Top of page

A Summer of Mid-1940s Melodies: Processing Master Recordings from the Decca Label

Share this post:

This is a guest post by Yuri Shimoda, a 2018 summer intern with the Junior Fellows Program in the Library’s Recorded Sound Section. She is pursuing her master’s degree in library and information science at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a specialization in media archival studies. Shimoda is the founder and chair of the first student chapter of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and a recipient of an American Library Association’s 2018–19 Spectrum Scholarship. She plans to become an audio archivist and music librarian.

Yuri Shimoda beside a 1945 master recording of “Cry You Out of My Heart” by Ella Fitzgerald with the Delta Rhythm Boys.

In 2011, Universal Music Group (UMG) donated more than 200,000 master recordings to the Library of Congress’ Recorded Sound Section, which maintains approximately 3.6 million sound recordings at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia. Within the collection’s 5,000 linear feet of material are historic recordings by artists such as Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, the Andrews Sisters, Billie Holiday, Guy Lombardo and Les Paul.

Many of these tracks were recorded onto thousands of 16-inch lacquer discs. Those created during the mid-1940s on UMG’s subsidiary label Decca serve as the focus of my project this summer. My goal for the 10 weeks that I am in Culpeper is to process as many of the discs as possible, which may seem like monotonous work, but has proven to be quite the opposite.

My work days consist of sorting and arranging the discs in order of matrix number, the unique identifier assigned to each recorded track; assigning them a shelf number and barcode; looking up the matrix number in Michel Ruppli’s authoritative discography of Decca recordings; and entering into an inventory spreadsheet information from the discography and from the discs, their original sleeves, or accompanying recording-engineer notes.

Processing lacquer discs entails research to adequately describe each recording.

Some discs might not have a matrix number, artist name or song title written on them, so they become a mystery for me to solve with some online research. In cases where a disc has no identifying information at all, I ask one of the Audio Preservation Unit’s studio engineers to play it so the curator of recorded sound, Matt Barton, and I can find out what songs are on it.

It can be easy to slip into the rhythm of processing without letting the significance of the artist’s name or song’s title I’m entering into the database really sink in. When I actually get to sit down and hear these tracks in the engineer’s studio, though, the impact of how unique and culturally relevant the content of these discs are hits home.

While the aforementioned list of UMG artists is impressive to say the least, and I did feel a thrill of excitement upon coming across an Ella Fitzgerald recording session last week, some of the lesser-known artists like Joe Mooney and a radio-broadcast recording of “The Lonesome Train” cantata, directed by Norman Corwin, about Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train (narrated by Burl Ives) are among what I would call unexpected gems of my exploration thus far.

Once the contents of each disc have been inventoried, I carefully remove the disc from its original envelope to assess its physical condition before placing it into a fresh sleeve. Most of the discs are extremely fragile, since they were made during World War II using a glass base instead of aluminum, due to wartime rationing. Aside from being prone to cracks and breakage, lacquer discs are at risk of other environmental conditions that can speed up deterioration, thus making them a high preservation priority.

Although my experience as the only junior fellow stationed in Culpeper is quite different from my colleagues – while they make their way to work through throngs of tourists visiting our nation’s capital, I might encounter a deer or maybe some rabbits during my daily commute – I would not trade my post for anything. Since I am studying to become an audio archivist, the skills that I am honing and the staff expertise I am exposed to are incredibly valuable. I am enjoying my work with the UMG recordings immensely, and I will be quite sad to leave the discs at the end of the summer.

For more information about the Junior Fellows Program, visit the Library’s website.

Comments (11)

  1. good veryyyy good LOC

  2. How do I access and get a chance to listen to

    The Lonesome Train” cantata, directed by Norman Corwin, about Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train (narrated by Burl Ives)?

  3. Very impressive, Yuri !! “-) Butch and I are proud of you!

  4. Good to know that the original acetates are being preserved. Reissues of Decca recordings from the 40s sound surprisingly good. I recall the 40s 78rpm discs as having a lot of surface noise.

  5. I do like the library service I been in it a long time and may the good Lord be with each one of you.

    Ralph W Graham

  6. Note that in the 1940s, the American Decca label was a separate company from either its original British Decca parent or later mergers etc such as UMG. Musicians such as Billie Holiday and Count Basie for a brief period and Bing Crosby for a long time would be Decca artists

  7. As you say, the discs are extremely fragile. Are digital copies made for listening?

  8. Hi Robert,
    Plans are to ultimately digitally preserve the material, but since the lacquer discs in this collection are still being processed, a focused preservation reformatting process has not begun.
    All the best,
    Yuri Shimoda

  9. What an amazing treasure trove! It makes me wonder… which, if any, other labels have gifted any sets of their Masters to the Library?

  10. Thank you for inquiry. The best means to research this question is through our “Ask a Librarian” web service at http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/. Thanks again and best wishes.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/07/a-summer-of-mid-1940s-melodies-processing-master-recordings-from-the-decca-label/
blogs.loc.gov
CC-MAIN-2024-22
86430
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:FQLLJCQYHQINOHO7YXJGF56BPPKICRAS
<urn:uuid:2f96f8a1-35f4-40c7-a3f0-f26296c17511>
2024-05-26T11:08:18Z
104.16.55.16
text/html
sha1:MWD6BSIIOE6ZHLI7SZGQ6FX7QDWLKJ65
<urn:uuid:98d8994c-7d3f-4876-98a5-1f48ab0a0e2d>
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/07/a-summer-of-mid-1940s-melodies-processing-master-recordings-from-the-decca-label/
response
<urn:uuid:f588b1fb-bdea-4e0c-a469-3b6a8e0078d9>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2024-22
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2024
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-123
software: Apache Nutch 1.19 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.5-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/