[78-L] Music Hall. 'Speeding' Query.

[Chris Zwarg]

At 13:46 04.11.2008, you wrote:
>Interesting.
>
>Actually, listening to voice quality, vowels etc., I thought that the 
>Winners should be played at 75rpm, rather than faster than 78rpm. 

Exceptions prove the rule, as the old saying goes. Depends also from which years the records are - from the late 1910s until early-electrical period Winners tend to be on the fast side (80rpm or more), but maybe some early sides are slower. IIRC they also "inherited" some masters from German-based companies when these closed down at the beginning of WW1, and such sides originally from Beka, Dacapo, etc. would of course follow different patterns.

If you keep in mind the preference of the accompanists for "simple" keys (on a brass instrument that means A-flat, E-flat, B-flat, F, C, G) that should be no insurmountable problem. Once you have put a record in *any* key and noted the speed, the decision becomes easier as if that speed doesn't sound correct, the remaining choices are 6% steps up or down to reach the next higher or lower transposition (just multiply or divide the speed found originally by 1.06) which usually are different enough from each other to easily decide which of them is the "real thing".

Example:

1- At 78rpm a record comes out between B-natural and C
2- The most obvious correction would be to speed it up slightly until it is exactly in C at, say, 80rpm
3- If the voice and tempo don't seem right, readjust in 6% steps: (80 x 1.06) = 84.8 rpm gives D-flat, (80 / 1.06) = 75.5 rpm gives B, and (75.5 / 1.06) = 71.2 rpm gives B-flat. Speeds in-between these steps are out of the question as they fall between keys. Very probably one variant will sound more natural than any of the others, even if you are unfamiliar with the particular voice and piece of music.

Standard pitch in Britain was probably 438-439 Hz at the time (close enough to modern A=440 to neglect the difference for practical purposes), but with obviously brass-band accompaniments bear in mind these might be by a military band tuned at A=451. If you only have a modern pitchpipe to tune to, you can of course calculate the correct speed for such records after pitching to A=440: divide the found rpm by 440 and multiply the result by 451 (or multiply the rpm by 1.025).

Hope this helps!

Chris Zwarg