The 1907 G&T Yeomen

The single-sided catalogue numbers shown below, which do not even adhere to a consistent numbering scheme, clearly indicate that the items in the set were released at different times. However, once the set was complete, they were issued together in a box with a descriptive booklet, in December, 1907 (just in time for Christmas, one might speculate).

The HMV re-issue, on the other hand, was clearly designed to be purchased as a set, as shown by the relatively consistent numbering (even though discs were still available individually). Still, there are anomalies that indicate the marketing considerations that governed recordings of the time. The two tenor arias, for example, were issued on the same disc (B409), even though they come at disparate points in the opera. And, since there were originally an odd number of single-sided discs, a selection had to be designated to stand by itself. The fact that "Rapture, rapture" was chosen may indicate that the omission of this number in stage performances had already become customary. (The reason could also be simply that it was the "left-over" 10-inch side after all the others had been allocated.)

Issue History

Notes:

1. Three selections from this recording were included in the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society's cassette re-issue of HMV's abridged 1931 Yeomen.

2. "Were I thy bride" (s. 10) was re-issued on EMI's Gilbert and Sullivan: The Early Records, on Symposium 1123, and as a bonus track on Arabesque's CD re-issue of the 1929 Iolanthe.

Recording Details

Notes:

1. Francis omits sides 1, 6, 15, 19; Rees lists all nineteen sides. Oddly, Francis fails to list the double-sided catalog number for s. 14, even though he does list the side.

2. Side 6 was issued in two different versions, shown above as 6.1 and 6.2. Wolfson lists only the second of these, but with the matrix number of 6574b and the catalog number 4609. Rees lists both versions of the side. Wolfson's matrix number cannot be correct, as the b series of numbers was assigned to Fred Gaisberg. According to Perkins, Kelly, and Ward, this particular matrix would have been recorded in Vienna in early 1905! And while Fred Gaisberg is known to have been in Vienna in the first half of 1905, it is extremely unlikely that he could have recorded the Sullivan Operatic Party in that city at that time! The e series of numbers was taken by Will Gaisberg, Fred's brother.

3. The reverse side of B403, the double-sided issue of s. 18, contained s. 4 of the 1907 G&T Gondoliers ("Of happiness the very pith").

Recording Sessions

Notes:

1. We can safely infer that sides 13, 5, 3, and 10 were recorded in that order, based on the sequence of matrix numbers. Sides 1 and 6.2 are part of different matrix numbering sequences, and so could have been recorded at any time before or after these other sides.

2. One must assume that both Fred and Will Gaisberg, as well as the other G&T recordists, assigned matrix numbers in order of their use. It is therefore interesting to note that the first nine sides of this set were actually recorded before the 1907 Gondoliers excerpts, between 1 Feb and 5 Feb 1907, while the remaining ten sides were recorded after The Gondoliers.