The Wendish Research Exchange - Velek, Viktor: Historical Recordings of the Sorbian Language and Music from the Years 1907–1938

Lětopis Abstract 2008 2: Velek, Viktor: Historical Recordings of the Sorbian Language and Music from the Years 1907–1938

In this study all the accessible information about acoustic recordings in the Sorbian language (spoken and sung), or about Sorbian music, from the period between 1907 and 1938 is assembled. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first example, interpreters, contents, external circumstances, as well as the importance of these initiatives for the Sorbian cultural heritage, are described again. Also, those recordings which have been lost are noted.

The collection of music cylinders and records, which the company Favorite produced in 1907 in collaboration with the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, represents the first phonographic recording. In 1928 songs by the “Girls’ Choir from Guhrow in the Spreewald” were made into a record; later several Sorbian records were issued in the Czechoslovak Republic. The efforts in Berlin - among others by the Prussian State Library - ended in 1934. The last, illegal, recording of four folksongs occurred in 1938, made by the opera singer, Ruth Krawcec-Raupp, accompanied by her father on the piano, the composer Bjarnat Krawc-Schneider.