In the history of sound recording, the years from 1896 to 1926 mark the transformation of a carnival toy into a serious means of musical reproduction. This work documents for the first time an index of this transformation: the expansion of the repertoire from the marches and potpourris of the 1890s to the symphonic recordings of the late acoustical period. The data assembled bring together and organize materials that have lain scattered in archives, private collections, catalogues, trade journals, and in the research of more than three dozen discographers to provide as complete a survey of classical and light classical orchestral music recorded acoustically on cylinders and discs as sources allow.
In this work, band records are excluded (except in the case of works originally written for winds). Where it is known and where it is pertinent to the recordings, biographical information about conductors and historical information about orchestras are added, as are all available discographic data, including reissues. The work is fully indexed. Of interest to historians and students, private collectors, archivists, and discographers.