RMIM Archive Article "24".


From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian

#
# RMIM Archive.
# Subject: 78 RPM records-history. Preserving Old Echoes.
#
# Posted by: Gopal Kondagunta
#       (gkondagu@top.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
#       (vnk5651@tamsun.tamu.edu)

1. Preserving Old Echoes - 78 RPM records This article traces the history of Indian 78 RPM records and old gramophone recordings. This also talks about the aims and achievements of SIRC which was set up recently in Bom- bay. The aim of the Society of Indian Record Collectors (SIRC) is to salvage the wealth of recorded music and other material on 78 rpm records from total obscurity. ............................................................. Also there was a posting about the address of the SIRC organization, where one can get more information about their publications etc. An excerpt from that posting follows: ~Subject: ADDRESS of "Society of Indian Collectors" (Bombay) ~From: daveg@werple.mira.net.au (David Graham) ~Date: 5 Jan 1995 02:53:36 +1100 This is the address of the secretary in Bombay (no email address). The S.I.R.C publishes 4 (low tech) journals a year and has meetings in Bombay each month. The cost was $10. When you write or fax Suresh, he can let you know if it has gone up. The society is dedicated to cataloging and preserving the rich treasure trove of Indian music. I post the address as there may be people looking for such a society or even have old (78's) in the attic that their parents have sitting in a trunk and would like to trace them. contact SURESH CHANDVANKAR 207 PARASHARA TIFR HSG COLONY NAVY NAGAR, COLABA BOMBAY 400 005 INDIA Phone 91 22 218 9876 ............................................................. ------------------------------------------------------------- Preserving Old Echoes --- 78 RPM records (1991) ------------------------------------------------------------- The sound of music is certainly changing as the market gets flooded with the state-of-the art equipment like compact disc recorders and digital tape recorders. But even as the acoustic revolution goes high-tech, a group of music enthusiasts is working to revive interest in an equally important phase in India's audio history - old gramophone recordings. Set up recently in Bombay the aim of the Society of Indian Record Collectors(SIRC) is to salvage the wealth of recorded music and other material on 78rpm records from total obscurity. Says Suresh Chandvankar, a Tata Institute of Fundamental Research scientist who is the secretary of the record collectors' society:"According to a rough estimate, five lakh titles under 75 different company labels have been issued since the early 1900s. If we can preserve even one lakh titles, it will be quite an achievement. " Not that the entire treasure of records is restricted to film music. It is in fact, a virtual audio history of India- Hindustani and Carnatical classical music, theatre songs, plays and satires, folk music, religious discourses, poetry, children's stories and songs, speeches by various leaders and even poems recited by Sarojini Naidu. In an effort to preserve gramophone records, the SIRC has begun by identifying 250 people around the country with major collections. SIRC President Narayan Mulani's personal collection itself contains 3000 records. In Bombay alone there are atleast 70 serious collectors, including Chandvankar whose 1000 78 RPMs collection includes several unusual recordings like a Zoroastrian religious discourse under the Young Iran label. Among other well known collectors is Prabhakar Datar whose collection of 6000 records includes an invaluable selection of old Marathi songs. Then there is Mukund Acharya-a tobacco and snuff shop owner-with a 3000 strong collection of records with old Hindi film songs. Says Acharya: "My interest goes back when I was fascinated with operating the hand- cranked gramophone. " Though none of the collectors now play the 78 RPMs on the old gramophones - as its heavy pickup arm and thick needle shorten the life of a record -that Does not detract from their value. Instead, they use modern four-speed changers in order to reproduce rare recordings. India's best known record collector is V. A. K. Ranga Rao, a music writer of Madras. His collection of 28, 000 78 RPMs contains songs and other recordings in 50 Indian and foreign languages, besides Hindustani and Carnatic classical music from 1903 to 1974 when the 78 RPM records were finally discontinued. Says Rao:"I think they contain the history of a country and its culture, at 78 revolutions per minute. " Or to be precise, 78.26 revolutions per minute. The overwhelming number of 78 RPMs were issued in 10inch diameter size, with each side playing for 3. 5minutes. Then there were the 12 inch 'longplay" version lasting upto eight minutes. While the smallest size was five inches, the largest records were 24 inches in diameterand were made only for the All India Radio signature tunes and revolved at 80RPM The history of recorded music in India began not long after the invention of the gramophone by the American Emile Berliner in 1888. One of Berliners associates set up the Gramophone Company in England in 1898. Three years later , the recording company opened a branch in Calcutta, initiating a golden era of 78RPM gramophone music which lasted till the early '70s. The earliest Indian recordings, like those of Gohar Jan and Janki Bai in 1903, were pressed into discs in Europe, until the Gramophone Company of India set up its Calcutta factory in 1908. Its original label, depicting an angel writing on a disc, was later replaced by the dog listening to a gramophone- a logo which made the His Masters Voice (HMV) label synonymous with the Gramophone Company. So complete was the Gramophone Company's monopoly over the 78 RPM record business that its Dum Dum factory was the only in India till the German Polydor Company set up its unit in Bombay in 1969. Neveretheless, several entrepreneurs attempted to break the HMV stranglehold, producing records which today are a collectors delight. Some independent companies did create quite a stir-Bombay's Broadcast Records, for instance which lured away some of the major classical singers like Siddheshwari Devi, Kesarbai Kerkar and Mallikarjun Mansoor from HMV, or T. S. Ramachander's Ramagraph Records which issued nearly 5000 titles till 1940. All these recording were forced to get their records pressed in Germany or Japan, except for a few like Hindustan Records and Megaphone which received HMV backing since they exclusively recorded two major singers - K. L. Saigal and Begum Akthar. But the biggest challenge to HMV came from the Young India label promoted by the film maker V. Shantaram in 1936. Young India's logo expressed the dominantnationalist sentiments prevailing at that time - a tricolour over the map of India. Some of the best Prabhat Film Company music was issued under this label. Collectors today treasure such old records which form part of the history of recording companies - the earliest one-sided discs, cardboard records, plastic postcard records, canary yellow Bulbul label discs, records which play from inside to out, souvenir label records given free with cinema balcony tickets, and the intriguing varying the starting point on the disc. Collectors have picked many of these historic records from places like Bombay's Chor Bazaar, which has junk shops specializing in old gramophone recordsand 78 RPM records. According to Anwar Hussein, a Chor Bazaar dealer, only about 30 per cent of the records collected from homes by 'kabariwalas' are good for listening, while the rest are resold for children and street artists to paint on. Most 78 RPMs can be bought for between Rs3 and Rs 10 each. But rare records in mint condition can fetch upto several hundred rupees. Says Hussein: " But the supply of records is much less than a decade ago. " Which is why SIRC wants to make sure that information on old records is collated before the supply dies out completely. It also plans to function as an "information exchange" on old records, at the same time ensuring that record collections are not thrown away by disinterested family members after the death of a collector. The move to set up SIRC was, in fact, initiated by an Australian discographer, Michael Kinnear who has just come out with the first of a multivolume catalogue of Indian records since 1903. Kinnear's interest in Indian 78 RPMs began when he was a recording engineer with HMV in Bombay in the 60's. Eventually, the society would like to set up a National Sound Archives, on the lines of the Pune film archives. The National Centre for the Performing Arts(NCPA) in Bombay has already taken a step towards creating a music archives. "We have nearly 10,000 old discs, and an ongoing programme of recording contemporary classical artistes on tape, " saysNCPA Programme Officer Vasanth Dandavate, the younger brother of the veteran politician Madhu Dandavate, whose 78 RPM collection contains 700 vintage classical vocal records. Music of course, has the power to delight generations of listeners. Even old film songs continue to enrapture audiences, and are constantly revived. By ensuring that the old 78 RPMs do not get destroyed, record collectors are playing an important role in preserving an invaluable part of India's cultural heritage. --------------------------------------------------------------
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian