The Disc Book [antikvár]

A Note to The Reader As the era of the microgroove record rounds out its seventh year during 1955, it becomes possible at long last to attempt a preliminary summing up of the literature of serious music on records in terms that will make sense to the lover of good listening in the home who must alsó work from a limited budget. As matters presently stand, the listener who is just getting a record library under way needs to know the proper direction along which he may attempt to answer three basic questions: 1.Over and above the universally accepted "standard repertoire" of the concert hall and opera house, what is there to be found in the vast treasury of heretofore "new" or "esoteric" music that can be called both significant and enjoyable on its own meríts? 2.Of the hundreds of performing artists represented on discs in every musical médium, who are the ones that can be depended upon not only for performances of first-rate technical merít, but more particularly for musical interpretations that will establish valid standards of performance style in the listener's mind? 3.In view of the fact that today's microgroove records require welldesigned reproducing equipment to give true pleasure in the home, how can the listener acquire such equipment which is reasonable in price, as well as simple and reliable in operation? It would take half a lifetime, as well as something close to omniscience for any one person to attempt today a comprehensive critical evaluation of the present literature of recorded music. In any case, we think it is more fun for the listener to embark on his own musical explorations in the world of discs, once he has acquired a basic orientation in terms of the three questions just set forth. This DISC BOOK hopes to accomplish just that and nothing more- to leave you, our reader-listener with enough basic knowledge in terms of musical repertoire, music in performance, and recorded sound so that you will feel confident enough to carry on as your own music critic and to enjoy yourself in so doing in much the same way that the skiing enthusiast tackles a new mountain trail for the first time. Contrary to what might appear to be normál procedure, we shall tackle these three main problems in reverse order-starting with the phonograph in the home, passing on to consideration of somé of the outstanding recording artists of the past and present, then to a review of the repertoire panorama on discs in its main outlines.