Early Mandolin Recordings
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:48 pm
Since I'm new here, I thought I should introduce myself: I am a classical mandolinist/composer, and began collecting early mandolin recordings some 30 years ago to hear the greats on my instrument, since so few of their recordings have been reissued. I worked down in the record stacks at the Library of Congress for 7 years in the 90s, and since then for the Copyright Office, but am retiring in a few months, and am looking forward to spending all of my time on music, again.
The focus of my collection is not country and stringband music, but mandolin soloists and orchestras. For the major American soloists, I already have the complete (known) recordings by Valentine Abt and William Place, Jr., a LOT of recordings by Samuel Siegel and MOST of the recordings by Bernardo de Pace, including a Vitaphone disc! Most of the recordings I'm buying now are from overseas, as there are so many i still need. There is no record price guide for mandolin soloists, but when I worked in the LC collection, I would check auction lists against the Riggler and Deutch index on my lunch hour. If LC had 10 copies, I knew it was a common record and put in a low bid. If NO ONE had it, I bid more. As a result, my collection dovetails the LC collection, and I have a few hundred mandolin recordings that they do not have. Apart from wanting the records to hear them, I also wanted the information for my mandolin discography, and when the Copyright law changes next year, I want to start reissuing them. And eventually, I will leave my collection to the Library of Congress, so that they will be available to other researchers. Over the last few years, I have found a number of records for sale that I never knew to exist at all. Some were soloists that I knew by name, who were not known to have recorded, showing up on obscure labels, or soloists that I had never heard of at all. I will post photos or some of my rarer records, just to show the kind of stuff I am finding.
The focus of my collection is not country and stringband music, but mandolin soloists and orchestras. For the major American soloists, I already have the complete (known) recordings by Valentine Abt and William Place, Jr., a LOT of recordings by Samuel Siegel and MOST of the recordings by Bernardo de Pace, including a Vitaphone disc! Most of the recordings I'm buying now are from overseas, as there are so many i still need. There is no record price guide for mandolin soloists, but when I worked in the LC collection, I would check auction lists against the Riggler and Deutch index on my lunch hour. If LC had 10 copies, I knew it was a common record and put in a low bid. If NO ONE had it, I bid more. As a result, my collection dovetails the LC collection, and I have a few hundred mandolin recordings that they do not have. Apart from wanting the records to hear them, I also wanted the information for my mandolin discography, and when the Copyright law changes next year, I want to start reissuing them. And eventually, I will leave my collection to the Library of Congress, so that they will be available to other researchers. Over the last few years, I have found a number of records for sale that I never knew to exist at all. Some were soloists that I knew by name, who were not known to have recorded, showing up on obscure labels, or soloists that I had never heard of at all. I will post photos or some of my rarer records, just to show the kind of stuff I am finding.