'one can hear the far too numerous twiddly bits'

Liszt: Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes S123 

Arthur de Greef, piano &

The Royal Albert Hall Orchestra

 conducted by Landon Ronald

HMV D523 & D528

(Matrix Nos. HO 4573af; Ho4574-2af; HO 4575af & HO 4576-3af)

Wednesday 27th October 1920

FLAC file 16bit [91Mb] or FLAC File 24bit [167Mb]

(If you are not familiar with FLAC I can recommend Foobar2000 player)

I have always had a fondness for Arthur de Greef's playing and don't mind posting something that has been reissued before. A few months ago APR produced a 3CD set of de Greef's recordings that included the 1927 electric remake of the 'Hungarian Fantasia.' This post is partly to supplement and advertise their reissue available here but also to test out an alternative method of making a transfer [more of which below]. I don't think I could add much to the excellent notes by Jonathan Summers for the APR issue that can be had here

The 1927 recording runs to 16m.12s. whereas the acoustic version is faster at 15m. There is in fact plenty of room left on three of the four sides so it was not a case of rushing the performance. The month before the recording de Greef had given a performance at the Proms with Henry Wood and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra on Saturday 11 September 1920.

Wood was contracted to Columbia and De Greef to HMV so there was no way they would have been able to make a recording together. The standard practise was for extended classical works to be issued over several months hence the numerical gap between the record numbers D523, issued in February, 1921, and D528 issued in March. In the May 1921 issue of Musical Times 'Discus' reviewed the records in his Gramophone Notes column :- 

'Another old friend turns up in Liszt's ' Hungarian' Fantasia, with de Greef at the pianoforte, and Landon Ronald and the Albert Hall Orchestra, H.M.V., two d.-s. records. The pianoforte tone is especially well reproduced - so well, in fact, that one can hear the far too numerous twiddly bits with patience. What a long while Liszt is getting under way in this work! One feels inclined to say, with Macbeth, 'Come, fellow, leave thy damnable faces, and begin.' Of these two records the first is the more enjoyable, not because it is a better record, but because the musical interest is on the whole greater. But the pair should be in the cabinet of all who want a particularly good sample of pianoforte-cum orchestra.'

I have taken a somewhat different approach to this transfer than others on the blog, the sound is slightly noisier but I hope it is also a lot clearer and more balanced. This 'new process' is a work very much in progress, so any comments on it would be appreciated. I have the usual version of FLAC file at 44.1Khz 16bit but the 24bit version is better sound a lot better with less surface noise, although the downside is it is almost twice a large.

Even more duplication

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, 'Pathétique'

3. Allegro molto vivace -abridged

The New Symphony Orchestra 

conducted by Landon Ronald

HMV 0757

(Matrix Nos.al5864f)

Saturday 6th January 1912

One Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 21Mb]

I meant to add one more tract to my last post but entirely forgot.

Thought I would also try out Soundcloud to see how it worked and indeed if it worked!  I have however left my usual link to the recoding for download by ye olde tried and tested method as it has probably better fidelity.

Not much to say really other than this is Ronald's first attempt at recording a part of the Symphony. Same orchestra but before the name change a few years later.  This recording lasted an even shorter period in the catalogues that the 1923 'full' version posed a few days ago. HMV decided to re-record the excerpt in 1915 with another attempt under the same issue number. Clearly a much smaller orchestra than the forces used in 1923 but still Ronald and his 'band of merry men' managed to pack a lot in all the same. 

You will hear through this recording a bit of 'rumble' that is prevelent usually when the trombones are playing. I have a feeling that the lower harmonics may have mechanically vibrated the recording machine, either through the floor or to some part of the machine was exposed to their blast - anyway I have left this in the transfer as a sort of curiosity.

Landon Ronald & the New Symphony Orchestra c. 1912

I just love the wording from the October 1912 HMV New Records supplement below. At 19 years of age the work was indeed a 'landmark of modern orchestral music.' I can't think the adjective 'barbaric' would be used today though.

I can't help wondering what the public of 1912 felt about these recordings. Ernest Newman article ‘The Essential Tchaikovsky’ [published in the Contemporary Review, June 1901] succinctly summed up the general opinion a few years early  'It cannot be said that our ordinary musical audiences know Tchaikovsky very well...for the great majority of people Tchaikovsky may be said to be represented by the Sixth Symphony, the '1812' Overture, and the Casse-Noisette Suite - the first earning him the reputation of a hopeless pessimist, the second that of a semi-barbarian, the third that of an adept in graceful trifling.

Barbarian and Tchaikovsky synonymous then.

Yet more duplication

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, 'Pathétique'

1. Allegro non troppo

2. Allegro non grazia

3. Allegro molto vivace

4. Finale, adagio lamentoso

The Royal Albert Hall Orchestra 

conducted by Landon Ronald

HMV D 713-D 717

(Matrix Nos.Cc2463-4; Cc2916-2; Cc2917-2; Cc2918-2; Cc2919-4; 

Cc2920-1; Cc2921-1; Cc2984-2; Cc2985-4 & Cc2986-7)

Side 1 on 30th January 1923 ~ Sides 2,3,4 6 & 7 on 1st May 1923 ~ side 8 on 15th May 1923

 sides 5 & 9 on 29th May 1923 ~  side 10 on 23rd June 1923 : [see chart below]

Zip of 4 Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 99Mb]

Oh no! not another Pathétique I hear you say, and yes it has been done before by others, but as I was doing this for my own selfish interest anyway, I thought I could also bore others with my enthusiasm. It is not quite complete as the two repeats in the second movement and fourteen bars at the end of the final movement are cut, plus a couple of notes of timpani between the third and fourth sides of the first movement.

It might seem curious that Landon Ronald was chosen to conduct the 'Pathétique' rather than Albert Coates the new conductor on the roster of HMV, however Ronald's association with the piece had a long gestation period. In his two autobiographical works he makes several references to the piece and more than did his part in popularising it in the UK.

Ronald began conducting in 1892 but it was really from 1904 that he started to conduct larger orchestral works. His career really took off as a byproduct from Henry Wood and Thomas Beecham's  fall out over the deputy system that was then prevalent with orchestras. Basically a time honoured substitution system that allowed another player to deputise during rehearsals.  Henry Wood sacked the Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1904 because he could no longer tolerate the deputy system, with the member reorganising themselves into the London Symphony Orchestra  Ronald became one of their conductors. The orchestra employed Nikisch and Richter for special concerts with Frederick Cowan, Edward Elgar, Alexander Mackenzie, Max Fiedler, Felix Weingartner Wilhelm Mengelberg, and Ronald taking a half dozen or so concerts each. 

Landon Ronald & Henry Wood, 1909

Beecham at this time was also beginning his path to fame and created his own orchestra, he too fell out with his players and so his New Symphony Orchestra became a self governing orchestra from 1909. Ronald was asked if he would conduct some concerts with this orchestra and found himself conducting both the LSO and the New Symphony Orchestra from 1909. The policy of the LSO was not to have a permanent conductor, Ronald wanted to advance his career and although he never sought any permanent position he was disappointed that the orchestra restricted him to between six and eight Sunday concerts per year. 'Had they had any foresight they would undoubtedly have realised that an ambitious young man like myself would not be content to sit down and take crumbs thrown him by the the Directors of the London Symphony orchestra.' (see Landon Ronald: Myself and others [1931]) So it was that Ronald became the chief conductor of the New Symphony and conducted for forty Sundays each year at the Royal Albert Hall.

The New Symphony had quite an amazing group of players for the time, now alas for the most part all but forgotten; the leader was  John Saunders with his pupil Albert Sammons, deputy leader; Waldo Warner lead the violas; Jean Prewvenners the cellos (until 1911 when succeeded by Warwick Evans); Charles Draper first clarinet; Arthur Forman, first oboe; Aubrey Brain, first horn; Peter Anderson and H. Goddard, trumpets; Eli Hudson first flute and chairman of the orchestra; and F.C. Barker, harp. 

With the series of concerts every Sunday at the Albert Hall with the New Symphony Orchestra Ronald was able to bring his orchestra to HMV and pioneer a number of orchestral recording experiments. This is why this orchestra and a number of its players individually began to be employed by HMV around this time. When the New Symphony Orchestra renamed itself the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra in 1915 Ronald was named as its permanent conductor, a position he held until the orchestra ceased to exist after 1928. Under Ronald it also became the first orchestra in Britain to have a recording contract, naturally enough with The Gramophone Company.

Ronald in 1920

Now why the Pathétique? Well quite simply he played it more often than anyone else between about 1910 and 1920. According to his autobiography Ronald relates 'It had been our custom to give the audience a voting paper during the season, and ask them to place a cross against any particular item which they would care to have performed at the last concert. I always counted the votes most carefully myself, and the program was duly advertised in the papers two or three days before the concert. As a matter of interest I may mention that nearly all the Plebiscite programmes I have conducted in London and the Provinces as a rule contained the same items. The Symphony receiving the greatest number of votes was either Tchaikovsky's Pathétique or Beethoven's No. 5 the Overture chosen was generally Tannhäuser,  Meistersingers or Leonora No. 3, and the two most popular suites were the Casse Noisette of Tchaikovsky and the Peer Gynt of Grieg - The Delibes Suite de Ballet Sylvia running the two very close.'

All of the above compositions were recorded by Ronald and the New Symphony or Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. 

This advert from The Times of 27th April 1919 clearly shows all the other items on the bill were also recorded by Ronald. I presume that these were 'Ronald's' pieces and although quite a number of them were the plums of the concert repertoire it would seem he had first pick not only because of his position in the Gramophone Company but was one of the few conductors prepared to take on the arduous task of recording them.

The recording of such a long piece was fraught with difficulties. Side 1 took four takes on the 30th of January 1923. I have a gut feeling that these four takes, the only waxes  recorded by Ronald and the Orchestra, were all sound tests. They would have worked out various different positions for the players at this session and probably many more takes were cut than the four which were mastered. Only these four proved technically, or at least visually, alright when the waxes were examined before processing. This supposition seems to be born out by the general clear run of recordings on the 1st of May. 

The last movement though proved to be a bit of a problem. The sheer volume of sound produced by trombones, trumpets, horns, timpani etc. not to mention the tuba replacement for double-bass all playing over long sections of the recording must have been just a bit too much for the small recording diaphragm and the wax grooves. HMV were not happy until a 7th take was made on the 23 June 1923 although it appears that they initially passed the 4th take of 29th May that lasted only a month or so before being replaced, it would be quite interesting to hear this take too. The sound scape changes a bit on this last side indicating some form of damping taking place although I have ameliorated this in my transfer.

Anyway for the lunatics like me around the world I have charted the recording session takes with blue = issued and green = initially issued but then withdrawn. Interesting also to note that Tuesday seemed to been the main free day for recording of this orchestra. 

The set was marketed in July 1923 but was effectively replaced by Albert Coates and the 'Symphony Orchestra' (actually the LSO) new electrical recording issued on HMV D1190-1194 in March 1927, Ronald's version still lingered on until June 1927.   

Being topical

Well as topical as one can be about something made and played long ago:-

Landing through my letterbox today was the Spring 2014 edition of Classical Recordings Quarterly. An article on violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956) has prompted me to make a few transfers of her playing. Her late recordings are scarce and I don't think these discs have ever been made available except in their original format.

Marie Hall violin

Sinding: Romance, Op.9

Sinigaglia: Capriccio all'antica, Op.25 No.2

Goossens: Old Chinese Folk Song, Op.4, No.1

Holst: Valse-Etude, H.56

HMV E340  (Bb 4227-1; Bb 4238-3)

HMV E348  (Bb 4236-3; Bb 4237-1)

All recorded on 20 February 1924 with  Marguerite Tilleard, piano excepting the

Sinigaglia which was recorded on the 21st February 1924 with Charlton Reith, piano.

Zip of 4 Flac files , Here at Mediafire. [about 35Mb]

These four pieces must have been part of her repertoire in 1924, coincidentally a recent post on another blog Land of Lost Content transcribes a letter from Marie Hall in which she encourages British music. As is pointed out, the three pieces she played at a Wigmore Hall recital in 1922 have disappeared. The other correspondent, John Ireland no less, suggests several other piece that have subsequently stood the test of time. I wonder if Marie Hall career was leaning towards modern music but unfortunately for her the wrong sort of 'modern' music.

Marie Hall about 1904

What of the pieces, the Sinding and the Sinigaglia were both fairly standard repertoire in their day and do crop up from time to time on record and probably formed part of Hall's concert material. The Goossens was played by Marie Hall on the 19th September 1922 at a concert in Portsmouth, so this too was maybe also in her repertoire. Apparently Goossens researched authentic material from London’s Chinese quarter in Limehouse, I wonder what else he got up to in that quarter of London in his youth. Imogen Holst in her article on recordings of her father Gustav Holst for Recorded Sound (No. 59, 1975 p. 440) noted that ‘The early violin solo, Valse-Etude, was recorded by Marie Hall, the dedicatee, in 1924 (HMV E348), and as she had first performed it in 1903 she would have known his wishes.’ I might add that Marguerite Tilleard was apparently Marie Hall's accompanist from 1902 so would all likelihood have premiered the work with Hall.

Gustav Holst in 1923

These records come from what appear to be Hall’s last recording sessions. Fascinating for they show them juxtaposed with four remakes of La précieuse (Couperin-Kreisler); Humoreske (Dvořák); Minuet in G No. 2 (Beethoven) and Le cygne (Saint-Saëns) made in order to replace sides on HMV E16, E17 & E18. I think the deal may have been to re-record replacement masters and see if there was a market for her newish repertoire. Apparently the new records did not sell very well as E340, issued in May 1924, and E 348. issued in August 1924, were both deleted in December 1925. Only her Humoreske, survived any length of time until finally discarded in 1934. She was not asked back to make electric recording, maybe HMV just had too many already violinists on the books already.

Christian Sinding in 1890

There are only a few contemporary reviews of these discs:

For E340 only 'Discus' gave a review in The Musical Times for June 1924. 'A first-rate violin record is a 12-in. d.-s. of Thibaud in a couple of Granados's Spanish Dances, arranged by Kreisler and the player himself. Less good, because of the poorer quality of the music, is a 12-in. [sic] d.-s. of Marie Hall-Sinding's Romance and Sinigaglia's Catriccio all' antica.'

Leone Sinigaglia

For E348 there are two reviews  'Discus' again The Musical Times for September 1924 'The only violin record received is above the average of interest - Marie Hall playing Holst's 'Valse-Etude' and Goossens's 'Old Chinese Folk- Song' (10-in. d.-s.). The former gives us an unfamiliar aspect of Holst, and an engaging one.  The playing is delightful in freedom and delicacy.  I don't know whether the Goossens piece deals with a genuine Chinese folk-song, or whether it is just the composer's idea of what such a song might be; but  the result - especially in regard to some of the pianoforte harmonies - is excellent.' 

Also Alex Robertson in The Gramophone for August, 1924. 'The names of Goossens and Holst suggest an outburst of modernism, but you need have no fears. Holst's piece is just what its title tells us, and completely unambitious; and Goossens' nice “travelling" tune (pace Walford Davies) never originated in China and is cousin to some of Madame Butterfly. Both pieces are fastidiously and well played.'

Eugene Goossens in 1920

I have included a couple of scans from the HMV Supplements for May, 1924 and August, 1924 too. I just love the statement ‘It was daring of Marie Hall to choose for her records pieces of modern British music whose work is so widely and hotly discussed as is that of Goossens and Holst.’ That the pieces were inked in 1912 and 1903 respectively they may have been just  'daring' enough for the recording executives to take a risk, sales however were poor but at least they tried to extend the taste of a rather conservative record buying public. Also note the issues coincided with more expensive red-label issue of Jacques Thibaud

Three contemporary articles on Marie can be found at the blog Song of the Lark. Well down the page you have to search for it!

 Stradivarius 1709 ex “Viotti-Marie Hall”

Very tenuous Penderecki connection

Now that Christmas is all but over and the sale season is in full spate, I thought an advertising record should be a tasteful blog item.

Saunders Calling 

Parts 1 & 2

Christopher Stone, Ray Noble and his orchestra 

with Alan Saunders

HMV B 23  

[matrix 0B 5193-2 and 0B 5194-2]
Recorded Thursday 23rd November 1933

Mediafire download FLAC [14Mb] or MP3 [10Mb]

The company of J.J.G. Saunders & Son is now no more I fear. In its heyday the firm was the chief suppliers of building, heating, plumbing, glass and ironmongery in the Brighton, Hove and Sussex catchment area.

Ray Noble

They have however left behind a very good record. Saunders' employed one of the best dance bands The New Mayfair Orchestra under its director Ray Noble to supply the music and Christopher Stone, the first British disc jockey among may other things, to act as our host.

Christopher Stone

I believe the musicians in the orchestra at the time of the recording are as follows:

Ray Noble - director

Max Goldberg - trumpet

Alfie Noakes - trumpet

Lew Davis - trombone

Tony Thorpe - trombone

Freddy Gardner  - clarinet/alto-saxophone/baritone-saxophone

Bob Wise - clarinet/alto-saxophone/baritone-saxophone

Harry Berly - clarinet/tenor saxophone/viola

Reginald Pink - clarinet/tenor Saxophone

Eric Siday - violin

Reginald Pursglove - violin

Jean Pougnet - violin

Harry Jacobson - piano

Bert Thomas - guitar

Tiny Winters - string bass

Bill Harty - drums

The playing is really quite brilliant, this is not surprising considering that each of the musicians was very well known or even a star in their own right. Jean Pougnet is probaly the best known to classical collectors, and it is noteworthy that with Harry Berly they played Mozart Sinfonia concertante K 364 in both the 1925 and 1926 London Proms. The clever music arrangements, the incorporation of sound effects, the timing, all without the possibility of editing and then each side only a second take shows how good they really were. I would think that two takes was the limit as the deal with HMV would be something like this: Mayfair orchestra £50: use of studio for a morning and two takes each side £25 and 100 pressings for £50 total £125 – maybe Christopher Stone came free for he may well have been a friend of Alan Saunders.

The HMV 'B' plum label was mainly, but not exclusively, given over to popular repertoire and became the longest running HMV 78 series. Starting with B101 in September 1912 with a final issue B10968 in February 1958, numbers B2 to B47 were utilized for private contracts and in-house requirements. As they were not part of the usual series they had more often than not a yellow label. The present record was made at Abbey Road Studio using the Blumlein recording equipment.

Below is a rather sad photograph of all that is left of this once proud company; I would think the white building to the left was originally the showroom. Today they are up for sale with planning permission for flats so I think they will be gone fairly soon.

Saunders in Brighton
Just love the graffiti 

Ok, Ok, in case you are wondering what this connection with Penderecki is, he just happened to be born the same day this recording was cut  - I did say it was very tenuous - clearly an underhand trick to get people to look at this blog - promise to make a New Years resolution about my deceptive personality.

Acoustic organ music with a twist

Probably the first attempt at recording this famous Widor toccata and the Lemmens too for that matter, but what exactly are we listening to?

Charles-Marie Widor 

Symphony for Organ No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No. 1 -Toccata

Jaak Nikolaas Lemmens

March Tiomphale
[The beginning of this side is very badly worn] 

Frederick John Easthope Martin Organ

HMV C 461

[7000f & 6990f]
Recorded: Friday 17th January 1913

2 Flac file HERE & HERE Mediafire. [13Mb & 10Mb].

Organ music was all but impossible to record under the acoustic process, the bandwidth restriction gave very unsatisfactory results and it was not until the advent of electrical recording in 1925 that the organ became a reality for the gramophone enthusiast.

A few valiant early attempts were however made. On the 17th of January 1913 an 'English Pipe Organ' was either installed in the Hayes recording studioor the recording equipment was transported to the Aeolian Hall in New Bond Street. Fred Gaisberg was in charge of the recording session that day and he may also have enticed Easthope Martin to record. In all, seventeen titles on twenty-one 12" waxes and two 10" were cut from which fourteen were issued. Designated for double-sided issue on plum label records at 4s [20p] each, the first four of these records were issued in April 1913. I luckily have a copy of the original flyer that HMV produced that month, interestingly the organ on the front bears no comparison to what was actually recorded and the two 'unsolicited letters' quoted are possibly due to the forwarding of sample discs prior to formal issue.

Another two records were issued in 1914 but our record had to wait until July/August 1915 to see the light of day.  About a hundred 'new' double-sided records were published in one go and numbered roughly from C 400 to C 500. They seemed to have been an odd collection of previously available single-sided issues and unused masters issued in order to bolster up the main catalogue for 1916, this was published in October 1915 to be ahead of the Christmas market.

I have re-balanced these two sides as much as I dare and although a good amount of rumble is unfortunately still prevalent I hope you are impressed at how much of the low frequencies Fred Gaisberg managed to record. 

Easthope Martin pedalling a Pianola of the Grieg Concerto in 
1912 with Artur Nikisch and the London Symphony Orchestra

The organist for that day was Frederick John Easthope Martin (1882-1925). Born in Stourport, he studied piano, organ, harmony and studied composition with Samuel Coleridge Taylor, at Trinity College London and then joined the Aeolian Company in London as an organist, pianolist and demonstrator. He wrote a number of choral works, songs, piano pieces and chamber works but unfortunately contracted tuberculosis at quite an early age and died aged 42 at Hampstead in London. More information on Easthope Martin can be found Here and Here.

The above picture I think holds the clue to these records. What we hear is not simply Martin playing an organ but that this is an Aeolian pipe organ, and what we are hearing is Martin's interpretation of Aeolian Organ Roll numbers 466 [later renumbered to 51466] and 52. A modern transcription of this roll can be heard on Youtube Here. Having looked over the 1919 edition of the Aeolian Pipe-Organ - Catalog I see all the items recorded by Martin are included and one can only assume that Martin actually recorded most of these Aeolian Rolls in the first place. I have tabulated the roll numbers to the recording session below. 

So what we appear to have on these recordings are Aeolian Rolls, probably recorded by Martin, who then brings them along to the HMV studio and then interprets his own previous recordings. I have not determined if the idea of recording was to promote the Aeolian Pipe-Organ or not. I don't think Aeolian could have been impressed by the sound of these primitive recordings and their name was not applied to the record labels. Gaisberg and indeed HMV maybe thought otherwise and went ahead and pressed the records for sale.

Martin returned to the studios later in 1913 to record a number of piano pieces under a pseudonym, these maybe Pianola recordings. One other facet to dwell on is that Nikisch was quite keen on the pianola and said 'I recognize it as one of the greatest inventions of the century.' Possibly some sort of introduction was facilitated by Martin to Fred Gaisberg and HMV to record orchestral music with Nikisch and the LSO in June 1913?  

Lastly, as I am getting more than a bit completest here, these are the descriptive notes transcribed from the Aeolian Catalog of 1919:-


466  WIDOR: Symphony No. 5 Toccata (Fifth Movement)
Following out the scheme of departing from the conventional order of symphonic movements the composer has chosen a Toccata for his final movement in this interesting symphony. This movement is, in several ways, the most attractive one of the entire work. Its whole course is stamped with buoyant swing—save the very close—and the theme of the Toccata is most spirited. Widor plunges precipitately into the announcement of this theme, voiced in the high treble; then there enters a bass melody that accents the theme woven by the treble. Gradually the bass assumes importance and volume, and finally it is thundered forth. The very close of this movement and of the symphony is a chorale-like version of the Toccata theme.


LEMMONS: March triomphale
With a curtly expressed theme—one of heroic character—this March auspiciously opens. It impresses the quality, hinted at in its title, upon the listener with the very beginning, and this idea is still carried out further by the crisp, sharply defined rhythm and almost defiant character of the succeeding section. The music rises now to a climax, and at the crest of this emotional wave there is trumpeted forth the first section of the March most brilliantly. After this the music grows gradually more subdued, and dies leisurely away, but the initial mood is fully restored by the jubilant chord upon which the work ends.

In the Year of Jubilee

Well I thought I should do my bit for jingoism, being a staunch republican, the European variety that also equates to being a liberal, it is all a bit awkward.

Anyway music should be above such things....we hope...

Stanley Marchant (1883-1939) 
Te Deum laudamus. 
Composed for the King's Silver Jubilee Thanksgiving Service 
at St. Paul's Cathedral on Monday, 6th May 1935.

Choir of St Paul's Cathedral
Dr. Stanley Marchant Organ

HMV C 2752 

[2EA305-2 &2EA306-1]
Recorded: Monday, 6th May 1935

1 Flac  file HERE at Mediafire. [ 21Mb].

As this recording is taken from the actual Thanksgiving Ceremony, and first performance, I have not topped and tailed it. The running order is as follows if you want to skip to the music!

Lord's Prayer [0:02]

Te Deum, [0:58] 

Blessing [6:51]

God save the King [7:09]

Stanley Marchant is not a very familiar name and very little of his music has ever been recorded. I have taken the following biographical information from Grove, although this is more or less culled from the Musical Times obituary notice, extracts of which I have placed within square brackets:-

Stanley Marchant at the St Paul's organ

 'Sir Stanley Marchant, (1883-1949) English church musician, teacher and composer. He won a Goss Scholarship to the RAM, where he took prizes in composition and organ playing [the 'Battison Haynes' Prize for composition, and the 'Robert Newman' prize for organ-playing]. In 1899 he was appointed organist of Kemsing Parish Church. He moved to Christ Church, Newgate Street (1903), and then to St Peter's, Eaton Square (1913). He was made an FRCO (1902) and took the DMus at Oxford (1914). 

 'An association with St Paul's Cathedral had begun in 1903, with his appointment as second assistant [Not many years after this his devoted and loyal friend Sir George Martin, then organist at St Paul's, died, and Charles Macpherson, the sub-organist, took his place. Therefore in 1916 Marchant almost automatically became Sub-Organist and Master of the Choristers at St. Paul's. Then followed a tragedy in the early and lamented death of Macpherson. The Dean and Chapter realizing Marchant's exceptional intimacy with the music of the Cathedral appointed him, the 'Goss Scholar', to add his name to his eminent predecessors: Goss, Stainer, Martin and Macpherson. The grand traditions of St. Paul's were more than maintained by him, and the beautiful choral services were still a model for the world, not to mention those inspiring Lenten Services, when Bach's Passion Music (the St. Matthew or the St. John) was sung with such insight and moving reverence.] , and in 1927 he was made organist at a time when the building was partially closed for restoration.

 'He conducted the reopening ceremony (June 1930) and the thanksgiving service for the silver jubilee of King George V (6 May 1935), composing for each occasion a Te Deum. In 1914 he was appointed a professor at the RAM, where he became warden in 1934 and principal in 1936, relinquishing his post at St Paul's. He was then elected King Edward VII Professor of Music at London University (1937), knighted (1943) and made chairman of the council of the Royal School of Church Music (1947). In addition to anthems, canticles and other liturgical music he composed secular choral pieces, organ works and songs. Marchant's music, the finest of which was inspired by ceremonial occasions at St Paul's, is well crafted, though conservative in idiom, and shows the influence of Stanford and Parry. The choir library at St Paul's holds his complete choral works.'

[To his work as Principal of the R.A.M. he devoted great earnestness and the whole benefit of his long experience and many gifts. Of these gifts one of the most outstanding was his magnetism, which drew out the best from others. This was most apparent in his dealings with colleagues ; he placed implicit trust in them, and their trust in him never faltered, nor was ever misplaced. During this happy time many knotty problems were solved and 'concert pitch' was soon arrived at without friction or disturbance. It is very difficult to write of Sir Stanley and his life's work without exaggeration, for he had, in a quiet way, great powers of administration coupled with a most attractive personality. It was fine to see his wrath on occasions of injustice, or of conceited inefficiency-these brought his temper to the boiling point ! But, to my mind, his finest trait was his unyielding determination, and the heroic silence with which he bore for years the most crippling attacks of arthritis. Though it was a heavy handicap, no one ever heard him complain. However, all is not lost, for he has left his indelible mark on his Alma Mater which future generations will do well to try and emulate].

Probably this very 'conservatism' has done for him.

St Paul's Jubilee Service 6th May 1935

The Te Deum came at the closing of the Jubilee service held for George V and is the last of a set of three records that HMV issued of the event. HMV would have arranged with the BBC to record the service from their land-lines but before the BBC commentary was overlaid and broadcast to the Empire. In order to make a commercial issue the recording engineer first recorded the service on several recording machines which overlapped from one side to another. These would then be pressed and the sections that they wished to be issued were then dubbed on to new matrices.  This was all a bit tricky but by 1935 they had become quite adept at producing good results.

As can be seen above, a rather pretty 'sunburst' label was issued for the HMV Jubilee records. The company also produced a number of similar labelled issues - quite a few of which I seem to have, clearly succumbing to the royal influence -below are the pages from the 1938-39 HMV catalogue that list the rather odd celebratory material. 

My post title by the way comes from In the Year of Jubilee, a novel by George Gissing, well worth reading.