I have digitised the first of the three sides I have of these old Dolmetsch transcription discs. I chose the “test” side to do first as I assumed it would be the least interesting.
Actually it turned out to be really fascinating. There are 5 tracks. The first starts with the voice of Arnold Dolmetsch himself, announcing his performance of Lord Salisbury’s Pavan on the Clavichord. At the end he laughs and says “hopeless!”
Then we have three tracks of Mabel playing the early Irish harp. Two of them are fragments of An Seann Triucha (the Old Trugh) – from Bunting’s Ancient Music of Ireland, 1809, p.6.
I do not recognise the third track. I wonder if it is some Welsh music from Robert ap Huw.
You can listen to these tracks here:
http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Dolmetsch/
Amazing. Good work Simon. It's really interesting to hear her style. Who has the copyright? It would be fun to intersperse these with other tunes on a new recording someday.
Peter Wilson
Thanks Peter. Yes it's a good comparison with her ap Huw recordings – she's clearly influenced by the ornaments from there. As for the rights, copyright in sound recordings is 50 years here. Other rights last longer though.