# When were the first Medieval Recordings put out?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I am wondering when the first Medieval recordings came out, and what they were.
It's an interesting aspect of collecting, these early musicology related releases.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Since technology on the whole wasn't very advanced back then, it was probably very very late Medieval period. We must also define "Medieval" as a lot longer period than it defined by mainstream historians.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I think it was circa 1950, along with the publication of the scores.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

*Archiv*, the DG label for Baroque & earlier music, launched an ambitious LP series that was meant to represent highlights of the whole history of classical music, apparently from some time in the 1950s.

Some hasty research only leads to this Japanese website for a survey of the releases, but it only includes dates in some cases.
http://blog.roodo.com/dent/archives/4169571.html
A recording of Machaut´s Messe de Nostre Dame from the series was from 1956
http://www.discogs.com/Guillaume-De...erke-Das-Zentrale-Mittelalter/release/3249960

I´m pretty sure that there are earlier, more scattered examples of medieval music on other labels, though. 
Wikipedia mentions a recording of the same Machaut mass from 1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messe_de_Nostre_Dame

I would guess that instrumental and secular music recordings generally came later than religious, vocal works.

Turnabout, L´Oiseau Lyre, Vanguard and Harmonia Mundi were some of the other relatively early labels dealing with medieval music.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Safford Cape put out some recordings of 13th century music before the war in a series called L'Anthologie Sonore.

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/ans99999.htm

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/cape.html


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

^^^^

Interesting; a quote from the link: 
"_169 78rpm were released (= 69 Kg or 152 lbs, excluding albums), and in the early 1950s, about 15 LPs_"

Gregorian chant can be heard in recordings from 1904 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gregorian+1904


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> Since technology on the whole wasn't very advanced back then, it was probably very very late Medieval period. We must also define "Medieval" as a lot longer period than it defined by mainstream historians.


You haven't answered what they were like.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

regenmusic said:


> I am wondering when the first Medieval recordings came out, and what they were.
> It's an interesting aspect of collecting, these early musicology related releases.


Long after the medieval period was gone


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