Issler's Orchestra

Pianist and bandleader Edward Issler in the 1890s, from a book published in 1904

Issler's Orchestra was an early recording ensemble, and perhaps the first popular band. The group formed in the fall of 1889 at the Edison Laboratory[1] Because the purpose of the group was only to make recordings, it had only four or five performers, a form that would come to be known as a "parlor orchestra". Personnel and instrumentation varied in the first year, but most sessions included Edward Issler on piano, George Schweinfest on flute and D.B. Dana on cornet. Clarinetist William Tuson and xylophonist Charles P. Lowe would also become core members in time.

The group performed dance music such as quadrilles, waltzes and polkas, arrangements of musical theater, opera, and popular songs, "descriptive" pieces evoking a narrative, chamber music, and marches. After the Edison Laboratory suspended its recording program in January 1890, Issler's Orchestra recorded for the New Jersey Phonograph Company,[2] United States Phonograph Company,[3] Columbia Phonograph Company[4] Chicago Talking Machine Company and others. The band experienced a decline in popularity after other marching bands came on to the scene. The ensemble stopped recording around 1899, but individual members, specifically Schweinfest and Lowe, would continue individually into the disc era.[5][6]

  1. ^ Wangemann, A. Theo E. (1892). The First Book of Phonograph Records. Edison Laboratory.
  2. ^ New Jersey Phonograph Co. Catalog 1892. New Jersey Phonograph Company. 1892.
  3. ^ United States Phonograph Co. Catalog, 1894. United States Phonograph Company. 1894.
  4. ^ Brooks, Tim. "A Directory to Columbia Recording Artists of the 1890s" (PDF). ARSC Journal. 11 (2–3): 116.
  5. ^ "George Schweinfest, piccolo". Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  6. ^ "Charles P. Lowe, xylophone". Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved 16 November 2017.