A Sound Archive
Preserving, documenting and sharing our sound heritage

Events

Important Artists

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1895-1925

* The first issue of the music magazine Le Passe-Temps is published in February, 1895.

* The Archambault music publishing house is founded.

* The Berliner record company is founded in Montreal in 1899; In 1887 in Europe, Emile Berliner had patented a gramophone using his procedure for replacing the cylinder with a disc; 1890 witnessed the birth of sound recording  in Germany.

* Edison (cylinder), Columbia (cylinder and disc) and Berliner (disc) fought over the North American market; Quebec artists recorded with foreign companies (Berliner/Victor, Edison, Columbia…).

* From 1898 to 1908, 300 French Canadian recordings were brought out by Edison, Columbia, Victor, Imperial and Berliner; classically trained singers and popular artists (some of them speakers for the silent movies) shared the market.

* Berliner brings the first Quebec series to market in 1903; singer Victor Occelier inaugurates the series; in the same year, Edison launches 36 recordings for the French Canadian market, including notably Henri Cartal  (risqué repertoire) who would record for Columbia in 1905; Joseph Saucier would record for the same company as well as for  Berliner (in 1904: La Marseillaise, the first recording entirely made in Canada) and His Master’s Voice.

* In 1903, the first concert to combine works by Canadian composers with poems by Canadian authors from the École littéraire de Montréal.

* In 1909, Berliner offers recordings from France and England (on the His Master’s Voice label); a few French titles begin to appear on the market in 1918.

* Following a lull between 1908 and 1916, recording picks up again, with romance, humour, country dances (starting in 1914) in addition to the genres already in circulation (burlesque, religious and patriotic songs, folklore, risqué)

* Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt can be heard on disc in Quebec.

* Pathé Frères opens branches in Montreal (J. A. Hurteau & Co. Ltd) and Toronto to handle the Canadian distribution of their products.

* In 1917, the Canadian Phonograph Supply Co. begins importing Starr discs.

* In 1918 Herbert Berliner, son of Emile Berliner founds the Compo company in Lachine, near Montréal; the plant presses records for independent labels (including Starr and Starr-Gennett, which produce  burlesque and dance or traditional music); Compo would later produce its own records (Apex , Sun).

* Between 1914 and 1920, record production in the U.S.A. quadruples (from 25 million to 100 million copies) ; the clergy does not approve of the dance music available in Quebec, but the young people are going crazy for the new dances, the fox–trot, the one–steps ...

* In 1924,  Berliner is taken over by Victor.

* In the 1920s, Montreal is less a jazz city than many others; operettas and traditional music are the favourites; the phenomenon of translating American songs forges a particular cultural identity; local French Canadian expressions begin to be heard on record.

* Between 1898 and 1960, over 10,000 works by more than 700 French Canadian artists are pressed.

* At the dawn of the 20th century, the first presenters for the silent movies in Quebec are stage professionals (singers, actors, variety, burlesque ..); many become popular and make records, including Hector Pellerin, musician, speaker and pioneer of records and radio (CKAC); Pellerin makes American adaptations (of Roméo Beaudry in particular), of the cabaret, cafe concert and romantic ballads; starting in 1915, when burlesque becomes popular, he records songs and monologues on the Starr-Gennett label.

* In 1924, the Berliner Gramophone Company is taken over by the American Victor Talking Machine Co.

* In the early 20th century the entertainment industry is already beginning, on a modest scale, to create networks among the media (records, movies, periodicals and later the radio).

* Electric recording begins in 1924, noticeably improving the spectrum of frequencies and the quality of recordings; renewal of the record label catalogues.

Ladébauche

Henri Miro

1895-1925

Opera:

• Paul Dufault

• Joseph Saucier

Joseph Saucier

• Émile Gour
• Emma Albani
• José Delaquerrière
  
• Louis Chartier

• Rodolphe Plamondon

Classical music:

• Lavallée, Calixa (composer)

Popular song:

• Hector Pellerin

• Louis-Richard Beaudry

• A. Fertinel

• Henri Cartal

• Henry Burr

• Alexandre Desmarteau (or Desmarteaux)

• Blanche de la Sablonnière

• J. Hervey Germain

Variety:

• Henri Prieur

• Charles Dalberty

Charles Dalberty

• Rolland Conrad

• André Descart

• André Descart

• Olivier Gélinas

Traditional music:

• Arthur Joseph Boulay (violin)
• Charles Marchand

• Eugène Danton

  Humour :

• Joseph Dumais (known as Père  Ladébauche)

• Elzéar Hamel

• J. B. Mallet

Instrumentalists :

• Henri Miro (piano and conductor)

• Albert Chamberland (violin)

Albert Chamberland

• Ernest Gill Plamondon (violin)

• J. B. Dubois (cellist)

• Willie Eckstein  (silent movie pianist)

• Rosario Bourdon (cellist)

Ensemble:

• Adanac Quartet

• Dumbells

• The Venetian Garden of Montreal dance orchestra

• Melody Kings of Montreal (with Billy Munro on the piano)

 Billy Munro

The research carried out by the Phonothèque québécoise on the Berliner and RCA companies is available at its documentation centre. An inventory of private record collectors in Quebec is also available at the  Phonothèque.

The following interviews relating to the sound history of this period may be consulted at the Phonothèque:

:

• Carmelle Bégin
• Jean-Claude Bélanger
• Marc Bolduc
• Benoît Bourque
• Lorraine Chalifoux
• Gilles Garand
• Claire Lafrenière
• Steve Normandin
• Germain Lacasse
• Renée Maheu
• Gabriel Labbé
• Réal La Rochelle
• Francine Reeves
• Léa  Roback

See the  Gramophone virtuel section on the web site of the National Library of Canada and the web site of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec to hear sound recordings from this era.

Jean-Jacques Schira deposited an impressive and well-documented collection of recordings (songs and popular music) on cylinders, pressed records and 78 rpms (1895-1960) at the Archives nationales du Québec en Estrie.

Gabriel Labbé deposited an impressive and well-documented collection of recordings (traditional music) on cylinders, pressed records and 78 rpms (1895-1960) at the National Library of Canada. M. Labbé deposited a part of his collection at the Phonothèque québécoise.  

Opera repertoire:

Emma Albany, pionnière de l’enregistrement de la musique lyrique- Maheu, Renée, (28” / 177K) enregistré le 29/05/2002

Joseph Saucier, pionnier de l’enregistrement de la musique lyrique et traditionnelle - Maheu, Renée,  (23” / 149K) enregistré le 29/05/2002

Popular songs: 

Traditional music:

Études du folklore et cueillette de Marius Barbeau  - Bégin, Carmelle, (47” / 297K) enregistré le 19/07/2002

Grande popularité des disques des artistes de musique traditionnelle québécoise au début du XXe siècle – Bolduc, Marc, (56’’ / 350K), enregistré le 30/05/2003

Avènement de la spécificité de la musique traditionnelle québécoise– Bourque, Benoit, (1’16’’ / 474K), enregistré le 30/05/2003

Production d’un disque à partir des enregistrements collectés au début du XXe siècle par Marius Barbeau– Chalifoux, Lorraine, (1’14’’ / 459K), enregistré le 30/05/2003

Valeur patrimoniale des disques et transmission du répertoire– Garand, Gilles, (54’’ / 337K), enregistré le 30/05/2003

Instrument mécanique et répertoire gravé - Lafrenière, Claire, (46” / 286K) enregistré le 27/06/2002

Recherche comparant les chansons à répondre au Québec avec les chansons de danse en France - Martineau, Danielle, (28” / 177K) enregistré le 10/05/2002

Music industry (production and recording techniques):