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The Victor Red Seal Discography, Vol. 2 (Double-Sided Issues to 1930) Hardcover – March 1, 2007
by John R. Bolig (Author)
Full discographic details of all double-sided Red Seals and Red Seal album sets (1923 through 1929), from the original Victor and Gramophone Company files. Includes recording locations and dates; matrix, take, and dubbing numbers; accompanists and conductors; catalog numbers of all 78 issues (US and foreign); and release dates and duration in catalog. With historical introduction and title and artist indexes.

About the Author
John R. Bolig, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert on the recordings of the Victor Talking Machine Co. He is the author of seven books on early sound recording, including "Caruso Records: A History and Discography."
Product details

Bolig’s second Red Seal discography covers the first seven years of double-sided releases, from 1923 until 1930. Like its predecessor, this volume follows a strict numerical sequence by catalog number for the listings. Each entry also gives the title, composer, artist(s), recording date and location, matrix and take number, and release date. If a record had also been issued in single-faced format by Victor, the single-faced catalog number is given. British and German releases are listed where known, though Bolig admits that identifying all foreign catalog numbers is a work in progress. Victor releases from foreign masters are also included; these comprised a significant portion of its catalog. Victor’s matrix numbers always begin with a letter prefix, “B” for 10-inch sides and “C” for 12-inch. Electrical recordings are easy to identify, since the prefix is followed by “VE.”

Bolig devotes Section II of the book to “Records Released as Sets in Albums,” which is dominated by the Musical Masterpiece series. One group of albums he does not list in this section is the Music Arts Library, a short-lived series of complete classical works predating the Musical Masterpiece albums, though he mentions the Music Arts Library in the introduction. Unlike the Musical Masterpiece series, Victor did not assign numbers to the Music Arts Library albums; only the individual discs bore catalog numbers, many of which could also be purchased individually. All of the individual catalog numbers in this series are listed by Bolig in Section I of the discography.

One album that has given researchers considerable trouble is the first electrical recording of Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 (“New World”), recorded by Leopold Stokowski and a reduced Philadelphia Orchestra between May and October of 1925. The recording was made in the Trinity Church Studio in Camden, NJ, and the records bear catalog numbers 6565 through 6569. Like all of Victor’s early electrical recordings, the discs had acoustic-style “batwing” labels—only the letters “VE” in the run-out space identified the recording as being electrical. The individual records were bundled into an unnumbered Music Arts Library album. Victor remade the recording in October 1927 with the full Philadelphia Orchestra in their regular venue, the Academy of Music. These discs were issued with “scroll” Orthophonic labels and issued as album M-1 in the Musical Masterpiece series. The individual records were assigned the same catalog numbers as the 1925 version, a common Victor practice for remakes. In addition to the 1927 remake, Bolig lists the 1925 original under “Album 1” in the Musical Masterpiece series, which is not correct (pp. 485–86). Michael Sherman made the same error, identifying a label scan from the 1925 set as being from album M-1 (Michael W. Sherman, The Collector’s Guide to Victor Records [Dallas, Texas: Monarch Record Enterprises, 1992], 112).

The two-page Section III is devoted to the American Speech Series. Bolig has included three indexes, by title, artist, and a coupling index by catalog number.


Publisher: Mainspring Press; First Edition (March 1, 2007)
Language: English
Hardcover: ? 624 pages
Size 10x7x1.5"

CONDITION: LIKE NEW -  First Edition 2007 by Mainspring  Press, hardcover (did not come with dust jacket) Size 10x7x1.5", 624 pages. Book in close to new condition interior like new, no markings, spots, animal hair or smoke,  binding sound, cloth covers close to perfect. tiny bump front upper right side corner

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