Homophone (label)

Harald Paulsen: Homocord recording of “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” from: The Threepenny Opera

Homocord (later Homokord or Homocord ) was a German record label that existed from 1904 to 1932.

History of the label

The record label Homocord was founded in 1904 under the name Homophon by Hermann Eisner and remained active under this name until 1908. Finally, the Homophon company was defeated in a patent dispute filed by the Zonophon company in 1907 at the Royal Regional Court of Berlin and changed to the name Homokord in August 1911 . However, only the label name was changed; the company was still called Homophon. For the UK market, the name was Homochord . Around 1924 the name was also changed to Homocord in Germany . In the 1920s, the company was based on Alexandrinenstrasse in Berlin.

From March 1926, Homocord began using the electrical method, with the additional designation Electro . 1925 took over part of the English Homocord (actually Homochord ) the British Columbia . This takeover gave the German company Homocord access to patents owned by Columbia in England. In 1932 the company was taken over by Carl Lindström AG and the brand discontinued.

Homocord recording of the Nebe Quartet with Mustel harmonium: Carl Stabernack (1876–1940): Closer, my God, to Dir (1924)

The Homocord label released ragtime (“Just not nervous” = Don't Get Nervous , Homokord 564) and pseudo-jazz ( Tiger Rag with Frank Groundsell's Original Excentric Band ), Schlager and Gassenhauer, as from Luigi Bernauer (“Nimm this Strauss forget-me-not ", 4-3108," The night is yours, Jonny! "Or" My parrot does not eat hard eggs ", 4-2640), Erich Einegg , Alice Hechy (" Schlager-Salat "), Max Kuttner (" Ich I've seen Miss Helen bathe ", B. 1852), Karl Hajos (" Lo, holde Lo ") or Engelbert Milde (" Madonna, you are more beautiful than the sunshine "), Claire Waldoff (" An de Panke, an de Wuhle, an de Spree "by Hans May ), also music from sound films such as the" Fliegerlied "from the war film Wings (1927)," Schöne Frau im Mond "by Luigi Bernauer, 4-3370) from Frau im Mond ," What your gaze promises ”(from The Great Gabbo , 1928) or the“ Apache Song (Kittchen Song) ”by Berthe Ostyn / Luigi Bernauer from the sound film Holzapfel knows everything (H 4347-I) from 1932 or a“ Potpourri a us Der Mikado “(4-2397) from the orchestra of the Großes Schauspielhaus under the direction of Dr. Ernst Römer .

Homocord also published operettas and lieder by Marianne Alfermann ( Franz Lehár's “Nobody loves you like me”, 4-8839), Gitta Alpár (“Do you want to love me only”, from: Madama Butterfly , 4-9035), Irene Ambrus , Vera Schwarz (“Indian Love Call”), Ernst Tautenhayn (“The most beautiful man in Vienna”, 4-3633-I), the Nebe Quartet or the duo Hans Heinz Bollmann & Manfred Lewandowsky (“Pêcheurs de Perles”) and the Abel Quartet , popular music etc. a. by Barnabás von Géczy , dance music and jazz by Felix Lehmann (alias Fred Bird Rhythmicans ), Lud Gluskin (" Crazy Rhythm " # 5089), Ben Selvin ("Original American Jazz Band"), the Two Jazzers , Julian Fuhs , the original Memphis Five , Gabriel Formiggini , Reinhard Wenskat , Jenő Fesca / Arpád Varosz (both pseudonyms from Willy Metschke ) and Teddy Kline .

Homocord- 78er by Gerhard Ebeler - Woröm es et am Rhing su schön

Furthermore in the catalog of the label were Rhein- und Weinlieder of the time by Franz Baumann (" I fell in love with a girl on the Rhine ", 4-2570) or "You blonde Lindenwirtin vom Rhein" (by Michael Krasznay-Krausz , 4-2570) 3732), humoristic and dialect by August Batzem , Trude Berliner ("A girl from the Reeperbahn", 4-3925), Gerhard Ebeler , Hans Reimann , Rudolf Mälzer ("Yes, people don't have time today", 4-2762), Paul Preil ("Come on, my darling, let's drink a little liqueur"), Charly Wittong ("Every putt finds its lid", B.23) and from the duo Conrad Hub and Heinrich Hub jr. (“Des Mordche and the Konnerad at Aeppelwein”, 4-2787), cabaret by Gustav Schönwald , Margarete Wiedeke (“Berlin Six Day Race ”) or couplets by Ludwig Manfred Lommel (“And my earlier job”, 4-3128).

The first gramophone recording of the song The Ballad of Mack the Knife came from Harald Paulsen (Homocord 4-3747) in September 1928. The comedian Charlie Roellinghoff as The last movie explainer played the sketch Mr. Nobody - An evening in suburban cinema (4-3256).

In addition, classical music by Walter Gieseking , Bronislaw Mittmann , Sephardic music by Albert Pincas and workers' songs by Ernst Busch ("Song of the Miners") and a series of fairy tales ( Funkheinzelmann fairy tales ) by the then head of the North German Radio , Hans Bodenstedt appeared on Homocord . A number of recordings were made with the (anonymous) Homocord Orchester (also Homocord Jazz Orchester or Homocord Popular Orchester ). a. by Felix Lehmann (“Amalie goes with a rubber cavalier”, 4-2370). Another series was Homophon Liliput (in the format 12 3/4 cm) and Homocord Liliput (15 cm), on which children's music appeared from 1905.

In 1929, Liesl Karlstadt and Karl Valentin played as clowns in an advertising film for the label. From 1931 onwards, Valentins published Homocord-Electro sound documents.

Audio samples

Stalder and Herrmann: Wanderer's Heimweh (waltz). Photo taken on November 8, 1913, first published in 1914
Stalder and Herrmann: Young Blood (Lander). Photo taken on November 8, 1913, first published in 1914
Jenö Fescay Salon Orchestra: Johann Strauss (Son) : Tales from the Vienna Woods (1927)
Jenö Fescay Salon Orchestra: Johann Strauss (son): On the beautiful blue Danube (1927)
Nebe quartet with Mustel harmonium: Carl Stabernack : Näher, mein Gott, zu Dir (Nearer, My God, to Thee) by Lowell Mason (1792–1872) / Sarah Flower Adams (1805–1848). Photo taken on November 29, 1923