Explanations on the arrangement of data in the discography
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Explanations on the arrangement of data in the discography.docx
The gramophone labels are arranged chronologically in the discography. All data found that was not listed on the record labels is placed in square brackets in the discography. Data that we were unable to find is marked in the table with the symbol ???. If the recording did not have an author of music, author of lyrics, performer of vocals or musical accompaniment, the symbol xxx is indicated in the relevant cells. False or erroneous data on the label is indicated in the discography in strikethrough with a possible explanation in the column reserved for notes (e.g. Dr. Janko Blaho*; Note: *Instrumental songs without vocals.).
Data on non-commercial Pathé records with handwritten labels containing only very brief information, which were created in 1929 during the recording of folklore by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and Arts in Prague, were taken from the record registration cards stored in the French National Library.
The discographic data of recordings are sorted into 14 columns in the table. The first column lists the name of the gramophone label. Since some labels underwent minor changes in the name of their trademark during their existence and individual re-presses were released with labels of both the original and new names, these different variants of the label name are not distinguished in the discography. Specifically, the Odeon label lists records that were released with both the Odeon and Odeon Record labels, the Columbia label lists also Columbia Record records, and the Victor label covers records with the Victor, Victor Record, and RCA Victor labels.
The second column lists the order numbers of the gramophone records. Most records are double-sided (single-sided records are marked with the abbreviation [1-s]), so two consecutive rows correspond to one gramophone record. Most gramophone companies used one order number for both sides (however, this was not a rule), so in the vast majority these order numbers are always the same in two consecutive rows. Some companies used catalogue and incremental numbers in addition to order numbers. These are given in brackets after the order number. Many order numbers were supplemented with prefixes and suffixes. So that some prefixes (indicating, for example, the price category) did not affect the sequence of order numbers when creating different sets, these were moved after the order number (for example, for the Esta label, the order number form b 9211 was written as 9211 b). Other prefixes, such as those indicating complete series of order numbers that do not affect the ascending order of the numbers (e.g. Columbia E 689), have been retained in their original form. It should be emphasized that not all companies used the ascending order number format, for example, the seemingly complicated order series system was introduced after 1929 by the Homophon Company for its Homocord label (see also).
Occasionally, some re-pressings of records were re-pressed with a changed prefix or suffix. Where we have been able to map these releases, this other changed order number format is also given in square brackets after the order number (e.g. for the Esta 9101 [also 9101 b]). This second column also encodes the sizes of individual gramophone records – where no information is given in square brackets after the order number, this is the standard size of a shellac record with a diameter of 25 cm (10 inches). In other cases, when the sizes of the records differ from these standard ones, their sizes are given in square brackets after the order number in English measurements – for example [7"] or [12"].
The third column lists the matrix numbers of sound recordings – i.e. a kind of "birth numbers" that the recording company assigned to each newly created recording. If the recording was reissued on a different gramophone label, the abbreviation of the recording company or the original gramophone label of the record on which they first appeared is given in brackets.
The fourth column lists the year of release of the gramophone record. In case of uncertainty in the time data, the time range in which the recording was released is indicated (e.g. 1926-30). Sometimes this time range is supplemented by our assumption about the release date, which is not sufficiently verified by available sources, which is indicated in bold within the given time range (e.g. 1930-37). Most records were pressed repeatedly on the same label with a greater or lesser time interval, but we do not address the years of release of these re-presses in our discography.
The fifth column is intended for the names of recordings, which are always quoted in authentic form directly from the record labels (or catalogs), i.e. even with distortions, typos or grammatical errors. Sometimes it happened that the title of the recording changed on individual re-presses or re-issues, in which case the original (or changed) title is given in square brackets in the form O tebe na fronte [= Čuj našu slovenskú pieseň] or. Čuj našu slovenskú pieseň [= O tebe na fronte]. It was problematic to authentically state the titles of the records released in the USA, which (in addition to being almost always garbled) were given on individual pressings once in capitals (POD TÝM NAŠÍM OKENEČKOM), a second time with English capitalization rules (Pod Tým Naším Okenečkom) and another time with Slovak capitalization rules (Pod tým naším okenečkom). The sixth column contains the subtitle or characteristics of the composition, also quoted in authentic form from the label. Where this information was missing, we stated the characteristics of the composition in square brackets, for example [Komický výstup].
The seventh, eighth and ninth columns contain information about the authors of the music, lyrics and performers of the songs. Again, the names are given as they were printed on the labels. The only change is that the names given in capitals were rewritten in the traditional text form and abbreviations of names were supplemented with full forms (e.g., we gave the name Š. Hoza as Štefan Hoza). The primary criterion when giving two or more authors (performers) was the exact description of the label; if this data was taken from catalogs, we wrote the names separated by a comma and the last name was always given with a hyphen and (e.g., Ľudovít Válka and Otto Kaušitz). For various pseudonyms and aliases, the artist's real name was given in square brackets, and other missing parts of the full name on the label were also given in square brackets, for example, Otto Ivančan [= Otto Kaušitz], Teo Martinský [= Teodor Šebo-Martinský] or [Mikuláš] Schneider-Trnavský. The exception was established abbreviated stage names or pseudonyms under which the artist performed throughout his musical career (e.g. R.A. Dvorský, S.E. Nováček, Harry Harden, Harry Osten), for which we did not complete the missing parts of the names and the real names, although they are publicly known (Rudolf Antonín Dvorský, Blahoslav Eman Nováček, David Stoljarovič, Sigfried Grzyb). If the artist was listed under different names on various found reprints, we indicated this in square brackets with the conjunction also, for example Štefan Hornadský [also Štefan Hoza].
For many songs, the name of the arranger also appeared on the label (sometimes under the name of instrumentation), or the name of the composer in whose arrangement the song was recorded. This information is indicated in column seven after the author of the song with the abbreviations instr. and arr., for example Alexander Aranyos; instr. F.A. Tichý or Gejza Dusík; arr. Michal Knechtsberger. When this role was not listed on the label, the information is in square brackets, e.g. Gejza Dusík [arr. Ady Hellman]. Sometimes the label incorrectly indicates the artist as the author of the composition (especially in the case of arrangements of folk songs), in which case the entry looks like this: František Babušek [arr.].
All the above rules also apply to the tenth column, intended for instrumentalists and musical groups that contributed to the recording for musical accompaniment. Various forms of general information such as „v sprievode orchestra“, „s doprovodom orchestra“, „so sprievodom orkestry“ prípadne „so doprovodom orčestra“, alebo „na klavíri hrá“ and the like were unified into uniform phrases: so sprievodom orchestra, so sprievodom klavíra, so sprievodom cigánskeho orchestra, or so sprievodom hudby and the like. When presenting the specific names of instrumentalists and the names of orchestras and musical groups, we again adhered to the principle of authentic transcription of data from labels (or catalogues), e.g. R. A. Dvorský a jeho Melody Boys, Cigánska kapela Jožka Pihíka či František Maxián – klavír, while minor grammatical deviations such as „cigáňska“ or „so svojim orchestrom“ were replaced with the correct forms of cigánska resp. so svojím orchestrom. Information about the musical accompaniment that was missing from the labels is again given in square brackets. The role of conductors or leaders of the ensembles is indicated in abbreviated form (dir., ved. and the like) and is given after the musical group, e.g. Hudba 5. pěšího pluku T.G. Masaryk; dir. Jan Uhlíř.
The eleventh column lists further editions of recordings. The entry always consists of the abbreviation of the gramophone label and the order number of the record on which the recording is released, for example the entry Vi V-22040-B; Bb B-2779-B; HMV AM 2945 reveals that the recording, in addition to the label listed in the first column of the table, was also released on a Victor record with order number V-22040-B, on a Bluebird record with order number B-2779-B and also on a "His Master's Voice" record with order number AM 2945.
As already mentioned, foreign recordings (mostly Czech) that were on the second sides of records with a Slovak recording also made it into the discography. This fact is marked in the Notes column. Even for these foreign recordings, entries about other releases are listed, but you would search for them in the discography in vain, since they are not the subject of our interest. It often happened that an instrumental recording was intended for multiple marketing markets. For example, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a gypsy band recorded a czardasze, which the record company released for the Hungarian market under Hungarian titles, but from the same matrices pressed records for the Slovak market with Slovak titles of these titles. In such cases, nothing is stated in the note, but in the column of other releases, it is stated in brackets after the record code for which non-Slovak market this record was released, and therefore you will no longer find it in our discography. For example, the entry Vi V-22090-A; Vi V-22167-A; Vi V-11063-A (Hungarian) informs that the given recording was also released on Victor records with order numbers V-22090-A and V-22167-A (with Slovak labels), but also with order number V-11063-A with a Hungarian-written label for the Hungarian market. It is understandable that while the records with numbers V-22090 and V-22167 are also included in our discography, the record with number V-11063 will not be found here, as it belongs to the discography of Hungarian recordings.
Inspired by Spottswood's discography Ethnic Music on Records and Zelenay's Approximate List of Songs of Slovak Popular Music, we initially began to include references to various compilations containing these original recordings from our discography in the column of other releases, with a view to ensuring satisfactory availability of the original media that may have been destroyed in the meantime for the eventual intention of later building any central Slovak Audio Sound Library. In the end, however, we discovered that there are many times more of these compilations than we originally assumed, and their comprehensive incorporation into the discography would have harmed it more than helped it in terms of clarity. However, since it seemed irrational to us to laboriously delete the amount of incorporated data again, we decided to keep this data in the discography. The esteemed reader can find a list of these selected compilations below this text.
The other three columns (12th, 13th and 14th) are reserved for notes, date and place of recording of the given image. The dates are written in inverse form (1936-01-28) so that they can be sorted ascending (or descending) in the case of creating arbitrary sets. Where we were unable to determine the exact date of recording, the missing parts of the date are supplemented with zeros (e.g. 1930-06-00, 1930-00-00), where we were not even sure of the year, question marks are used (e.g. 1930-00-??) or. a time range in the form 1930-??-1933. We left the cells for undetected recording places blank.
