[78-L] David Hall. Was: Mercury [FWD]

[Thomas Stern]

Below is the WIKI entry for David Hall - seems to have retired to Maine in
1986
and continued to be active through the 90's.

White Pages returns the following:
David D Hall
Castine, ME
(207) 326-9424
Household:  Bob, Hazel

Conclude that he is still with us.  Would be 93....

Best wishes, Thomas

David Hall (recorded sound archivist)
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David Hall (born December 16, 1916 in New Rochelle, New York) is a sound
archivist and writer.

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 Education
1.3 Career
2 References


[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Hall's parents were Fairfax and Eleanor Raeburn (Remy) Hall. He married
Bernice Dobkin on June 8, 1940. Their children are Marion Hall Hunt,
Jonathan Hall, Peter Dobkin Hall, and Susannah Hall.

[edit] Education
After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, Hall received a B.A. from
Yale University in 1939. He was a postgraduate student at Columbia
University from 1940-41.

[edit] Career
At the urging of family friend, Saturday Review of Literature Editor Norman
Cousins, Hall abandoned his graduate studies to write an annotated
discography of recorded sound. The book instructed record collectors on "how
to lay a solid foundation for a record library, what pitfalls to avoid in
the buying of records, whether or not it is advisable to specialize, and how
to distinguish between fair and excellent recordings of the same
composition" (Hall 1940). The book also provided tips on playback equipment
and offered detailed commentary on the whole range of recorded music, from
classical through experimental music, jazz, folk, and spoken word. The
Record Book appeared in 1940 and was followed by a series of supplements,
and international edition (1948). The last supplement appeared in 1950. The
series was an immediate hit, selling more than 100,000 copies.

In 1940, Hall began a lifelong involvement with the record business, taking
a job as an advertising copywriter with Columbia Records, then located in
Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1942, he became music program annotator for the
NBC Symphony Orchestra -- the all-star orchestra conducted by Arturo
Toscanini. In 1948, Hall joined forces with fellow Yale graduate John
Hammond on a quest to post-war Europe on behalf of Mercury Records, then a
Chicago-based produced of "pop" material.

Wishing to enter the growing classical music market, Mercury executives
realized that radio stations and governments in formerly Nazi-occupied
countries held a gold mine in superb performances by Europe's top musicians.
Hammond's and Hall's objective was to acquire these assets for Mercury.
Hammond had hired Hall, "a well-known authority on classical recording, to
handle the considerable job of cataloging Czech and German material. He was
known and respected by the Czechs, who were interested in establishing an
international records archive. David would be an asset in delicate
negotiations" (Hammond 1977, 282). Hall and Hammond left Prague one step
ahead of Soviet forces as they crushed Czechoslovakia's democratic
government.

Hall remained at Mercury Records until 1956 as classic music director. Under
his leadership, Mercury began releasing its notable "Living Presence" series
of classical recordings. Hall worked closely with sound engineering pioneer,
C. Robert Fine. Fine's mobile sound studio toured the midwest, recording
performances by the Detroit, Louisville, and Minneapolis symphonies and
musical groups at the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. A 1955
recording of the Minneapolis Symphony performing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
under the baton of Antal Dorati became the best selling classical record of
the decade.

In 1956, Hall was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, which enabled him
to spend a year at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) teaching advanced
recording techniques to Danish engineers and musicians. Hall had long been
interested in Scandinavian music, having directed the music center at New
York's American Scandinavian Foundation from 1950 to 1957.

On returning to the United States in the fall of 1957, Hall became music
editor of Hi-Fi/Stereo Review (later Stereo Review). Hall contributed
reviews of classic music and articles to the magazine until it folded in
1998. In his writings, Hall championed contemporary music. His 1964 article
on Charles Ives included the first full discography of Ives's recordings.

In 1963, Hall became president of Composers' Recordings, Inc., a nonprofit
record label devoted to recording and distributing the work of contemporary
composers. Among the notable recordings produced under his leadership were a
series of performances by avant garde composer Harry Partch.

In 1967, Hall was appointed curator of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives
of Recorded Sound, one of the units of the New York Public Library's
performing arts collections at Lincoln Center. There he pioneered new
techniques of cataloging recorded material as one of the initiatives of the
Research Libraries Group, a consortium of the nation's leading research
libraries. Hall and his associates also released an important collection of
historic sound recordings, The Mapleson Cylinders, which captured the
singing of Metropolitan Opera stars of the early twentieth century. This
recording was awarded a "Grammy" by the National Academy of Recording Arts &
Sciences in 1986.

During this period, Hall helped to found the Association for Recorded Sound
Collections (ARSC) in 1966. He served as the group's president, 1980-1982.
In 2002, he received the ARSC Award for Distinguished Service to Historical
Recordings.

In 1986, Hall retired to the seaside village of Castine, Maine, where he
continued to write record reviews and consult on recording projects. Through
the 1990s, he chaired the classical records awards committee for the
National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Currently, Hall is completing
a biography of the twentieth century American composer, Roy Harris.

In addition to introducing American audiences to the remarkable riches of
recorded music in the years following the second World War, Hall played an
especially important role as a champion of contemporary music. At least half
the composers listed in the 1940 Record Book were still living. They
included such notables as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Charles Ives, Harry
Partch, William Schuman, and others. His writings also helped garner
attention for jazz and folk musicians.


-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Sultanof
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 12:38 PM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] David Hall. Was: Mercury [FWD]


I distinctly remember reading of Hall's passing some years ago, but don't
remember details.

I used to go to the Rodgers and Hammerstein archive on an almost weekly
basis to get an education in composition, arranging and sound recording.
Back when I went, there were a great many recordings that I wanted to hear
that were simply not available (and I couldn't afford to collect recordings
back then; I was 17 when I first went up to the archive). Think Jimmy
Mundy's big band on Varsity, Franklyn Marks on Master Records, and Kay
Thompson on Viking.

Hall was an imposing teddy bear of a man to my eyes. He seemed to have
little use for me when I first went up to the archive, although he would
look surprised at some of the obscure items I wanted to hear. Once I began
asking him some questions about such composers as Harris, Siegmeister and
the like, he could go on for quite some time with incredible information.
>From that time on, he was very pleasant to me and forthcoming with new
aquisitions that hadn't been catalogued yet (which used to piss off the
other librarians).

I have very warm memories of sitting in a booth and discovering many
wonderful recordings. And he opened the door.

Jeff Sultanof

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 3:06 AM, Mike Harkin <harkinmike at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I read somewhere, long ago, that he was born in 1915.  The Record Book and
> TRB Internataion edition opened my ears to tons of beaustiful music to
> which I otherwise probably wouldn't have paid any attention....
>
> Long may he wave, or RIP, whichever is appropriate!
>
> Mike in Plovdiv
>
>
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