Bold. Thought provoking. Wise, even profound. A great read!
Experiencing Gigli with Quality Audio, by Paul James.
"Experiencing Gigli with Quality Audio: Exquisitely Beautiful Singing", by Paul James, from Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Before I go any further I should tell you that you should add Paul's book to your library ASAP. It is an absolutely brilliant book, and if you don't get a copy before it sells out you'll be sorry, as it may never become available again. You've been warned!
Experiencing Gigli with Quality Audio, by Paul James.
About the author (from the back cover):
"Paul James is an independent researcher, and holds an MA in Philosophy from Deakin University and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of New England, Australia. His interests include music, hi-fi, wellness, wisdom and sports cars. In collaboration with Falls Audio, he has conducted numerous experiments into achieving hi fidelity reproduction of music at the highest level. He uses a number of bespoke audio designs in his own system, including a 205d-based line stage and an LCR phono stage."
Paul James visited Jeff's Place in 2019.
You might remember Paul from when he stopped in to visit Jeff's Place while on a musical and historic tour of the USA a few years ago, pre-pandemic. It was a pleasure to meet Paul.
Paul, Doc Leo, and myself had a delightful time talking about Paul's travel adventures, music and hi-fi, and listening to some of Paul's album finds while touring the USA.
Listening to 78s on the gramophone.
The photo on the cover of Paul's new book is of a listener cueing up a 78 record on a gramophone, presumably to listen to the great operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli (1890 to 1957) of the Bel Canto school.
My 100 year old gramophone.
That gramophone photo certainly got my attention. I think every audio enthusiast should have a gramophone to connect with our early audio roots, just for fun, as well as for a little educational foray into how great those early 78 recordings could be.
Nelson Pass' 'new' record player! Photo courtesy of Nelson Pass.
Nelson Pass sent me a photo of his 'new' gramophone that his wife bought for him. Nelson's having fun with it too.
I think we're due for a gramophone revival, if for no other reason than to celebrate 78 record survival, and the rekindling of interest in the great artists of times past recorded on them.
I think it would be really cool for an audio company to produce a state-of-art mechanical 78 record player, and for someone into reissuing records to reissue some of the great performances on 78 records for them.
I think the market is ripe for the revival of quality mechanical 78 players, and 78 record reissues, given the revival of interest in vinyl records among the youth of the world, and of course us audio nerds who have kept the records torch burning.
Its no secret that my interest has exploded in recordings of the acoustic (1877 to 1925) and electric (1925 to 1945) eras of the recording arts over the last few years, as there's an astonishing amount of important musical artists and performances from those periods of the recording arts in our recorded music canon.
Everyone with an interest in audio and music should listen to those recordings to be well versed in the history of the music, the history of the recording arts, and the history of audio, that the eras of our recorded music canon spans.
Don't worry, I'm still a big fan of recordings from the magnetic (1945 to 1975) and the digital era (1975 until now) as well, but there is something very special about the musicians, performances, and those who recorded them for posterity on the early acoustic and electric era 78s.
Personally I don't think you can properly call yourself an audiophile - someone who loves audio - if you haven't familiarized yourself with how important all the music is in our recorded music canon, the recording arts that have produced it, and of course those great musicians who made it all possible.
One of humankind's great accomplishments is the recording of great musicians and musical performances during the four eras of the recording arts, our historic recorded music canon, and making it available for us to listen to over audio equipment in our own homes.
The library of our historic recorded music canon captures the spirit of one of the largest and most important libraries of the ancient world, the Great Library of Alexandria, which was dedicated to the Muses - Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Talia, and Urania - the nine goddesses of the arts.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Great Library of Alexandria was still with us instead of being lost to the sands of time? Think of the incredible insights it would offer, the riches of literature and culture it would reveal to us.
That same spirit of the Great Library of Alexandria exists in humankind's recorded music canon over the four eras of the recording arts, and it is available for us to listen to and learn from now.
Listening to music is cool in and of itself, but having humankind's vast recorded music canon available for listening can be the basis of a listening adventure that provides a lifetime of pleasure and illumination.
What is Paul's book about, and who is Beniamino Gigli?
Let's start with that last part of that question, and finish with the first part.
Beniamino Gigli, public domain photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.
First of all, I am very impressed that Paul's book focussed on the great operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli, whose bulk of recordings spanned the acoustic and electric eras of the recording arts (105 recordings, discography HERE), which are eras of the recording arts that are most oft neglected by audio enthusiasts who aren't aware of the vast musical treasures available from those eras.
Secondly, I was impressed that Gigli's recordings also spanned into the first decade of the magnetic era of the recording arts. That's wonderful news for those who are interested how music - and the sound of music - evolved over those early eras of the recording arts.
Who was Beniamino Gigli and why is his music so important?
Beniamino Gigli's life is a classic 'rags to riches' story that will make for a fine inspirational movie one day. The question is, who would play the part of Gigli? My vote would be for Vittorio Grigolo, one of today's great operatic tenors.
History tells us that fate shined brightly upon Gigli when he was able to step into Enrico Caruso's role at the Met, when Caruso's health failed and he could no longer perform, and of course Gigli's incredible voice and talent assured worldwide stardom.
I think it is interesting to note that both Caruso and Gigli embraced the newly emerging audio recordings arts, and like Leopold Stokowski (1882 to 1977), Gigli also embraced popular films.
These great artists recognized how important the development of audio - and ultimately - film recording was, and the legacy it would create for the lovers of the musical and film arts for those well into the future.
What that means is there is a treasure trove of Gigli's music in our recorded music canon for listeners to learn about, listen to, and appreciate.
I'll leave it to you to read Paul's introduction to Gigli in his book, which is passionate and informative, but I'll entice you with two quotes:
"Through recordings, a worldwide audience could enjoy the voice which one American critic described as possessing "peculiar warmth and mellowness in the middle register, and notable for the beauty of its timbre, remarkably elastic, exquisite in mezzo voce, luscious in full-blooded emission.""
"Gigli reveals the joys, pains, despair, and longing intertwined in human life and brings them near to us, so they somehow become (experienced as) our own."
As I mentioned, Beniamino Gigli's performances were recorded during the period of 1918 to 1955, spanning the acoustic (1877 to 1925), electric (1925 to 1945), and magnetic (1945 to 1975) eras of the recording arts.
Beniamino Gigli's recordings are so important to our musical history that there are 17 albums available from the Prima Voce record label that include Gigli performances, which you can find HERE, that span the early to mid-late part of his career.
Gigli Volume 1 1918-1924 on Nimbus Records Prima Voce.
Naxos Historical has a 15 CD series devoted to Gigli that spans the entirety of his career, as well as as 20 other discs that include performances by Gigli, as well as collections of Blu-ray Discs and DVDs (HERE).
Due to Paul's influence, I have a lot of Beniamino Gigli exploring I want to do, and it appears that between Prima Voce and Naxos Historical that there are lots of readily accessible musical treasures to choose from.
I just ordered Belcanto, The Tenors of the 78 Era (above), so you'll read more about this DVD set in the future at Jeff's Place in my column about the early eras of recording.
Why should you care about Gigli?
Many of today's hi-fi enthusiasts often gravitate towards sonic spectacular 'audiophile records' that display the extreme end of the recording arts ability to convey stereo visuospatial effects.
To all of us, Paul poses the question, "Why listen to Beniamino Gigli?"
Hint: It's about the music.
While you should read Paul's book for the full insight into this question, let me submit to you a couple of thoughts to provoke your interest.
Paul writes, "Gigli's voice demonstrated qualities that were unique to the singers of the Bel Canto generation."
Wait. What does 'bel canto' mean? Technically speaking, 'bel canto' refers to an Italian operatic vocal style that originated in the 18th and early 19th centuries that became the operatic vocal style of that period.
Here's what 'bel canto' means to me more generally speaking: At certain points in history individuals arise - like Gigli - that are the 'generational talents', the likes of whose artistry may only appear once in a century, or perhaps only once in the history of Planet Earth.
Gigli was such an artist, and as Paul says, "... the beauty and feeling he conveys are peerless." ... "The subtle nuances of feeling that Gigli imparts to his songs can enrich the listener. Gigli is long gone, yet his songs can still speak to us, move us, and enrich us."
Now what does that have to do with us audio nuts of today?
As Paul says, "As Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note identifies, there is widespread ignorance of audio and audio reproduction with the general population and audiophiles as well. And not being informed by history can lead to audio reproduction that is inferior to what has been achieved in the past. This is the opposite of what most people would think, who would expect audio reproduction to have advanced. As will be explored in this book, while audio reproduction has advanced in some ways, in others it has not."
So Paul suggests that due to this widespread ignorance, we audio enthusiasts often end up assembling audio systems that are the musical equivalent of a child defacing a great work of art by scribbling on it with Crayons.
That level of audio ignorance has resulted in a period of audio equipment evolution where 'audio barbarians' have damaged our ability to truly listen to the great canon of music that the four eras of the recording arts have endowed us with, much like the travesty that occurred during Julius Cesar's civil war of 48 BC when the Great Library of Alexandria was burned down, and much of the knowledge and beauty of the ancients' cultures were lost.
Fortunately, there is the dawning of worldwide awareness of how important our historic music canon is, and the need for audio equipment that can not only do justice to recordings from the magnetic and digital eras of recording, but also the the acoustic and electric eras of recording as well.
Paul's Book: Experiencing Gigli with Quality Audio
Paul has chosen Beniamino Gigli as a musical vehicle to discuss what it takes for audio to bring the recorded music to life that spans the eras of the recording arts.
Beniamino Gigli is one of those generational talents that appears every 100 years or so that was so significant that he not only deserves to be heard, but heard in a way that allows all of his musical genius to shine through.
Most audiophile systems of today can't do early acoustic and electric era recordings of Gigli justice, or even later magnetic era recordings for that matter.
Paul's book is an introduction to Gigli and why you should cherish his music, and Paul discusses what is needed in a quality audio system to bring the full span of his recorded musical talent to life.
While Paul's focus is on Gigli, the principles Paul discusses also apply to other generational talents that exist in our vast recorded music canon - Enrico Caruso, Leopold Stokowski, Louis Armstrong, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, and many others - and getting the most out of their musical performances.
What is involved in reproducing music that sounds beautiful? How do you achieve natural reproduction of recorded musical performances? How do you truly listen to music and understand and feel what it is intended to convey?
Paul discusses all of those aspects and more. Timbre. Micromodulation. Vibrato. Beauty. Feeling. Live-likeness. Emotion.
Paul asks if you are truly listening to the music, or are you just hearing the sound?
Paul talks about the challenges for loudspeakers in reproducing the human voice. The challenges for audio in reproducing the timbral qualities of music, the challenges in providing the emotional experience and the beauty of the recorded music.
How do you portray recorded music - from all the recording eras - "... in a natural, living and breathing, lifelike and life-size manner ..." on a home audio system?
Those topics are what Paul's book addresses, and much more.
Bel Canto. Music. History. Generational talent. Recording technology. Playback technology. Philosophy. Achieving 'authentic' reproduction that is full of life and beauty and the essence of a musical performance.
Bold. Thought provoking. Wise, even profound. A great read from the soul of a philosopher!
I implore you to stop what you are doing right now, and order a copy of Paul's "Experiencing Gigli with Quality Audio: Exquisitely Beautiful Singing".
From Cambridge Scholars Publishing, and available from Amazon for $99.95 USD.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
