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 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 the early 1890s. 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, United States Phonograph Company,

Columbia Phonograph Company Columbia Records is an American recor ...

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.

Members

The band's core members were: * Edward Issler (1855 - 1922),

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* David B. Dana (1855 - 1914),

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

* George Schweinfest (1862 - 1949),

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

* A. T. Van Winkle (1846 - 1915),

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

* William Tuson (1846 - 1915),

Clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

* Charles P. Lowe (1846 - 1915),

Xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

Notable recordings

All of Issler's records were recorded on fragile hollow cylinders made of a waxy blend of materials that usually became brown-colored during the making of the blank cylinders, so they are called "brown wax cylinders" because of their shape and usual color. Their actual color can be anywhere from nearly white to a very dark brown. They are about 4¼ inches long and 2¼ inches in diameter. Not many cylinder records made in the 1890s have survived and the survivors are almost never in great condition, so the sound recorded on them is now less clear than what people heard when they were new and there is much more surface noise mixed in with it. * One of their earliest records, and one of the earliest made by Edison, does not have a title. The cylinder is announced at the start of the recording as "Played at the Edison Phonograph Works, Orange, New Jersey, by the Issler Parlor Orchestra". * In March 1889 they recorded the Fifth Regiment March for Edison. This recording was selected as one of the first 50 recordings to be selected for preservation in the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. * In 1891 they recorded Nanon Waltz, a charming piece by Richard Genee. * In 1894 or 1895 they recorded the Electric Light Quadrille. Like many quadrille records made in the 1890s, it has an announcement in the middle. This one says that Issler's Orchestra will be performing free in Keystone Hall the night after the record was made and that the electric light will be used for the first time (meaning its first use in Keystone Hall, not in the whole world). * In 1895 they recorded what might be the first recording of

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas have shifted over the years), or the extent of the area i ...

. * In 1898 the group recorded March of the Marines.

References

{{Reflist 1889 establishments in the United States 1899 disestablishments in the United States Pioneer recording artists Disbanded American orchestras Musical groups established in 1889 Musical groups disestablished in 1899 Orchestras based in New Jersey Edison, New Jersey Musical groups from Edison, New Jersey