brass, and that is why the first repertoires of recordings, in 1900, were
military rather than artistic in character.
At that period, recordings were simply a pastime; no one attached
any cultural importance to them. Enrico Caruso was the first to re-
cognize their tremendous possibilities. Hardly had he, in 1902, allowed
his exceptional voice and his art of bel canto to be recorded, than other
singers of great or not so great distinction, as well as pianists, vio-
linists, etc., followed his example. The repertoire of recordings was
later enriched by works of Verdi and Puccini; but throughout that
period it was the interpreter, and more particularly the soloist, who
reigned supreme. It would be useless to look for any historical crite-
rion in the selections of that time. At best, they included the main
works performed at public concerts, a composer like J. S. Bach
figuring simply thanks to the ‘complicity’ of Charles Gounod.
It was only after World War I that the technical and artistic evolu-
tion of the record made possible the recording of symphonic music-
especially after the introduction, in 1926, of the electric microphone,
which permitted a sensitiveness of recording hitherto unknown. A
new repertoire was then established, containing all kinds of classical
works, as is shown by the special catalogues published around 1930.
The first of these catalogues-the IGdtztrkatalog of the Lindstrom firm
in Berlin-mentioned only the records of that type (OdCon, Parlo-
phone, Homocord) in which the firm itself dealt. Almost at the same
time, Mr. Charles Wolff published, in Paris, his famous catalogue
Disqztes, which reviewed all the recordings sold in France. The author
of this work, in a remarkable preface, announced the advent of a new
d.iscipline-‘mechanical musicology’. Yet, glancing through the pages
of this catalogue, we find that they mention few works that come
within the framework of musicology. True, they contain the names
of symphonies and other complete cyclic works; but most of what we
find there are little extracts, operatic or oratorio arias, or isolated
instrumental movements from single works. Further, the interpreta-
tion of old music is completely arbitrary and presented in the form of
more or less hazardous arrangements. Lastly, the repertoire is not
based on any systematic or historical principles. In short, the musico-
logist’s function is limited to recognizing faijJ accontplis, without his
being able to exert any influence on programmes or interpretation.
The result of this situation was that musicologists became ever
keener on presenting documentation on the history of music, with
authentic interpretations. In Berlin, the great scholar Curt Sachs, who
was my master, took the initiative of issuing, in co-operation with
singke
(singke)
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