Three new publications in the edition of “Arti musices” journal dedicated to the early sound recording industry
“The papers presented within this themed issue highlight the potential of the research on early recordings, pointing to those recordings as more than noise and displaying different possible directions into which such research can lead.” from the preface to the AM (53/2)
In 2022, collaborators on the project Željka Radovinović and Jelka Vukobratović edited the recent edition of the Croatian musicological review Arti musices (53/2). The edition is dedicated to music and the early sound recording industry. It aims at research focusing on the historical frame of the first half of the twentieth century, the 78 rpm »shellac period« of the record industry, but also welcomes connections with other periods.
Quotation from the preface to the edition:
Three of the articles in the themed issue stem from the work on this research project. Tanja Halužan’s work focuses on Kajkavian repertoire, Jelka Vukobratović’s on the translation and domestication of popular music repertoire, while Naila Ceribašić’s provides an analytical approach to the research of performance changes in early sevdalinka recordings. The latt er article also gives insight into different methodological and analytical procedures in the interpretation of music as performance, for which the recordings are perceived as the »second primary objects«. Some of the other articles broaden and deepen this localized research by providing either a globalized perspective (Gronow and Pennanen), or a different localized view (Maglov, Piškor). The research of Pekka Gronow and Risto Pekka Pennanen contextualises the appearance of domestic record production in Croatia by displaying the activities of global record companies in Croatia and Yugoslavia which partly preceded domestic production. Marija Maglov’s research sheds light on the production of Radio Belgrade’s record label from the 1950s, Jugodisk, which has previously been know only marginally, and mostly by collectors, while the label represented a »mystery« for the academic community. Maglov uncovers a portion of the »mystery« through access to the partially preserved collection in the Radio Belgrade archive, as well as other institutions and private collectors. Mojca Piškor’s article offers a different localized view on the emergence of sound recording technology by observing its social consequences for a specifi c population of professional musicians. Finally, the contribution of Eva Moreda Rodriguez offers a different and valuable perspective on the topic, removed from the previously mentioned articles in both cultural-geographical and technological senses. It centres on the transformations of phonographs from talking machines into music machines in the context of Spanish musical theatre género chico works. The author argues how perceptions of phonographs revolved initially around the discourses about science, technology, mobility and knowledge, and only slowly shifted towards those about sound and music.
The article by Naila Ceribašić “Glazba u izvedbi: o glazbenoj interpretaciji sevdalinke od 1920-ih do 1950-ih” is available here.
The article by Tanja Halužan “Thinking Global and Sounding Local: the Case of Kajkavian: Repertoire in the Production of Edison Bell Penkala in the 1920s and 1930s” is available here.
The article by Jelka Vukobratović “Panties, Hearts and Foxtrots: Translations of Popular Songs within the Croatian Record Industry in the Interwar Period” is available here.
The whole edition of Arti musices is available here.
