|
 Enjoy
some holiday cheer courtesy of this ca. 1910 recording
of the descriptive "Santa Claus' Workshop"
by Prince's Orchestra. You can hear the flurry of activity,
assembly of toys, testing the toys, hammering, and other
bumping around by Santa's elves. In the early recording
industry, this type of recording was common—in
which an orchestra imitates musically a scene out of
life.
As the leader of the Columbia house bands and his own
eponymously named band, Charles A. Prince (1869-1937)
was a very busy man around the Columbia studios from
about 1902 until 1923. Prince recorded as early as 1891
for the New York Phonograph Company and played on the
first Columbia Grand Opera records in 1902. When Fred
Hager left as the company's orchestra director, Prince
stepped in. By 1905, Prince's name was appearing on
Columbia labels. He remained the firm's principal band
leader, on everything from classical music to popular
rags, until summer 1923, when Columbia re-emerged from
bankruptcy.
Tim Gracyk notes in his Encyclopedia of Popular
American Recording Pioneers that Prince's musicians
included Vincent Buono (cornet), Leo Zimmerman (trombone),
George Schweinfest and Marshall P. Lufsky (alternately
flute and piccolo), Arthur Bergh and George Stehl (violin),
Thomas Mills (xylophone, bells), Howard Kopp (xylophone,
bells, drums), Thomas Hughes and William Tuson (clarinet),
and Charles Schuetze (harp). These were all top recording
musicians of the day.
Prince's Orchestra is featured on 1913. |
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