Filed under: cantonese opera
Another rare label associated with Deutsche-Grammophon, Polyphon uses the same numbering as Hindenburg and Pagoda.
Typically wonderful Cantonese style singing here by Lum Kwun San. (Thanks to Patrick Lau)
The first recordings in China took place in 1903 in Shanghai and were supervised by Fred Gaisberg. His observations on the first recording session:
“Their idea of music is a tremdous clash and bang: with the assistance of a drum, three pairs of huge gongs, a pair of slappers, a sort of banjo, some reed instruments which sound like bagpipes, and the yelling of the singer, their so-called music was recorded on Gramophone.”
“On the first day, after making ten records we had to stop. The din had so paralyzed my wits I could not think.”
Gaisberg went to make over 300 hundred recordings in China.
(From Gaisberg’s autobiography as quoted in the notes to the Rounder cd “Rain Dropping on the Banana Tree“)
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HAJI MAJI 
Nice stuff, with a nice “clash and bang” at the beginning!
Sigh…Fred Gaisberg. Yeah, we owe him so much, but what a crank.
Comment by JW February 18, 2008 @ 9:38 am[…] with haji Midji collections Opera Polyphone below CANTONESE OPERA ON POLYPHON […]
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