Spencer
Harding
The quartette of talented singers mentioned in this post's title is a varying mix, and there is only three of the quartette's original personnel pictured above. I'm not really the biggest fan of quartette records from the 1900's and teens', but some groups really get to me. The Quartette records from the 1890's particularly fascinate me. One of the few groups that I like who lasted from 1897 to about 1904 was the Greater New York Quartette. The only problem with this rare group is the fact that its personnel constantly changed, and was updated with newer artists every year or so. Their personnel can get confusing if you're listening to them and trying to figure out who's on it.
Their earliest two years were wonderful, and the personnel of the original quartette was absolutely wonderful. So, according to The Phonoscope, the original personnel of this group was Steve Porter, Roger harding, Len Spencer and a gent whose full name had never been identified named "Mr. Depew".
Now this first example is one from c.late-1897 with Fred Hylands on the piano, possibly with the original personnel:
One thing is for sure, I hear Steve Porter and Roger Harding.
Their harmonizing is absolutely pristine on their early records, I just cannot get over it! It's absolutely beautiful. They really had that perfected. The thing about their original personnel is that Len Spencer sometimes stuck out like mad. This was only because Spencer's voice was a very hard one to balance and blend with singing with anyone else, but once they got it sorted out, he blended well, even though you can still hear the odd deep-throated tones of Spencer's voice within the harmony.
This next one is from c.-late-1897 as well, with Hylands hitting one muffled A major chord at the beginning. This one is for sure with the original personnel, as I can hear that thing I described with Spencer in their blending. It's hard to hear, but if you known Spencer's voice well enough, you can hear it.
How they do it SLOW....
They sing this very slow compared to the other takes of this, but I'm guessing that that was how Spencer liked it, because in the later takes of this by this group were much quicker.
Also, note! There's some chatter and faint noise of something else far back in the room if you listen closely!
I wonder what that was...
This next one is hard to pick out the vocal tones of certain singers. I hear Porter just as usual, Roger Harding, and I'm not sure who else because this record is to what I have found, the record by them where their harmonization at the beginning is truly gorgeous. I just wish I could pick out the voices better.
Skip to 33:15 for the cylinder I mean!
The personnel by mid-1898 was different from the original group for some reason. Spencer had dropped out of the group by that time. As the September 1898 issue of The Phonoscope stated this:
"The Greater New York Quartette composed of Harding,[Will C.] Jones, Porter and Hargrave are furnishing the campaign music throughout the state this fall. They are seasoned singers and make a sure hit."
Hmm... I have heard of Will C. Jones before from the Albert Campbell line of the "Diamond Four" of 1897 and 1898, but I am not aware of this Mr. Hargrave.
By the time Spencer, Hylands, and Yeager had become one with the publishing business(which was March, 1899), the personnel of the Greater New York had consisted of Harding, Porter, Jones, and the young and new Albert Campbell.
As stated here:
Among the many other famous names we see here, I might like to call attention to three names(not relating to the Greater New York Quartette) that are present here.
1: you see "Lenard G. Spencer"(bad editing) who we all know it's Len Spencer.
2:Fred. Hylands is mentioned before Spencer.
3: Harry Yeager is listed as the director.
These three names being listed all at the same performance is very interesting.The reason for this is because they must have already been putting together things like this months before they became a publishing firm. It must have also been a great scheme for the three of them to not only perform together, but to announce the creation of the new firm.
If they performed together as three, Hylands would be at the piano, singing with Spencer and Yeager(as Yeager was a tenor), even though I'm not sure what range Hylands had, but he was indeed a singer.
Back to the main subject of this post. The quartette's personnel had what was listed above in 1899 and 1900, as this same group can be heard here, with Albert Campbell taking the lead:
Sorry about the skipping groove at the beginning.
This one is from 1900, and that's for sure because of the year that the song was composed, and who's in the group itself all line up with that year.
To close off, here are two more takes of this quartette doing "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield", one from c. December 1897 and the other from mid-1898.
(There's a short home recording at the end, sorry...)
Oh! How Spencer is drunk! This one is really clear with that. His rattling deep-throated voice REALLY sticks out, this is exactly what I was talking about before.
This last one is a quicker take(hence the thing about Spencer dropping out before!) by the second installment of the quartette from early or mid-1898
(this one also has a home recording at he end...)
Hear all of that chatter in the background!
The reason why I like this quartette so much is because they had a much fuller sound on the cylinders and they always had a great mix of voices, and with the changing personnel, it was slightly different every year they were together. Which makes them more interesting. The personnel changes make them interesting(and easier to date their cylinders!) but it also unfortunately makes figuring out who's on the record harder.They did all of this quartette work years before the "barbershop quartette" era of the 1900's and the teen's hit the record business hard.They are still a pleasure to hear nearly 120 years later.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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