Here is a bit more about Disques magazine and its successor New Records. Gilbert must have been fairly prominent as a classical reviewer given his mention in 1998 by a poster recalling H Royer Smith and its history: "The H. Royer Smith Company was founded in 1907 at 10th and Walnut Sts., Philadelphia. In March 1930 it began publishing "Disques" a beautifully printed small review magazine (about 50 pages) which featured articles and reviews by Lawrence Gilmore, Edward C. Smith, Peter Hugh Reed, Richard Gilbert, Issac Goldberg, Nicolas Slonimsky, Herbert Peyser, David Ewen, R.D. Darrell, Laurence Powell, Henry Cowell andDaniel Gregory Mason, among others. Included in these issues were articles about Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bax, Delius, Toscanini, Elgar, Prokofiev, Cowell, Karl Muck, Furtwängler, etc. Record reviews were done by some of the feature writers, but mostly by anonymous contributors. The reviews covered all of the domestic releases as well as many "imports" (mostly HMV, Polydor, Odeon, British Columbia, etc.) Disques ceased publication during the Great Depression (February 1933) and was replaced by a more modest publication "The New Records", a stripped-down version which featured an editorial (unsigned, but presumably by H. Royer Smith) and 15-20 pages of record reviews by staff (signed with initials only or pseudonymously) and local contributors, some of who were customers. The New Records which in later years was published by Royer's son H. Royer Smith, Jr., ceased publication in the late 1970's when the business was sold to a long-time customer."
To be precise Gilbert was named Director in November 1949. He actually started working for CBS around Feb 1949 as a Producer.
How exactly did Oppenheim get selected as Director of Masterworks (July 1950) when he was only 28? I tried to search for news about his appointment but couldn't find any other than a short blurb. He was a clarinetist but served in WW2 so you are talking about a fairly recent graduate clarinetist performing between 1946-49 suddenly a corporate manager?
He was not only a clarinetist but a virtuoso. From Wikipedia: "...by age 20 was considered to be an accomplished player.[3] He attended Juilliard and graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 1943....David Diamond's Quintet for clarinet, 2 violas and 2 cellos (1950) was written for Oppenheim and was first performed in 1952." From his obit in the NY Times: "After the war, he received a scholarship to study at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. There, over several summers, he performed under famous conductors, including Toscanini, Stokowski, Stravinsky and Bernstein. In the late 1940s, he was first clarinetist for the New York Symphony Orchestra." So Goddard et al would have been familiar with him as a person and seen him in stressful conditions. Edit: And Goddard was also a graduate of Eastman and would likely have had contacts there feeding talent to him. I ASSume his initial hire was as the equivalent of "Producer" today, and more likely as an assistant. He demonstrated his capability and moved up. In fact, Howard Scott's timeline of personnel that I posted on p. 78 shows him starting under Richard Gilbert in 1950 with an unstated title. Wait, you're saying Oppenheim became Director in July 1950? Where did you find that? So Richard Gilbert was Director from November 1949 until July 1950? Couldn't have been some conflict with Oppenheim that got him out of there, could it? Edit 2: Probably Goddard got fed up with his writing style, with an example in the next post. Regarding David's age at Directorship, Goddard started at Columbia at 27, and there are lots of bright young people pictured in the studio at various times: Thomas Z. Shepard, Steve Epstein, Buddy Graham (who looks like he's about 15 when he started), to name a few. Reading the Google result from searching for Howard Scott, he was 26 when he started at CBS. Long irregular hours, low pay, working with the greats in your chosen field: tailor-made situation for an ambitious and talented kid. You're doing a great job of finding interesting and illustrative information! Thanks!
I read some of that Disques magazine and have to confess my limited capacity for reading stuff like that. The first thing that showed was an apparently anonymous article (the layout made it difficult for me to decipher exactly what was by who) decrying the young people who only want to listen to that horrible music, jazz, and maybe how they'll never amount to anything if they continue. The one by Gilbert about Berlioz was probably as interesting to me as reading this thread would be to a Berlioz aficionado. That's probably too grumpy, but my eyes glaze over when reading articles like that about music. First sentence: "The new recording, and incidentally, the first, of the Overture to Berlioz's comic opera Beatrice et Benedict brings to mind the absence of a prevailing enthusiasm for the music of the greatest romanticist of them all (surely, no one will deny that in Hector Berlioz's artistic temperament there was more of the true romantic spirit than in any of his contemporaries) ." Geez. I, thought, that, I, used, too, many, commas (and parenthetical comments). I feel like intellectuals probably like those kinds of articles and take that as sad proof that I'm never going to be an intellectual. Nice find, though.
Good thought. A good producer but not direct enough for memo writing. As for the writing style at least with music it is ineffably hard to write about it except in a semi poetic way (see?!). One can go into technical stuff such as harmonic progressions or formal structure but that would be worse for the readers who weren't academics. Record reviews are a bit easier since one can make comparisons although that assumes the reader is highly familiar with other recordings. As for Oppenheim, there are many virtuosos so the possibility that Goddard simply liked him in an avuncular kind of way is probably the correct explanation. The appointment blurb was in a NY radio site. http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1950/BC-1950-08-07.pdf
A slight tangent, but also not: Dan, are you aware of a resource at Sony that would have historical employment information? The reason I ask is that the various publicly available sources we've all been mining are not always the most helpful, both in terms of clarity and accuracy. Of course, even if they exist, accessibility is still a question, but they would be extremely helpful, especially if this all ever turns into a book.
Leaving aside Sony, for a few other projects outside of this Forum I and others have attempted to query music companies about their own discographical info and catalogs. The responses are few and the upshot is without a court order or a big payment they will not even attempt to search corporate records that are more than a few years old. One practical issue is that many files were never transferred to the computer. With personnel files you have a whole different problem in that a mountain of case law exists about privacy etc. So I wish DM luck in his endeavors with Sony and 70 year old personnel files.
Personnel records will be totally out of bounds. They do have a photo section of the archives with pictures of executives and such, but they seemed to be pretty uppity-up executives and not so many producers and below, like none. But I didn't go through the whole thing, that didn't seem to be a good use of the hour a day that I had in the Photo part. They have binders and binders of pictures that did not seem organized in the way I expected so it would be like looking for the needle in the haystack. Where I would for sure like to look is in the Engineering archives, but it's not clear to me where that is or if there even is such a thing. There is still more for me to go through in the regular archives, if I get a chance, so I'm not going to spend much time thinking about these other remotely possible resources that would nevertheless be so interesting to us. And as a direct result of the immediate discussion, new avenues of research have opened up that could yield something good. I'd be remiss if I don't ask again: since I'm going to be Historical Track Chair at the next AES Convention, does anyone here have something historical that they'd like to show to the world? I can make that happen, although there is some form of vetting that happens after I suggest and before it gets on the schedule, so it's a while till the opportunity is for sure going to happen.
It's been very strange to realize about myself that I get quickly bored with recited poetry, but if there's a standup bass line or something underneath the same poetry it suddenly seems fresh and exciting. It doesn't make any sense. Getting back on topic, I've been enjoying thinking about (Archbishop Alexander) Paul Tyler Turner and his various activities and interests that all seem to tie in with 30th St., particularly his love of pipe organs. Following the Wikipedia 30th St page's link to the American Guild of Organists, we learn about the organ in there, which was: Organ aficionados: is that a pretty decent organ? Next question: The organists' guild has another page for the Armenian Church around the corner, similarly describing their different organ, which I heard played during a service. It sounded pretty low keyed compared to others I've heard, although that could have been all that was necessary for that particular service. The implication from that juxtaposition is each organ was used during Armenian Orthodox services, first at 30th St. and next on E. 34th St. We know that the Armenians' home on 30th St. was actually upstairs rather than in the large space that later turned into the studio. Is the organ that was spec'd for 30th St. something that would fit in a low-ceiling'd room, or would it have been put only in the big room. Organs of all sorts want big reverberant spaces, but maybe that one was put in for Armenians rather than Presbyterians? I know which way I'd vote now but am curious for educated opinions. In fact, I'm realizing while typing that since the Organists think the first organ was installed for the opening in 1875, it had to be the Presbyterians who put it there since the Armenians weren't there until 1897. So it would have to be downstairs in the main chapel. Back to Turner: I've been thinking how marvelous it would be if the Electric Railroaders' Association had its meetings in the underused upstairs portion of 30th St., and Turner got involved with them because he was already involved with caring for/playing this cool organ in the mostly abandoned church building. Then he could bring them downstairs to listen to him play the organ and there was plenty of space to put up a screen and watch movies at the same time. It would be further cool if his involvement with the Church pre-dated Columbia's involvement with it, and cooler yet if he knew Moses Smith or whoever from Masterworks because of his organ interests, and learned of their need for a new studio and introduced them to the building, and then got hired because he needed money for his own church and because they were impressed with his knowledge, enthusiasm, and diligence. It's not clear when he started working with Masterworks, but Fred took pictures of him in Liederkranz and in 30th St. in addition to that remote at Boston Symphony Hall. So that would have him with Columbia before 1948 and after early 1952. I can dream, can't I? It would be so neat if this random discovery of Turner ties up a lot of loose ends in the story.
I'm most interested in the 1935-55 period so I am pleased that this era seems to have clues on the web sufficient to put together at least a sketch of Masterworks activities. I will say again that the War must have made it difficult to find people both highly knowledgeable and with enough energy to keep CBS Masterworks running. So someone such as Tyler Turner could be added on, probably as an intermittent type employee, without the personnel dept going bonkers. As for poetry and music they are differently situated mental activities so that is why someone can dislike spoken poetry and love the same words as lyrics. I will note that originally poetry was chanted as with the epic poets or sung as with the Troubadours/Minnesingers of the Middle Ages. Poetry as a purely literary art form developed later in the Renaissance.
Nothing secret. The 1935-55 period was the era when almost all still current recording and audio innovations occurred. Every speaker type, modern recording and playback practice including stereo, every media format (except digital) and acknowledged recorded excellence particularly at the end of the period with stereo or mono but occasionally before in mono. On top of that many of the greatest classical music artists of the 20th C were active in this period as well as a number of still important popular artists. After this it is more a question of consolidation and incremental improvement. Yes there were many great performances recorded in the next 30 years but there is much more documentation both written and photographic as well as lots of eyewitness recollection. So we know almost in a reality TV way what happened in the recording and performance history of many major artists after this period.
I was in a meeting recently in the Blumlein Meeting Room at a UK organisation and took the image below from a display outside. Not disagreeing with what you said, but there were some very significant innovations before 1935.
I was expecting a hail of abuse for slight fudging of dates but thanks for soft soaping it. The context of the above discussion concerned Columbia Masterworks and its development under CBS a few years into this period.
In the back of my mind I knew Blumlein was a pretty revered engineer but I didn't realise how much until I did a little digging. For example : Alan Blumlein and the invention of Stereo | EMI Archive Trust The Cavity Magnetron was also a big deal during WWII and Alan lost his life during its testing.
I strongly suspect that Tyler Turner entered the Masterworks family during the War. His association with the ERA HQ puts him in the NY area by the late 1930s and he started presiding over the Western Rite Mt Vernon NY parish (just north of Manhattan) in 1946. What I find curious is the amnesia which seems to have shrouded this period of Columbia. I would have thought the utter unexpectedness of a priest and bishop working for Columbia for a number of years would have been widely noted and discussed. And yet even Alec Wilder who knew him as a teen and then at CBS apparently never mentioned him there, even in that short anecdote posted above. This may be the first explicit connecting of Tyler Turner's church activities and Columbia since the 1950s. I am also curious as to Turner's connection with Masterworks after Oppenheim arrived. You say that you have photos of him dated 1952 but I don't see any Masterworks discographical association after 1949. Do you have a CBS LP associated with him after 1949? It is interesting that his fairly big project, the High Fidelity LP, was issued by Vox in the US, UK and France with no mention of CBS. I wonder if he was just sort of showing up at organ performances where CBS /Power Biggs were hanging out without really being connected with any corporate activity any more. Biggs put out at least 5 LPs from 1950 to 52 but the liner notes on one were written by Biggs not Turner. Let's hope that ERA or SSB have unposted documentation they can share about him.
Maybe Moses Smith should be investigated more. I ran across an article on Koussevitsky where Moses Smith is described as a well known Boston music critic and the director of Columbia Masterworks. I found a few early music reviews in the Phonograph Monthly Review in 1926 and 27. But he was a prominent Boston newspaper critic in the 30s. Moses later authored a bio of Koussevitzky in 1947 (spelled with a z). It is a 400 page monograph published by Allen Towne & Heath. Interestingly Koussevitsky sued him for invasion of privacy but lost! Apparently the book was objective but not adulatory enough for K's sensibilities. Here is a link on the short NY Time obit in 1964. Moses Smith, Music Critic, Dies FWIW Richard Gilbert also was a music critic that seemed to have some association with Boston albeit producing for RCA.
I have what seems to be one session with the new console and him in the pictures, or some of them. The new console, I believe, was put in sometime in 1952 because Buddy Graham is shown when it looks brand new. He started around then as an employee, but I don't know that he wasn't an intern or something before being on the payroll. Woop, I just looked at the spreadsheet again and Buddy started February 19, 1951. Both Art Kendy and Mark Wilder had that date in union documents showing seniority of all studio staff employed as of 1973 and 1988, respectively. So that session with pictures of PTT could have been in 1951. Don't know what session it was at this time. I'm not a record collector, sorry. I, too, thought it was curious that the LP was on Vox, but it was issued in 1955 according to that article by Peter Harrison, and PTT wasn't with CBS anymore, so it's not too surprising that CBS wasn't mentioned. HOWEVER, I wonder where those many classical snippets came from. That Biggs session at Symphony hall was ca. 10-7-49, and he would have been with CBS still, if he was there in 1951+. I sure hope so, but am not holding my breath for a reply. Definitely agree that Moses Smith should be investigated more. I think I found most of what you've posted, but that's too little to really know much about him. Did you find his picture? I found one of him with someone, but it doesn't seem to be on this computer, sorry.
I phrased that poorly. I just meant do we have any evidence PTT was associated in any way with a Columbia LP after 1949? I agree we have limited info but I think it is pointing up a significant divide between 1940s Columbia and 1950s Columbia. Moses Smith, Richard Gilbert, Paul Tyler Turner etc were people with independent reputation or careers, not company men per se. Lieberson is sort of a special case. With Oppenheim we get the first attempt to put a traditional company man in there although Oppenheim himself ended up as a bit more rounded than that. After Oppenheim though they move to studio engineer types.
Welcome to the forums and the thread! When pointing out something old like this, you need to reply to the specific message you are commenting on so readers can know what you are referring to. That said, I think I have that sequence of pictures in my head pretty clearly and I'm pretty sure it's Jim Foglesong, as I believe comes up later in the thread than you've read so far. This little picture is, I think, the only one I have been able to find of Sagle. Do you have any more? For those not wanting to dig through the thread, here is one of the pictures I think you are talking about: Different guy, and I'm pretty sure if not positive that it's Jim Foglesong. You did do a good thing, though: when I went to my spreadsheet of CBS/Columbia/CRI people, Sagle wasn't there! I'd left him out! He's there now, thanks to you. 437 people, many pictures but not enough.
Just that series of pics of him in a room with the second console in the Old Control Room. That's a large generalization that I don't have enough information to agree or disagree. Do you have the sequence of successors to Oppenheim? And what is the definition of "traditional company man"? Without knowing it, I'd be more inclined to say that pretty much all the engineering staff would qualify for that description. There was a rigid union hierarchy as implied by my knowing Buddy's hire date, and although there was definitely turnover many if not most people were with the company for many years and decades and some of the rigidity loosened up in later years. Producers, I'm not so sure of, at least in the Pop area and probably others. The Sagle conversation touches on that a little. There was a whole slew of different producers at Columbia at different times; I have a hard time keeping track of them all, which is why a spreadsheet to organize them, and also why I made that video of names so that every one of them will at least go through our conscienceness for a moment. Regarding your interest in that couple decades, what else have you looked into in the same detail as we're looking into PTT and CBS? I'm asking for a reason....
In other news regarding the pipe organ discussion, my buddy Gary says that the blueprints show a note to fix the wainscot on the North Side of the big room (former chapel turned into studio) where the organ was removed. So it was gone during or before the remodel into CBS Studio in '47-48. Sold by WLIB when they were hard up for cash?
Masterworks Directors: I thought it was Oppenheim, John McClure, Schuyler Chapin then John McClure again. BTW I 'm not casting aspersions on the possible cultural differences of Masterworks in the 40s vs 50s. Organizations are often forced to go bureaucratic when the money and the number of personnel increases. Columbia took off around 1950 with the LP and you couldn't have a free wheeling loose group of creative types running the business as opposed to working with the artists directly without line responsibilities. Well producers are a separate character to corporate line staff. Smith, O'Connell, Gilbert and perhaps even Tyler Turner were line staff at least in some portion of their tenure there. Nothing CBS specific. I have an interest in music history and a related interest in audio. So the history of 30th St studio in the 50s and 60s is interesting in terms of providing a context for iconic recordings. However by the 60s Masterworks starts to fade in importance within CBS and the departure of Bernstein was a real blow. So it is mainly a pop, soundtrack or jazz history that is increasingly central to the studio history. Of course there is already a lot of material about those, if not 30th St centric. However my deeper interest is in creativity whether by artists or companies. So I started to get more deeply interested with the thread as the focus turned to the studio beginning and preceding era. Hope that helps.
