Organ on cylinders and notions similar

I got a Harmonium this week, and it's the most queer instrument I own currently. It's an amazing portable organ from around 1905, and made by an Indian company, that no longer exists. With this sudden interest in organs, I got into the few cylinders I know of with organ accompaniment behind a singer. These organ accompanied cylinders are always interesting, even if they are usually just sacred songs by Steve Porter.

That's Porter, in c.1897 

Porter had a fondness for recording sacred songs from 1897 to about 1901. This fact is slightly odd, because he did quite a lot of comic songs and minstrel records with the Spencer's. I haven't the least idea why he felt he needed to load up the phonographs with all the sacred songs(rather than splitting the takes with Len Spencer or something). He did share some of the same cylinder numbers with J. W. Myers, which indicates a little bit of splitting up of work. Other than that fact, Porter was know to many phonograph buyers as a singer of the best sacred songs that were sold, and his were always indicated as the best of their kind. 

To begin with these organ accompanied oddities, here is Porter's rendition of "Abide with Me" from 1898, with organ accompaniment by Fred Hylands:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/15000/15522/cusb-cyl15522d.mp3

(sorry, it's played too slow, and could sound better on the transfer...)

Now the first thing about Hylands playing the organ is that he wasn't very skilled on the instrument. Hylands probably hadn't had the best experiences with the organ at Columbia, as it must have been a real project to try to get it balanced correctly on the cylinders. Since this was really the first attempt to record the organ commercially(I have heard of Len Spencer trying to record a church organ around 1891-92), it must have been a time for experimentation at Columbia, both on Hylands' part, and all the staff at their studio. 

I can imagine things like the pedals snapping and squeaking with Hylands getting all flustered by this, when they were experimenting with it in 1898. It must have been really something to see, with all of them trying to figure out the thing, and have their Freddy play it to the best he could. 

Since he was a quick-minded anxious piano man, Hylands could more likely than not have been heard playing things like these two Cakewalks here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbfUaWZWCEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LCizTjtGAc

Even if reluctantly, Hylands had to play all the frivolous things that J. W. Myers and Steve Porter demanded.

This next one is a cylinder that I have shared on here before, but it's the best example of Hylands' less-than-great organ skills:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9764/cusb-cyl9764d.mp3

Why didn't Myers say anything? I would have turned around after the take and asked about some of this weird things that he played. It's a fascinating cylinder nonetheless, because you can tell that Hylands tries to play some of the things that he was used to playing on the piano, like the trills in the middle of the melodies. I just cannot get over Hylands playing the organ, it's funny and almost great. 

Now to turn to Banta for a moment. 

There's Banta in c.1902.

Now Banta had a much better skill on the organ, and he must have played the instrument more regularly than Hylands did. Here is another rendition of "Abide With Me", but this time by Frank C. Stanley in early 1903.

That's a damn good sounding organ. Edison's organ sounded much more like a pipe organ than Columbia's, I don't know why, but I would love to. One thing that would be great to know is what instrument these recording studios actually used, because there were several kinds of small organs that could have been used, from a small pipe organ to something small like an American version of a Harmonium(which are very small, with only 38 keys).

Here is another Edison example of organ accompaniment by Frank Banta, here you go from 1902. Now this makes the thing sound very interesting, sounding more like Columbia's organ. Here is another one from 1903, with S. H. Dudley.

I have the brown wax Columbia of the cylinder in the link above, so that would mean that Hylands would have to get all the organ parts set up, which must have been something he always dreaded when he came to the studio. Here is the last example I have of Banta's organ skills, and it's one of the most beautiful records I know of from pre-1910. 

I have few records that would fit in this category, but Frank C. Stanley's "The Bellman" from 1902 is certainly one of them, here is that cylinder.
Every time I hear that cylinder I almost get into tears for some reason. It must be Stanley's perfect tone, the powerful chimes, and Banta's organ mastery. (Also because Banta only lived another 13 months after it was recorded...)

Now back to Hylands. This one I have next I have also shared here before for the same reason as the organ accompaniment. This one feature Len Spencer's brother Harry:

(He's the taller guy)
This one is a funny example of Harry and Len Spencer's abilities to capture real-life scenes of the 1890's. That cylinder is here.
It's an interesting cylinder for a lot of reasons, but really try your hardest to focus on the organ playing under Spencer. There's Rag-Time there! Now that way, it's pretty obvious who the organist is( ehm! Hylands). Another thing I just noticed about this cylinder is that other voice toward the beginning, and at the end.  Hmm... Who is that? I know that Len Spencer is also on this cylinder other than Harry, but could one of the three different voices be that of the organist? Freddy Hylands perhaps? He was pretty close to the recording horns on the organ, more so than usual with the piano as you may be able to hear. Here is the other cylinder I think Hylands can be heard on(from the same year):
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9828/cusb-cyl9828d.mp3
It's very possibly Hylands' voice you can hear at the singing toward the end. 
Hear any resemblance? I certainly do, after really taking a few close listens to the two brown wax cylinders. That's really fascinating, as most record collectors would think of those house pianists of this time as silent and solemn workers, but as Hylands worked, he had a loud mouth and wanted to be heard in any way that he could be. These two cylinders above really say true for that notion. Especially the one with Harry Spencer, as now I am convinced that that voice yelling at the end(that's supposed to be a policeman) is probably the voice of Fred Hylands in its clearest form, and at the best volume. The voice also sounds very young, has a slight dialect, and is a trifle scratchy. It's also very different-sounding from anyone I know of at Columbia in 1898. If that's Hylands, he had some voice. 

I hope you enjoyed this!