Phonographic recording in Mexico, the beginnings.

The President of Mexico should have inaugurated today the Foneteca Nacional at the opening ceremony. I do not have details of this event as I am writing before its starting.

This time I’ll try to write in English as a courtesy to the members of the 78-L an internet e-mail list where I have found people from France, Sweden, Italy, Argentina, other countries and, of course, the US. The group is a mixture of erudite professionals who have studied these matters for many years. It is also visited by newbie and amateur collectors like me.

The oldest Phonographic recordings made in Mexico that I am aware of and have the sounds, were made by the Edison Company Scientists, in an expedition they made to Mexico in 1904. I have never seen or touched a Recorded Cylinder, like those used then as media for archiving sounds. But I had access to the sound thanks to a collector that published one of them on the internet. This one has: “Consentida” waltz as played by “La Orquesta Tipica Lerdo” possibly directed by Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, the musician, not the politician; the politician was his grand uncle and contemporaneous with Benito Juarez and Abraham Lincoln.

The Donald C. Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara, has a Cylinder Preservation and Digitalization Project, where you can find at least 25 recordings made in Mexico in the early years, at least one is performed by the “Banda Policia de la Ciudad de Mexico”.

I have, or have had some 78rpm disc records made in the USA, but recorded in Mexico City during 1907 and 1908 (Victor and Columbia). Velino M. Preza was the director of the band and was also composer of some of the pieces. Those include marches, in the style of John Philippe Souza, also a famous Band leader and composer when phonographic recording started.


The “Banda de Policia de la Ciudad de Mexico” recorded with the three major recording companies in the early XX Century:
Edison, Victor and Columbia, not an easy achievement.

There is a gap of almost 20 years after 1910 without recordings been made in Mexico, (or I have no trace of them). This lack of recording might have been caused by the Mexican Revolution and post-revolution years and it was until relative calm came back that Mr. Arvizu recorded his “Varita de Nardo”

During the gap years, other “Mexican” recordings were actually recorded in New York or other USA cities, by the traveling Mexican artists or by “Orquesta Internacional Victor”. This one was not a single orchestra but was a gathering of many members of other orchestras under the same name; normally the band leader was Ernesto Vigil y Robles, the composer of “La Norteña” and other Mexican popular songs. The” Orquesta intenacional” and others recorded in the USA for the Latin American and Spanish markets, for this reason it is difficult to trace the discography data; there were Tangos, Fox Trots, Marches, etc.

Finally, we arrive to the “Varita de Nardo” recording of Juan Arvizu made in Mexico City in 1927, for some years considered to be the first one of all times, this record was manufactured in the USA by Brunswick, but Mr. Arvizu claimed the recording was made in a church near the Mexico City’s historical center.

I sincerely hope that now that the Fonoteca Nacional has started operations, lots of information will emerge, that it will be archived with scientific rigor and discipline and, most of all, that thanks to the internet, this information will be easy an widely available to the general public.

The Fonoteca has a slogan “Building the memory of tomorrow”.
Fonoteca Nacional web site. (under construction)

Congratulations and Good luck to the members of the fonoteca..