# Gramophone Company

The Gramophone Company Limited was a British phonograph manufacturer and record label, founded in April 1898 by Emil Berliner. It was one of the earliest record labels.
The company purchased the His Master's Voice painting and trademark rights in 1899, using its artwork and creating the His Master's Voice sub-label for its phonographs and releases in 1909, replacing its previous "Recording Angel" trademark. The company had an affiliation with the American Victor Talking Machine Company, who also began using the artwork.
In 1931, The Gramophone Company partnered with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI). The Gramophone Company continued as one of EMI's music labels until 1973, when its legal entity was renamed to EMI Records Limited. The His Master's Voice label continued until 1993, when it was replaced by EMI Classics.

## History

The Gramophone Company was founded in April 1898 by William Barry Owen and Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams, commissioned by Emil Berliner, in London.
Owen was acting as agent for Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone record, whilst Williams provided the finances. Most of the company's early discs were made in Hanover, Germany at a plant operated by members of Berliner's family, though it had operations around the world.
In 1898, Fred Gaisberg moved from the U.S. to London to set up the first disc recording studio in Europe; it was situated in Maiden Lane. Among early artists he recorded was Syria Lamont, an Australian soprano whose single "Coming through the Rye" was one of the first ever issued. In December 1900, Owen gained the manufacturing rights for the Lambert Typewriter Company, and the Gramophone Company was for a few years renamed the Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. This was an attempt to diversify the business model, in response to a series of lawsuits by Edison Bell.

### Lawsuits

The Berliner Gramophone Company was hit the hardest with a lawsuit that involved a former employee, Frank Seaman. Berliner had hired Seaman, part of The National Gramophone Company, to handle the distribution of record players and disk as an exclusive sales agent. In secret, he started producing a product inferior to the Gramophone, which he called the Zonophone and began solely marketing that instead of the gramophone. Berliner cancelled his contract with The National Gramophone Company, and in turn was sued for breach of contract.
In 1900, the U.S. parent of Gramophone lost a patent infringement suit brought on by Columbia Records and Zonophone, and was no longer permitted to produce records in the U.S.
The agreement allowed Columbia to produce disc records themselves in the United States, which they began doing in 1901, with the UK Gramophone Company and others continuing to do so outside of the US. Emile Berliner established Berliner Gramophone in Montreal, where he became Victor's Canadian distributor and held the rights in Canada to the "His Master's Voice" trademark.

### His Master's Voice

While the general public in the UK came to refer to the records and company as "His Master's Voice" because of the prominence of the phrase on the record labels, The Gramophone Company was never officially incorporated as His Master's Voice. The painting "His Master's Voice" was made in the 1890s with the dog Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph.
In 1899, Owen bought the painting from Francis Barraud, the artist, and asked him to paint out the Edison machine and substitute a Gramophone, which he did. In 1900, Emile Berliner acquired the US rights to the painting and it became the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901; the UK rights were retained by the Gramophone Company. Victor utilized the Nipper trademark far more aggressively than the Gramophone Company, first using it on their record labels in 1902.
In February 1909, the Gramophone Company introduced new labels featuring the famous trademark known as "His Master's Voice", generally referred to in the UK as HMV, to distinguish them from earlier labels which featured the Recording Angel trademark. The latter had been designed by Theodore Birnbaum, an executive of the Gramophone Company pressing plant in Hanover, Germany.

### Recording studios

In the mid-1920s, company chairman Trevor Osmond Williams approved funding for the company to secure property and build a recording studio, putting F. H. Dart from the company's technical recording department in charge of the project. Number 3 Abbey Road was acquired in 1929 and, after nearly 2 years of extensive renovations, the 3-studio facility that would come to be known as EMI Recording Studios (and eventually Abbey Road Studios) opened on 12 November 1931.

### Formation of EMI

In March 1931, Gramophone merged with the English Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). The "Gramophone Company, Ltd." name, however, continued to be used for many decades, especially for copyright notices on records.
From the 1930s onwards, HMV manufactured radio and television sets and radiograms under the HMV and Marconiphone brand names in its factory in Hayes, Middlesex.
Gramophone Company of India was formed in 1946. The Gramophone Company Ltd legal entity was renamed EMI Records Ltd. in 1973. After EMI was acquired by Universal Music, the company was renamed to Parlophone Records Ltd. and taken over by Warner Music.

## Acoustic recordings

From the 1890s to mid-1925, recordings were made without any electrical equipment, relying instead upon the energy inherent in the sound waves generated by the performers, to activate the recording apparatus.
| Matrix number | Catalog number | Year recorded | Year reviewed | Composer | Work | Artist(s) | Notes |
| 05672; Cc 344-1 | D 576 | 1921 | | Bach | Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848 | Scharrer, Irene | |
| 3-0826 cc1935 III; 3-0827 cc1936 II; 3-0828 cc1937 II | D 683,4 | 1922-10-05 | 1923 | Bach | Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048, G major | Goossens, Eugène; Royal Albert Hall Orchestra | |
| 2-07920 A15560; 2-07918 A15561; 2-01922 A15562 | DB 587; DB 588 | 1915 | | Bach | Concerto for two violins, BWV 1043, D minor | Zimbalist, Efrem (violin), Kreisler, Fritz, 1875-1962 (violin), String Quartet (orchestra) | |
| Cc 1299-1. Cc 2909-1. Cc 2910-4. Cc 2911-4. Cc 2912-4. Cc 2913-3. Cc 2914-4 | D 947-950 | 1923-06-18 | | Beethoven | Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1 | Catterall Quartet | https://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music/Beethoven/026M-1CL0072526XX-0100V0 |
| Cc 3119; Cc 3120; Cc 4545; Cc 4546; Cc 4547; Cc4548 | D 997-999 | 1924-05-06 | | Beethoven | Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1 | Catterall Quartet | https://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music/Beethoven/026M-1CL0029893XX-0100V0 |
| Cc4550, Cc4614 through Cc4617, and Cc4690 through Cc4692 | HMV D 953 through D 956 | 1924-06 | | Beethoven | Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 ("Rasumovsky") | Virtuoso String Quartet: Marjorie Hayward, violin I Edwin Virgo, violin II Raymond Jeremy, viola Cedric Sharpe. cello | |
| HO2732af | | 1917-07 | | Beethoven | Trio, piano, strings, op.1. no.2 (presto) | Hambourg, Mark, 1879-1960 (piano), Hayward, Marjorie, 1885-1953 (violin), Warwick-Evans, C (cello) | |
| 3-07975 cc3392 I; 3-07976 cc3398 II; 3-07977 cc3399 II; 3-07978 cc3400 III; 3-07979 cc3401 II; 3-07980 cc3406 II; 3-07981 cc3407 II; 3-07982 cc3408 III; 3-07983 cc3413 II; 3-07984 cc3414 II | D 767; D768; D769; D770; D771 | 1923-09 | | Beethoven | Violin Concerto op 61, D major | Menges, Isolde (violin), Royal Albert Hall Orchestra (orchestra); Ronald, Sir Landon | |
| 05694 cc1182 I; 05695 cc1183 I; 05696 cc1184 III; 05697 cc1185 IV; 05698 cc1186 II; 05699 cc1187 I; 05700 cc1188 II; 05701 cc1189 IV; 05702 cc1190 III; 05703 cc1191 II | D 625; D 626; D 627; D 628; D 629 | 1922-04 | | Beethoven | Piano Concerto 5, op 73, E flat major | Lamond, Frederic (piano), Royal Albert Hall Orchestra (orchestra); Goossens, Eugène | |
| 3-0798 cc1812 IV; 3-0799 cc1813 III; 3-0800 cc1814 IV; 3-0801 cc1815 I; 3-0802 cc1948 II; 3-0803 cc1949 I; 3-0804 cc2017 I; 3-0805 cc1950 II | D 665; D 666; D 667; D 668 | 1922-09-12 | | Beethoven | Symphony no. 5, op 67, C minor | Royal Albert Hall Orchestra; Ronald, Sir Landon | |
| 4-0511 cc3655 III; 4-0512 cc3696 IV; 4-0513 cc3704 I; 4-0514 cc3705 II; 4-0515 cc3706 III; 4-0516 cc3707 III; 4-0517 cc3708; 4-0518 cc3735; 4-0519 cc3736 I; 4-0520 cc3737; 4-0521 cc3738 III; 4-0522 cc3813 II; 4-0528 cc3814 II; 4-0524 cc3815 III; 4-0525 cc3816 II; 4-0526 cc3817 IV | D 842; D 843; D 844; D 845; D 846; D 847; D 848; D 849 | 1923-10 | | Beethoven | Symphony no. 9, op 125, D minor | Symphony Orchestra; Coates, Albert | |
| HO 2231 af | 05629 | 1916-10 | | Chopin | Nocturne in C minor Op 48 No 1 abridged | Scharrer, Irene | |
| Bb 536-1; | E 255 | 1921-10 | | Chopin | Prelude in F sharp minor Op 28 No 8 | Scharrer, Irene | |
| 4-2781 HO_2862_ab | E 78 | 1914-06 | | Mozart | Zauberflöte: O Isis | Radford, Robert | |
| HO 4536-2 af [p | D 543 | 1920-09 | | Scarlatti | Sonata in G majorL387 (Kk14) | Scharrer, Irene | |