Music recorded in June 1898
In June 1898, the Spanish–American War entered full-scale operations on the island of Cuba, with the Battle of Guantánamo Bay on June 10, 1898, the Landings at Daiquirí and Siboney on June 22, 1898, and the Battle of Las Guasimas on June 24, 1898. In East Asia, the Guangxu Emperor (1871–1908) of the Qing dynasty initiated the Hundred Days' Reform on June 11, 1898, and institutional reforms were rapidly implemented. In Southeast Asia, Emilio Aguinaldo (1869–1964) issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898, marking a turning point in colonial rule. In North America, Canada established the Yukon Territory on June 13, 1898, establishing an administrative system following the Klondike Gold Rush. In Europe, the Royal Army Medical Corps was established on June 23, 1898, as part of a reorganization of the British Army's medical system. In the scientific community, the Royal Society continued to report on research into noble gases, and William Ramsay (1852–1916) and Morris Travers (1872–1961) published papers demonstrating the existence of new elements.
Confirmed recordings this month: 0
Summary of information on recordings made in June 1898
Tracing the recording and gramophone culture of June 1898 through contemporary materials reveals catalogs by Gianni Bettini (1860–1938), who was active in New York, and the corresponding issue of Phonoscope, a magazine covering the gramophone industry. The Spanish–American War was also in progress that month, and later archives have organized a category of cylinder recordings related to the war. 1898 was also a time when the disc recording business associated with Emile Berliner (1851–1929) expanded internationally, and a market in which both cylindrical and disc recordings coexisted became visible.
Bettini's June 1898 catalogue
The June 1898 edition of the Bettini Record Catalog lists recordings by purpose and genre, and includes the names of famous people and performers, such as Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), Yvette Guilbert (1865–1944), Paul Plançon (1851–1914), and Emilio de Gogorza (1872–1949). This is an important primary source that directly shows whose voices were being recorded at the time and how they were being bought and sold.
- https://www.ampexguy.com/records/bettini/bettini.catalog.no-1.pdf
- https://bportlibrary.org/hc/entertainment/the-mapleson-cylinders-that-lived-in-bridgeport-william-h-seltsam-lionel-mapleson-and-ghosts-of-the-golden-met/
The gramophone business situation at the time as seen in the June 1898 issue of the magazine "Phonoscope"
The June 1898 issue of Phonoscope (New York) contains advertisements and articles about the sale of phonographs, accessories, and records, allowing us to trace the distribution of the time in contemporary terms (which companies handled what and in which metropolitan areas they sold it). In particular, the magazine's parallel coverage of multiple brands of machines and "records" confirms that the market at the end of the 1890s was not a monolithic one, but rather comprised a diverse range of products.
Current events recordings on the Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War attracted strong current interest in 1898, and recordings on the subject of the war were later organized as a topic in the cylinder recording archives. This indicates that a certain amount of recordings of songs, speeches, and current events related to the war were in circulation during the same period, and that the connection between "the events of 1898 and recordings" was recognized in the process of collection and preservation.
- https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/browse.php
- https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/b/belfer_cylinders.htm
- https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/RustHistorical.pdf
The recording industry in 1898, when cylinder and disc recordings coexisted
The year 1898 marks a time when, while the commercial distribution of cylinder recordings continued, disc recordings (gramophones) also saw their commercialization and international expansion. Emile Berliner's (1851–1929) business history of the gramophone and an overview of the history of recording media explain the situation in which cylinder and disc recordings coexisted while competing with each other at the end of the 1890s, and provide useful background information when reading documents from June 1898 (catalogs and industry magazines).
- https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197550/
- https://www.britannica.com/technology/gramophone
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gramophone_Company
