On Records

Bridging the fields of indigenous, early American, memory, and media studies, On Records illuminates the problems of communication between cultures and across generations. Andrew Newman examines several controversial episodes in the historical narrative of the Delaware (Lenape) Indians, including the stories of their primordial migration to settle a homeland spanning the Delaware and Hudson Rivers, the arrival of the Dutch and the first colonial land fraud, William Penn’s founding of Pennsylvania with a Great Treaty of Peace, and the “infamous” 1737 Pennsylvania Walking Purchase. As Newman demonstrates, the quest for ideal records—authentic, authoritative, and objective, anchored in the past yet intelligible to the present—has haunted historical actors and scholars alike. Yet without “proof,” how can we know what really happened? On Records articulates surprising connections among colonial documents, recorded oral traditions, material and visual cultures. Its comprehensive, probing analysis of historical evidence yields a multi-faceted understanding of events and reveals new insights into the divergent memories of a shared past.

This impressive compilation offers a nearly complete listing of sound recordings made by American minority artists prior to mid-1942. Organized by national group or language, the seven-volume set cites primary and secondary titles, composers, participating artists, instrumentation, date and place of recording, master and release numbers, and reissues in all formats. Because of its clear arrangements and indexes, it will be a unique and valuable tool for music and ethnic historians, folklorists, and others.

Andre Kostelanetz On Records and On the Air is a comprehensive discography of the commercial recordings of the Russian/American conductor and radio personality, Andre Kostelanetz. James H. North has collected all his recordings, spanning the range from popular to classical. Organized chronologically by album, North provides the complete details of each recording: composer, song title, timing, date and site of the recording session, producer of that session, and matrix numbers, as well as every American issue of each recording. Several appendixes organize the information alphabetically by composer, song title, and album title, giving references back to the discography by date of recording. Available downloads from the Internet are included in the song title appendix. Two further appendixes deal with Compact Disc issues and with V-Discs, the records created by the United States Army and Navy for worldwide distribution to members of the Armed Forces during World War II. Initially a request from the Andre Kostelanetz Estate, who has generously supported this work, the discography grew to include a complete coverage of Kostelanetz's appearances on the radio, from the 1920s through 1980 (plus a few on television), as North discovered that Kostelanetz's radio career was as important as his records to music in America. More than 1,000 broadcasts are covered, including both his radio shows and his concert broadcasts with symphony orchestras, and the contents of each program are listed where known. An important extra in the book is a survey of Kostelanetz's career and an evaluation of his achievements, contributed by noted radio historian Dick O'Connor. A foreword by the Archivist and Historian of the New York Philharmonic, Barbara Haws, completes this reference tool, which will be invaluable to the millions of fans who welcome the opportunity to peruse the details of one of the most beloved figures in music.