TELEPIIO~Ii: HOI'. 4!JOO

THE

GRAMOPHONE

Publish-inJ Ofllus: 41'i Hatfkld Street,

S.E.l

Edited by

COMPTON MACKENZIE

Editorial 0 fIIec : hie of Herm,

Channel Islands

Vol. I .

APRIL, 1923

No.1

Prologue

10 SONO IL PROLOGO. - An apology is due to the public for inflicting upon i t another review , but I should not be doing so unless I were persuaded that many of the numerous possessors of gramophones will welcome an organ of candid opinion. The critical policy of THE GRAMOPHONE will be largely personal, and as such i t will be honest but not infallible, while the errors we make will be mostly on the side of kindness. I f we endorse what a firm claims for i ts goods in our advertisement columns, we shall endorse that claim b ecause we believe i t to be justified. The instruments on which all records sent for us to review are tested are the Orchestraphonc sold by the Gramophone Exchange, an horizontal grand of His :Master's Voice, and an Adams model of the Vocalion Company. The soundboxes used are the H.M.V. Exhibition No.2, a Vocalion, a Realistic, an ltonc, a Superphone, a Sonat, and a Three Muses. I f the maker of any other soundbox likes to send us his product for trial, we shall use i t in competition with the others; but no opinion will be passed on any soundbox sent to us before a three months' trial. 'We shall try each month to keep pace with the records issued; but we hope that our readers will accept these preliminary reviews as provisional; and every three months we shall deal vcry critically with the output of the preceding quarter.

I have received many kind promises of support from distinguished writers; and if I find that the sales ""arrant me in supposing that gramophone enthusiasts want the kind of review THE GRAMOPHONE wjU set out to be, I can promise them that I will do my best to ensure their obtaining the finest opinions procurable. We sha.ll have nothing to do with VVireless in these columns. Our policy will be to encourage the recording companies to build up for generations to come a great l ibrary of good music. I do not want to waste t ime in announcing what we are going to do in future numbers, because I do not know yet if there is any real need for this review at all. W'e shall write as servants of the public, and if we sometimes take upon ourselves a certain freedom of speech in dealing with our masters, such freedom of speech is the privilege of all good servants.

Andiam! Incominciate!