Russian Records

Expansion of the website topic

bernikov — 2010-04-28T16:32:20+00:00

Dear friends, we are happy to announce the expansion of the website topic toward Soviet period. In order to concentrate Participant�s efforts on the most scarce and interesting records we are setting the top date for records of the state monopolist company Gramplasttrest on the end of WWII. However, this limitation will not be applied to the local plants that had their own recording studios. This limitation is also not applicable to reissues of pre-WWII records, pretty much in the same way as we always had for Soviet reissues of pre-Revolutionary records. The name of the website is correspondingly changed to �The Encyclopedia of Russian Records�.

Howard Friedman

bernikov — 2010-01-28T21:52:00+00:00

What remains of the people when they�re gone? Love in the hearts of friends and relatives, memory, and of courses their deeds, especially those that were intended not for the profit and gain, but for the welfare of all people by giving away a piece of Self to the others. One of such deeds of Howard Friedman was writing of The Collector�s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 � 1925 that he devoted the last years of his life. In November 11, 2008 he passed away, but the Guide is here, and a piece of his Self that he put into this work will forever remain embedded into its lines! Unfortunately, while the Author was alive, we did not manage to fulfill our promise � translate the Guide into Russian language and publish it on our website� But as they say, the beauty of a debt is its payment � we publish in two languages Preface and Acknowledgments, Introduction and the most interesting chapter for all portal participants - the Russian Recordings. And it is only the beginning!

"His name was Nipper" by A.Tikhonov

bernikov — 2009-09-16T22:30:00+00:00

�September of 2009 is the 110-years anniversary of the most best-known trademark and slogan in the history of world�s musical industry. The Gramophone Company owing the name �His Master�s Voice� and corresponding abbreviation �HMV� to the painting of artist Francis Barraud who depicted a dog sitting next to a gramophone and listening to the voice of his master. Today this painting remains as a symbol of the entire epoch as well as one of the most popular brands of XX century.�

It is the introduction from Alexander Tikhonov article �His name was Nipper� (In Russian). The abridged version of this article was originally published in the Russian edition of Billboard magazine No 8 (28), August 2009.

Filter

bernikov — 2009-05-18T17:25:00+00:00

We already described this function in the past, however decided to do it again in order to provide more details of its functionality and use. The Filter is located at the bottom of the main page of website as well as on pages of categories and search results. It consists of two pick-lists: �Ethnics and Languages� and �Site Content�.

Pick-list Ethnics and Languages allows setting site to work only with files of certain Ethnics and language (ethnic) or language group. For instance, if one picks Polish language and then click on �Go� button, the site behaves like no other records besides the Polish ones are present. Only Polish records will be seen in �new arrivals�, in Categories, in comments, as well in search results. If Jewish language group is chosen, then only Hebrew and Yiddish records will be considered.

The second pick-list can be called �Site Content�. It has three options:

Exclude catalogs - This option allows to exclude �virtual records�. i.e. those, that are the result of converting label catalogs, rather than �real records�. Since we plan to convert several label catalogs in the future this option will play more and more important role.

Only records with audio - this one even more strict option. It excludes not only �virtual records�, but also �real records� that were uploaded without audio. This option will be mostly appreciated by those users, who visit the site mainly to listen to the music!

Include everything - This option is used to unset the filter.

Congradulation with 110 anniversary!

bernikov — 2009-04-11T21:38:00+00:00

110 Years !April 10, 2009 is the 110 years anniversary of the beginning of the first recording session in Russia performed by William Sinkler Darby engaged by the gramophone inventor Emile Berliner. This date can be considered as the Birth Day of gramophone record in Russia. However, until recent time, many things related to those distant events remained unclear. For instance, why traditional Amour Trading Marks were missing on those discs recorded by Darby? Or why not yet discovered at least one copy of a catalogue with those records? The answer on these and many other questions can be found in the article of the world�s leading expert in Gramophone Company history, the compiler of the �Complete Numerical Catalogue of Russian Gramophone Recordings made from 1899 to 1929 in Russia and elsewhere by The Gramophone Company Ltd.� Alan Kelly.

The move is completed

bernikov — 2009-03-19T20:16:00+00:00

Dear friends! We are very happy to announce that the moving to new hosting is successfully completed!

Just before the move we made several improvements to the website. Following are the most important of them:

Informational fields � in order to encompass multiple records characteristics, we added a bunch of new fields. The complete list can be seen on the Upload form that was also modified in order to allow Participants to enter all necessary information themselves at the time of uploading or editing.

Site Search � Until recent time this was the weakest feature of the website � only three fields were considered in searches: Title, Label Transcription, and Keywords. After this change all the fields are considered! The form representing search results was greatly changed too. The search results are now presented in table format with sections for each label name. All files that displayed as thumbnails are placed in front of the table. Such representation pretty much resembles a �discography�, so the search results can now be called �Live discography�. The search can be performed not only by artists, but also by anything else. So, it is possible to get discography of a song, or discography of a composer, or discography of a conductor, or discography of an instrument, and so on.

Filter � At the bottom of the front page, next to the word �Filter�, there is appeared a "drop-down" list. It consists of languages and language groups from the records uploaded on website. If open it and for instance pick Polish language and then click on �Go� button, only Polish records will be considered. The site behaves like no other records exist or ever existed at all! Even more, if information in Polish language was entered for a field with Polish language tag, then it will be displayed instead of English.

If Jewish language group was chosen, then only Hebrew and Yiddish records will be considered.

The Filter is memorized and automatically applied for each visit until it is changed to something else. In the nearest future we plan to upload into the Database a several label catalogs � they are required in order to produce the most complete �Live discographies�. However, the vast amount of �virtual� records might be undesirable when browsing website via Categories because the portion of �real records� will be too small. In order to resolve this issue, next to the language filter there is another one. This one can be used to filter away the �virtual� records from the catalogs. It also can be used to make website consider only records with sound files attached. This option will appreciate those visitors, who mainly interested in listening to the music!

Since all these changes touched the very �heart� of the system, some side effects may appear. Please do not hesitate to write to us in the case of any anomalies!

And the last news � we are in process of moving to the new hosting that has to be completed by the end of this week. Because of this move, site may be inaccessible during certain period of time, or have some other problems, related to this move. We apologize in advance for these inconveniences.

Administration.

Moving to a new hosting

bernikov — 2009-03-12T22:02:00+00:00

We are in process of moving to a new hosting that has to be completed by the end of this week. Because of this move, site may be inaccessible during certain period of time, or have some other problems, related to this move. We apologize in advance for these inconveniences.

Site Improvement

bernikov — 2009-01-06T22:37:00+00:00

Dear friends, do not be surprised that "Gramophone" pictograms have disappeared. The sound files are still there, but we made an improvement to the site by joining images and sounds.

All labels with attached sound are easily distinguishable by frames surrounding pictures.

The works are not completed yet, we apologize for possible inconveniences.

Happy New Year!

bernikov — 2008-12-30T11:02:00+00:00

A.I.Zhelezny is with us!!!

bernikov — 2008-08-29T21:50:00+00:00

Dear friends, we are very happy to announce that we began cooperation with Anatoli Ivanovich Zhelezny � the author of famous book Our Friend � a Record. For many collectors this book used to be, and for many people it is still the �Bible� � the desk book No.1. It was written 20 years ago, but not for one iota lost its relevance. They refer to it, they quote it, and even RGAFD (The Russian State Archive of Sound Recordings) took the book content as a foundation for the description of its pre-revolutionary funds!

This work is well-known, but probably just a few people know that for many years Anatoli Zhelezny collaborated with famous editor of "The Record Collector" magazine James F.E. Dennis. For instance, in this issue, entirely dedicated to Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov, James Dennis gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Anatoli Zhelezny for compiling artist�s discography. A.I.Zhelezny helped to Georg Moll to decipher documents from his family pre-Revolutionary archive, including materials related to "Metropol-Record" factory; helped to Scottish musicologist Derec Hulme to compile monograph "Dmitri Shostakobvich. A Catalogue, bibliography, and discography". Author dedicated it �To Anatoli Ivanovich Zhelezny�; helped to John R. Bennett to compile 11th volume of his "Voices Of The Past", dealing with Russian records of The Grammophone Company. For many years Anatoli Zhelezny was a music consultant at the Kiev Motion Pictures Studio, he supplied records from his collection for musical illustrations of movies. He was leading author of the Catalogue-Newsletter of �Melodia� firm.

Just a few days ago Anatoli Zhelezny has finished large project � a collection of discographies �Voices Preserved by Phonograph Record 1899-1915�. It has about 240 discographies of singers, and about 50 discographies of writers, poets, and actors. We hope that this collection will see the light of day soon.

It is difficult to express in words our emotions when Anatoli Zhelezny agreed to publish on our site his materials - the results of systematization of all his old notes for the 30 years period! Among the first ones he sorted-out and typed into computer materials about "The Association of V.I. Rebikoff and Co."that we offer to you now.

We just finished website modification � it is possible now to post comments on articles published on our website. Please do not miss this opportunity � Anatoli Zhelezny as well as all visitors will be happy to read your feedback.

A.I.Zhelezny. The Chronicle of the �Association of V.I. Rebikoff and Co.� in Russia 1903 � 1906. (In Russian)