The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-08-01
MAKING RECORDS
OF LOCAL MUSIC
COLUMBIA ExrnRT HERE TO
sBCURR MUSIC OF
HAWAII NEI.

languages u an exact science.
Harry Marker, one Of the experts Of
the Columbia Phonogrsph Company has
been in Honolulu for week or ten
days making records of songs by the
best singers and musicians in Hawaii.
He had been in correspondence with
Manager Bergstrom Of the Honolulu
Music Company, for some time but his
visit was delayed for several weeks
owing to the absence Of the Kaai Glee
Club in Australia. Arriving here be.
fore the club returned arrangements
were made with glee clubs in different
parts of the city and several excellent
records made. Then Mrs. Alapai and
Henry Clark were secured to sing duets
among them "The Old Plantation"
When the Zealandia arrived last week
with Kaai and his party an arrange
ment was at once made with them and
real work with these excellent musi.
clans begun. About one hundred rec
ords have been made by Mr.. Marker
since he arrived and he expresses him.
self satisfied with-the result. A report
er for The Advertiser visited the re-
pair rooms of the Honolulu Music Com
pany, ON Alakea street, used by Mar
ker as a laboratory, to listen to the
music as the records were made on ethe
other side of the screen. There was as
much attention given the placing of the
singers so as to attain the best result
as if it had been rehearsal for grand
opera.
If at First You Don't Succeed
A test record had been made but it
was not satisfactory The effect was
not what was desired.
g Now Mr.. Kaai, | want you to get
your baritone singer back little from
the horn and have Miss Kaai keep
down her notes in the chorus,n said
Mr.. Marker much after the manner of
an impresario. 81 realize that the
lady is controlled by the high notes of
the boys in the chorus but her voice
does not sound as sweet and round as
in the solo and for that reason want
her to sing the chorus just as she does
when he sings alone"
Then there was another trial, the
soloist singing in front of moderate
size horn while the chorus sent their
notes through an immense one. And
while the club was singing the man di-
recting the operation would occasional
ly come into the open and watch the
effect.
Wants ''The Best Ever
He impressed the singers with the
Importance Of having everything as it
should be. "These records are to be
the best ever, " he said to Kaai, "and
we can get the desired result only by
keeping the notes well together and none
high enough to destroy the harmony of
the others. You all know what Hawai-
ian records have been in the past and
we must improve on them or there will
be no demand. Once more we viii have
that chorus and l want you to listen
to it from my side of the screen. Note
the pukas in there" and he requisi-
toned magnifying glass for the pur-
| pose of bringing out the defects cit IS
pretty good for try but l don t like
the pukas. And so it went through
the morning and then again in the af-
ternoon and the next day until the high
est standard of record making was at
tanned
Mr. Marker has been with his com
pany for ten years. He is the special
envoy to all foreign countries and has
made records of all of the live and half
the dead languages.
Real Note Collector.
am on the trip from six months
| to three years" he said as he closed
shop and dismissed the singers. ~
! have been as long as fourteen months
In one city in China for there is a great
demand for Chinese records in the Uni.
ted States as well as in China and /
have been happy in getting number
OF good ones. | am making a second
trip into FIJI, China, the Straits Settle
ments, Java and India and dear only
knows when will get home. The com
pany's factory is at Bridgeport and
twenty-five hundred men are steadily
j employed making records. Great secre
cy IS maintained in the manufacture
OF the records. And observe the com.
pany's rules in that respect when am
ON the road. For instance: Because
the recording machine or instrument
Is not patented we positively refuse tc
allow persons to go behind the scree1
and make notes of the mechanism. The
Victor people have the same rules
practically, governing their Laboratory
and no one, who has not been in III
employ for five years. has ever been al
lowed to see the records made. The
materials used in the making of a rec
ord are known but the machine thai
makes them is not. All of the ma,
chinery j use here is my own property
and my own invention. When / am
not on the road am experimenting in
an effort to improve it,
Improve on Edison.
The original photograph of Edison
differs in several respects from those
In use today. When the Edison wa
exhibited in the '70s there WAS no per
manent record aud only crude record
en- The "Talking maehineO was used
only for exhibition purposes aud wal
not considered an article OF commerce
The operator would place piece Of til
foil around a metal cylinder aud tall
into a horn ~ DO turned q erauk. Whel
be had reached the end Of the tn FOL
be- would turn back nnd TIE remarks
made would be repeated n saa d euh
1slffJ nothing moro nnd tie record
fuIfd n1l ~ uaaH 4ffafa fNffI nv. A..