Arcolette
Arcolette was the title of a Foxtrot hit by Karl Alfredy , which the Berlin composer Walter Kollo set to music. It came onto the market in 1927 as a promotional song for the radio receiver of the same name, newly released by the Telefunken company .
background
The song, referred to on the labels as "Foxtrot Intermezzo", was recorded electrically in April 1927 by the Bernard Etté Jazz Symphony Orchestra with its chorus singer, the tenor Max Kuttner , at the Vox Record and Speech Machine AG .
The composer and lyricist Karl Alfredy earned his living next to the composition of dance and song hits above all with the creation of texts for advertising. He wrote advertising songs for a wide variety of products, including radio articles.
In the three stanzas of his promotional song, in which he compares Radio Arcolette with a friend, a woman, Alfredy lists almost all the program components that radio at the time knew how to come up with: with singing in song and opera, with traditional dance music (with violins) and modern style (with jazz), but also with educational and informative content that is “political / scientific, critical” or currently reports “everything that is happening and new”. On the other hand, he does not fail to cleverly point out the technical performance (“great trickery, witchcraft”) of the engineers and the reception and sound quality (“feast for the ears”, “magic tones”, “heavenly sweet”) of the device, and its appealing exterior (“Black beauty”) and its small footprint (“petite little one”).
- Refrain:
Arcolette, you petite little one, there
is / great cunning, witchcraft in you.
Arcolette, you marvelous one,
you delight, you always delight anew.
Arcolette, you black beauty,
you a visible feast for the ears, [you are just a true
feast for the ears] Your magic tones are magnificent,
because you have the reception!
1. Mine is now a being / who is very exquisite
and gives me a lot of joy.
Give me beautiful songs / also plays operas,
violin and jazz and sings and laughs.
If
her tone sounds heavenly sweet,
my home will become paradise.
2. Arcolett 'who dazzles / likes to waste
everything she owns to me .
Whether this is political / scientific or critical,
she speaks seriously and wittily.
If I stroke her very gently,
she flatters and romps and laughs.
3. The nice / little Arcolette has
many other virtues,
too. If you press her button / this little creature says
everything that happens and new.
So whoever has heard it,
desires it and swears by it.
The “Arcolette”, which was named after the Technical Director of Telefunken GmbH at the time, the German physicist and electrical engineer Georg Graf von Arco , was the first attempt to bring a radio that was affordable for all sections of the population, yet powerful. Arco presented it to the public at a ceremony in December 1926. The device was offered in several versions between 1927 and 1931, both for operation from batteries and on the direct or alternating current network. The selling price, excluding tubes and loudspeakers, was 65 Reichsmarks. Because of its ease of use, the device was advertised as “The woman's radio”.
Note edition
Arcolette. Foxtrot intermezzo. Text by Karl Alfredy. Music by Walter Kollo. Musikverlag Metropol Berlin SW11 [1927], cover illustration from “trias”. 4 ll. 4º.
Sound document
Arcolette. Foxtrot Intermezzo (Walter Kollo - Karl Alfredy) Jazz Symphony Orchestra Bernhard Etté, vocals Max Kuttner. Vox 8439E (mx. 1611 BB), attach. April 1927
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. museum-digital.de
- ↑ cf. Document no. 2064 (contemporary description of Arcolette 3) as PDF
- ↑ cf. Lotz, Vox discography (NE 04/1927), to be heard on youtube , also youtube