Peter Dawson (bass-baritone) - Dawson and The Gramophone

Dawson and The Gramophone

The gramophone was a major factor in the promotion and progression of Dawson's career. He made his first 78-rpm acoustic recordings in 1904, and continued to release songs for EMI and HMV until 1958, by which time vinyl stereo LPs had been introduced. Estimates of the number of his published recordings range from 1,500 (a recent biography) to as high as 3,500 (quoted in his autobiography). His first efforts were made for Edison-Bell on wax cylinders in 1904. After a few experimental run-throughs, record producer Fred Gaisberg signed Dawson to an exclusive contract to cut discs for the Gramophone Company (the predecessor of HMV/EMI) in 1906; he continued, however, to record on cylinders for Edison until that company closed its London studios not long before World War I erupted. Dawson's standard repertoire rapidly became a mainstay of the HMV catalogue. It is worth noting that in addition to the HMV titles appearing under his own name, he recorded Scottish songs popularized by Harry Lauder under the pseudonym Hector Grant, for the sister Zonophone record label.

In 1906, Dawson participated in the first series of partially complete Gilbert and Sullivan opera recordings, together with other studio recording artists. Beginning in 1919, he took part in an extensive series of musically complete recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, under the supervision of Rupert D'Oyly Carte, and conducted by HMV staff conductor George W. Byng. By 1920 he is said to have achieved total record sales of five million discs. After the First World War, audio technology was improving, and he recut many of his more popular titles during the early 1920s. With the introduction of electrical microphone recording in 1925, the core body of his work was committed once again to disc, including new Gilbert and Sullivan versions under Sir Malcolm Sargent. Dawson's electrical recordings from the late 1920s and early 1930s had the longest shelf-life, and most households owned at least one. By the Second World War his record sales had topped the 12 million mark. He even recorded some stereo tracks in the 1950s.