NormanKliman -> RE: For Ron (May 16 2010 8:16:23)
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Thanks for posting that Arash, it's something I've been very interested in for the last few years. They're not LPs, they're 78rpm recordings. Some go back to 1908 and others are from the 1950s when the last "pizarra" (slate) recordings were made. The videos are especially cool because of the opening shot of the labels. There are usually two serial numbers there that identify the recordings. One is a catalogue reference and the other, called a "matriz" is the number that was assigned by the recording engineer when the disk was made. Sometimes the companies didn't release recordings immediately, so the catalogue references are practically meaningless, but the "matrices" show the order in which the recordings were made, which can be revealing. For example, there's a cartagenera of La Niña de los Peines where Ramón Montoya accompanies with toque de granaína with capo at fourth fret, the key of D sharp, which is way too high for her. You can hear her straining and, if you listen really close, after the first cante she says to him, "¡Está muy alta la guitarra!" Looking at the matrices, it turns out that this was the first recording of their first session together. After that, he moves the capo down to the first fret, then accompanies without capo, and ends up using toque de Levante with the capo at the fourth fret. It doesn't actually prove anything, but it's interesting because it looks like he thought she was going to sing higher. There's a big difference between D sharp and A sharp; the same as going from por medio to por arriba!
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