do have a certain soporific impact... Josh, thanks so much for that report. Interesting, given that this LP is "stranded" in that single key. And, do you have perfect pitch? I've always wished I had that ability, though as I noted, I have a very solid sense of relative pitch. But I need at least a tuning fork to identify a given tonic. musicman1979, Interesting detail re the production company. And I listened to part of "Yuletide Disco" and found it pleasant enough. I often don't react that way to Disco efforts, though I've come a long way toward accepting that genre since it first appeared. Back in 1980, I hated Disco with a passion!
humanbeane,
Glad you loved this one! And where in the Frosty North, if I may ask? I'm originally from the northern portion of the U.S.--NW Ohio--though many folks don't associate Ohio with "north." But my Toledo childhood was filled with Michigan-style winter weather, and so I should logically be used to the worst of the season. But I guess I never liked winter, because I've become a winter wimp since moving to the central part of the state.
Lee,
You're welcome and thanks for the folder and walk down memory lane, or reckon that should be, ramble down it LOL. I've been told I have perfect pitch, but I believe, like yourself, that I have a very solid sense of relative pitch. When I'm asked to hum a note, I have to think of it for a minute and v/v, when I hear a note and am asked what it is. I believe also, that I know what keys things are supposed to be in, save for tuning/speed variation issues. 'Til next, Merry Christmas, love and prayin' for ya.
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Church Podcast: https://www.sermonaudio.com/pleasantviewky
Personal Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/back-to-the-old-paths--4074743
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
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