Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR). Happened across this while looking for info on one of these old platters. Searching for Irish instrumentals, I get two pages of hits, including this one, new to me:
BVE-38834 5/24/1927 Let Erin remember the Days of Old
Michael J. Twomey Bagpipes solo, unaccompanied
Patrick J. Touhey does show up when searched for, but isn’t Irish, apparently. He’s also “(instrumentalist : uilleann pipes)” Kind of a screwy database.
Here are the entries:
B-23333 11/12/1919 Stack of barley
B-23334 11/14/1919 The maid on the green
B-23335 11/14/1919 Drowsy Maggie
B-23336 11/14/1919 Medley of Irish reels
[Trial 1919-09-20-02] 9/20/1919 Hornpipe jig and reel
[Trial 1919-11-14-01] 11/14/1919 On a Sunday morning
The Stack of Barley medley we knew about - Stack of barley ; Fancy fair ; London dairy [Londonderry] hornpipes. Did they really misspell it? Hmm. It wasn’t released, as it happens.
The last two are new to me. Second one is as follows:
On a Sunday morning (Primary title) Victor ledgers
Bold John Donohue (Additional title) Victor ledgers
Irish folk songs (Title descriptor) Victor ledgers
No more info on the “Hornpipe jig and reel.” You can listen to the released recordings here, as well, courtesy of the Library of Congress. This is also the case with some of Tom Ennis’s sides. Here’s some unissued 78s of his:
The cook in the kitchen (Primary title) Victor ledgers
The gold ring (Additional title) Victor ledgers
Hanafin’s jig (Additional title) Victor ledgers
Jigs (Title descriptor) Victor ledgers
I already knew about these via Dick Spottswood’s discography of Ethnographic Music, though. Intriguing titles. Touhey recorded the Gold Ring on a couple of wax cylinders as well.
Wow. This is great stuff! Listening to Maid on the Green… the pitch seems so high. The drones seem to be tuned to E. Is this how it was recorded or how it was played back?
there should be a pop-up player window smack dab center on the record,
…if the download is accessable…
(incidentally Michael, there are some very good zampogna & ciaramella trio recordings on this database also, recorded 1917 in NYC)
I don’t think you can listen to the gaita or zampogna recordings though, unfortunately. The LOC only provided stuff that’s been reissued elsewhere, perhaps. You can also listen to a lot of 78s at the Comhaltas archives, if you’re into scratchy stuff.
I notice this note on one of the Tom Ennis sides: "Victor ledgers identify the instrument as “Irish bagpipe (union [uilleann] pipes).” They were still figuring out whether to pay attention to Grattan Flood in 1917.
o you genius you Kevin.
