Early Polyphon recordings from the SLUB - Free Audiobook

Early Polyphon recordings from the SLUB

The SLUB (Sächsische Landes- und Universitäts-Bibliothek in Dresden) was one of the first institutions, who made up a public sound archive on the internet with shellack recordings. As the digitalization began early, there are some parameter which do not reach the standard of archive.org. All recordings are only given as MP3 with 160 kB/s, not all can be heard in full lenght, and the pictures of the labels are often poor. But – they have a lot of rare records which can not be found elsewhere in the web. Everyone can listen to the records on the SLUB website and download them.

In 2016 I have looked through the whole cartalogue of SLUB and have downloaded a few thousand recordings. They all are public domain. I present here on my archive.org-account some recordings I have collected from SLUB – with the original SLUB numbers and photos, but sometimes with my own discographical annotations and tags. You are free to explore the website of SLUB for yourself:

[http://mediathek.slub-dresden.de](http://mediathek.slub-dresden.de)/  (go to: Archiv der Stimmen)

The record maker Polyphon started in late 1904 in Leipzig, where the first recordings were made mostly with artists from the Leipzig opera on single sided metal discs covered with red celluloid of which not many have survived. They were technical rather good.

I have changed all records from the SLUB in this playlist from 160 kB/s MP3 files (mostly mono) to (compressed Stereo-) wav-files so that they are easier to handle and listen to. They are also normalized to a volume of 92% maximum.

Early Polyphon recordings from the SLUB

01. Fünfmalhunderttausend Teufel (Graben-Hoffmann), Robert BIBERTI – Bass, Matrix 56

02. Undine: An des Rheines grünen Ufern (Lortzing), Walter SOOMER – Bariton, Matrix 145

03. Der Hidalgo (Schumann), Alfred KASE – Bariton, Matrix 205

04. Der Bajazzo: Prolog (Leoncavallo), Alfred KASE – Bariton, Matrix 209

05. Der Kuss (Beethoven), Gustav BORCHERS – Bariton, Matrix Nr. 226

06. Hoffmanns Erzählungen: Couplets d’Automate (Offenbach), Carlotta ROEDER – Sopran. Matrix 300

07. Der Bajazzo: Ballatella (Leoncavallo), Carlotta ROEDER – Sopran. Matrix 304

08. Gretchen am Spinnrade (Schubert), Carlotta ROEDER – Sopran. Matrix 324

09. Der Neugierige (Schubert), Hans SCHÜTZ – Bariton, Matrix 380

10. Rigoletto: O, ihr Edlen (Verdi), Hans SCHÜTZ – Bariton, Matrix 380

11. Französische Gesänge für Bass (P. Hendrion), Robert BIBERTI – Bass, Matrix 440

12. Der Bergmann (Emil Neumann), Carl NEBE – Bass, Matrix 572

These first 12 records in this list are single sided and recorded about 1904 – 1906. As the early Polyphons were recorded with about 70 rpm. I have transposed these 12 recordings 10% down, from 78 to about 70 rpm.

The following records are from later years (ca. 1907-1914) and are not transposed. They are all double sided.

13. Don Giovanni: Horch auf den Klang der Zither (Mozart), Walter SOOMER – Bariton, Matrix 3386

14. Das Nachtlager von Granada: Ein Schütz bin ich (Kreutzer), Walter SOOMER – Bariton, Matrix 3389

15. Wilhelm Tell: Gebet (Rossini), Walter SOOMER – Bariton, Matrix 21182, Record Number 12377

16. Der Bajazzo: Heute fällt mein Geschick (Leoncavallo), Walter SOOMER – Bariton, Matrix 21190, Record Number 12377

17. Maskenball: Lass ab mit Fragen (Verdi), Minnie NAST – Sopran, Matrix 3750, Record Number 2347

18. Boheme: Wo ich selig von Glück (Puccini), Minnie NAST – Sopran, Matrix 3750, Record Number 2347

19. Morgen gehen wir für unsere Brüder (Schwerin), W. GRAVE – Gesang, Matrix 21294, Record Number 16268

20. Extrablätter: Die Taube (W. Kollo), Margarete WIEDECKE – Gesang, W. GRAVE – Gesang, Matrix 21297, Record Number 16268

21. Lohengrin: Königsgebet (Wagner), Arthur PACYNA – Bass, Specialophon Record 357 (Most probably Sublabel of Polyphon, unknown matrix number, rec. ca. 1911)

22. Faust: Ständchen des Mephisto (Gounod), Arthur PACYNA – Bass, Specialophon Record 358 (Most probably Sublabel of Polyphon, unknown matrix number, rec. ca. 1911)

The picture here gives a backside of a single sided early Polyphon record.

The label pictures with the original SLUB register number can be seen in my photo gallery.“Historical pictures“

Go to: [https://archive.org/details/fon-snp-b-035144](https://archive.org/details/fon-snp-b-035144)