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Whilst sorting through,( over the past 3 years), a big collection of light music, I came upon four "Kinemusic" records. They were recorded by the Parlophone company, and the orchestra was the Victor Olof Salon Orch.
These records, as far as I know were six shillings and six pence each when new. Expensive! since Columbia was producing similar music for silent films.by a French orchestra for three shillings. Hudson also were producing similar types of music for silent films also .They were recorded for use with silent films, mainly amateur ones, but would fit in with some earlier films of short duration. The longest running mood music series was by Bosworth, starting in 1937.
The records listed on the cover are all the ones that were ever recorded. I have all four of the "Kinemusic" gramophone records-two 12inch, and two 10 inch. I assume that the prohibitive price of each disc was one reason for their scarcity!
Interesting curio from sound recordings of the past

Here is a link to a useful website which only shows details of four records, with a request for details of any more.
I am sure that they would be very pleased to hear from you.

http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/Records/Label ... emusic.htm

Wow, 6/6 would have been a fairly extraordinary amount to pay for a record back in the silent film era! IIRC, there were a few companies that sold discs for 1/- or even 6d.

Many years ago I worked as a film editor in a Post Production facility. We had several different collections of sound effects and music that we would sometimes use for making promotional films or trailers. These records and tapes were very expensive. I suspect one of the main reasons for the expense was that the recordings were already cleared for radio and TV use without further license. Very interesting record!

Martin

Are you sure these are Parlophones? I have two of these and by the pressing style and label markings they seem to be Columbias. I'm quite curious about them.

Giuseppe Becce's "Appassionata tragico" on one of the discs actually commences with a scruffily-played and very out-of-tune excerpt from the prelude to Act II of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci; the ubiquitous "Appasionato No. 1" by Ernö Rapée and William Axt on the flip side - one of the most commonly called-for of all silent film music cues; it even turns up on the Movietone soundtrack to F. W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927), played by a contingent of the Roxy Symphony Orchestra under Hugo Riesenfeld - is possibly the slowest and least passionate rendering of the work I've ever heard. I can understand why there were few Kinemusic issues, considering their high price and indifferent performances. Columbia's recordings of Paris's Lutetia Wagram cinema orchestra are much better artistically, though at times even they play rather "functionally" and with low energy (which is hardly surprising if they had morning sessions in the studio after a full night's work in the pit).

By the time these records were made, Parlophone was owned by UK Columbia who acquired it in 1925.