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I don't like listening to classical music ................................ unless it's on a 78 record.

I don't like listening to Opera music ...................................unless it's on a 78 record.

I don't like listening to Jazz music ...................................unless it's on a 78 record.

I don't like listening to Organ music ...................................unless it's on a 78 record.

There must be other examples which currently elude me.

Does anyone else share this kind of preference with certain genres of music ?

Ha!
I don't like listening to spoken word ... unless it's on a 78 record.
I don't like listening to fairytales... unless it's on a 78 record.
I don't like listening to flamenco... unless it's on a 78 record.
I don't like listening to easy listening... unless it's on a 78 record.
Etc. Etc. Any class of music which was recorded on 78s, I prefer to play them on 78s than in other media!

It has to be said that longer classical works such as symphonies, concertos and complete operas are unsuited to the 78 format.
CD's have their uses but for complete operas I want pictures as well as sound, so they have to be on DVD for me. I also insist on DVD's set in the period the composer intended, not some modern day travesty dreamed up by a talentless producer trying to be different.

For listening to operatic arias it's 78's every time, especially on acoustic records which place the voices well forward. Others may not agree, but I think that some of today's so called opera stars would have struggled to get a place in the chorus during the era of Caruso.

Because the only jazz style I like is traditional such as New Orleans I am well catered for by 78's.

I listen to military band and ragtime music on cylinders, which suit this repertoire well.

I don't like listening to organ music or rock and roll in any shape or form.
I have little interest in blues, country or folk music either.

OK, I'll play:

I don't like to listen to music recorded before 1948.....except when it's on its original format.

"Pecking order" for me, most favored down, is as follows:
cylinder, if originally so recorded (i.e., 2 min or 4 min wax, celluloid only if not a dub)
Vertical cut disk
Lateral 78

In general (there are exceptions), I avoid latter-day reissues of such material.

Now, I'm a classical/opera collector, so in practice lateral 78 probably gets more play than the others, but still, if I had my "druthers,".....

PS: I actually have managed to assemble a fair collection of operatic/classical vocal cylinders, which get a decent share of play. I'd call collecting those a "rich man's game," except that the man who plays it won't stay rich for long!

epigramophone wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:53 am It has to be said that longer classical works such as symphonies, concertos and complete operas are unsuited to the 78 format.
CD's have their uses but for complete operas I want pictures as well as sound, so they have to be on DVD for me. I also insist on DVD's set in the period the composer intended, not some modern day travesty dreamed up by a talentless producer trying to be different. ...

I don't like listening to organ music or rock and roll in any shape or form. ...

Amen to the comment about opera productions. Among the more ridiculous experiences of my theater-going life was sitting through of a production of Cosi fan Tutte gratuitously reset to the pre-Civil-War American South.

But as to longer classical works, the problem is that while the music may not be a graceful fit for 78s, it also often is not a graceful fit for the modern manner of playing it. I play a *lot* of classical 78 sets, but to compromise I copy them to my computer and stitch the sides together for continuous performance. Transfers, yes, but at least they're my own, and the skills I've developed in the process have come in very handy when asked to do figure skating music cuts for my daughter. That process, in turn, has given me a deep appreciation for those unsung record label minions who drew the thankless assignment of cutting down 25-minute symphonies to fit on a couple of 4-minute acoustic record sides.

For the most part, with you on rock; I do like organ music, but for that I heavily prefer CD because of its pitch stability. Perhaps the only exception to my usual bias for earlier formats.

I love classical orchestral music on 78s...and yes! I have a pretty bunch of Philadelphia /Stokowsky records, and Boston Symph/Koussevitsky. And I love them.
I have to say that German Polydor/Grammophon recordings of 1927/1932 are a real fest to the ears, despite being cut on 5min sides!

After searching on and off for many years, a decade ago I acquired and lovingly restored a Capehart Deluxe M400 from 1941. In case you do not know what this Capehart is, it was the peak of luxury for 78 collectors in those days as it plays up to 20 10" or 12" discs both sides in sequence. I first saw a Capehart many years ago in the 1938 film "Intermezzo" and hoped one day to find one.

A Capehart will gently handle your records and play complete 78 opera and symphony sets in manual sequence completely through or drop sequence in two halves. Listened this evening to the 1926 Columbia Weingartner Beethoven 9th. Yesterday I played continuously a couple of hours of 20's jazz from a selection of 10" discs.

I have become attuned to the scatty 20's British orchestral performance with the swooping strings and before the post Toscanini regimented tempos. And the operatic performances at the the tail end of opera's golden age.

So these days... I don't like listening to complete operettas, grand opera, oratorios, concertos or symphonies... unless it is on a 78 record.

This is an interesting thread that I just do not understand.

For myself, I like a wide range of music and if I can find the song I like then it does not matter if it's played on an LP or Edison Phonograph. The quality of the music is certainly different when played on a period machine but that by itself does not change the enjoyment of the music.

For example, I have Varsity Drag (George Olsen from 1927) played on a 78 RPM record and a wonderful version restored from a LP source (Vintage Victor Recording). I enjoy hearing the best, cleanest, version of the song and the restored (by myself) version is great.

Now, it is fun to play a period phonograph for friends to hear the music, but the same song would still sound great played on a CD for me.

Marc

Many 78 records aren't on any other format ...................................unless it's on a 78 record.
Many LP / CD transfers of 78 records don't sound as good...................................as the 78 record.

That's my main criteria for preferring 78's. I don't go by genre. Lots of rare and sometimes expensive 78's are also easily obtained in good CD transfers on labels like Yazoo, Dust to Digital, Marston, et al. I'm not passing those up.

Wolfe,

O.K. I can understand that reason.

Marc