CHARM (Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music), from Kings College (London, UK) offers a lot of material and, as is often the case, the best way to get to know it is by visiting the site. In our experience, many databases are available from only a specific location (example: a country). With CHARM, however, we were able to search, find, and listen to recordings online from this UK database in the U.S.A.
At least this was the case on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 22:15 GMT, from Washington D.C. Let us know if you have problems. (Shirl's note: It also works from St. Petersburg, FL.)
Before two record companies merged to form EMI in the 1930s, local UK-based artists formed the backbone of their catalogues – but after the merger many of them were dropped to make way for more lucrative international musicians.
Now over 2000 [the site itself notes 5,000] recordings by those British and Irish artists are online in an open JISC-funded archive at King’s College London - allowing listeners and researchers to rediscover leading musicians who were once household names.
[The CHARM project has been around since 2004 but when we came across the JISC announcement and then searched and listened to several recordings, we checked and noticed we never mentioned this great resource of ResourceShelf. Enjoy!]
Most of the recordings are making their first public appearance since they came out on shellac over 60 years ago and are linked to a range of research resources about the history of recording to help people make the most of the collection.
The discs were selected specifically to highlight world-class British and Irish performers recorded between 1900 and 1950, especially artists neglected by the newly-formed EMI after the merger of the Gramophone Co and Columbia in 1931.
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Distinguished author and critic John Steane of Gramophone magazine joined the team to curate the recordings, which are now available for free streaming as MP3s or for high quality download.
Almost 5000 sound files are available via the Find Sound Files facility.
All sound files are transferred from 78rpm discs held by the King's Sound Archive at King's College London, under the CHARM transfer project and the subsequent JISC-funded 'Musicians of Britain and Ireland, 1900-1950'.
Apart from a special focus on Schubert songs, the CHARM transfers aimed to cover a broad range of performers in Classical repertoire, avoiding where possible tracks that were already widely available in CD or online reissues. ‘Musicians of Britain and Ireland’ focused on performers who recorded mainly in those countries and whose work fell out of the catalogues following the creation of EMI in 1931.
[Clip]
The sound files use the lossless FLAC format, which can be played with Winamp, Songbird and numerous other media players.
Also Available:
+ Records on the Radio provides a collection of BBC radio scripts from record choice programmes broadcast in the 1930s and 40s, together with the original sound illustrations.
+ House Conductors, by David Patmore, provides biographies and selected recordings of some of the conductors who worked for the major record companies as 'house conductors', c. 1910-35.
+ Cortot discoveries introduces recently discovered recordings by the great French pianist and offers guidance on how to search for more.
+ CHARM and the King's College Archive reproduces an article from Classic Record Collector in which David Patmore interviews Andrew Hallifax about his work as the CHARM transfer engineer.
What's Available with Each File:
+ Stream Online
+ Download in FLAC Format
+ Download the Complete Composition (vs. Listening One File at a Time)
+ View the Label of the Actual Recording
+ View the Full Metadata
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