June 2006

Introduction

Welcome to The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings, a growing multimedia website devoted to the early days of Canadian recorded sound. With a database of images and digital audio recordings, as well as biographies of musicians and histories of music and recorded sound in Canada, The Virtual Gramophone provides researchers and enthusiasts with a comprehensive look at the 78-rpm era in Canada.

The database at the heart of this website, when completed, will contain information on and images of 78-rpm and cylinder recordings released in Canada, as well as foreign recordings featuring Canadian artists or Canadian compositions. The database will also contain details on the 78s and cylinders in the Recorded Sound Collection of Library and Archives Canada. Biographies of prominent Canadian performers, short histories of Canadian record companies, background information on music styles and the recording technology of the time, and digital audio reproductions of selected 78s will also be included.

This website is dedicated to Edward B. Moogk, pioneer Canadian discographer, author of Roll Back the Years (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975) and the first Head of the Recorded Sound Collection at Library and Archives Canada.

Audio files on this site are best heard with RealPlayer Version 8.0 www.real.com or higher.