Editing Decca Records (section)

===Foundation===
[[File:Decca-Dulcephone.png|thumb|upright=1.3|1914 advertisement for Decca Dulcephone|alt=newspaper advertisement featuring a young woman in heels carrying a small portable gramophone with her left hand; a wide-brimmed summer hat hangs jauntily on her right arm.]]
The origins of the Decca Record Company were not in making records but in making the [[Phonograph|gramophones]] on which to play them. Shortly before the [[First World War]] the first Decca product was offered to the public: the "Decca Dulcephone" a portable gramophone, retailing at two [[guineas]] (£2.10 in decimal currency, and equivalent to about £250 in 2023 terms). It was manufactured by the musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons Ltd, a company founded in 1869.<ref name=d92>Dearling, p. 92</ref> There are various theories about the derivation of the name "Decca", but the [[musicologist]] Robert Dearling describes it as "a word whose origins are lost".<ref name=d92/>

In the 1920s the company changed its name to "The Decca Gramophone Company" and it was [[Initial public offering|floated on the stock market]] in 1928.<ref>"City Notes". ''The Times'', 14 September 1928, p. 18</ref>  [[Edward Lewis (Decca)|Edward Lewis]], a London [[stockbroker]], acted for the company, despite his reservations about its business model:
{{blockindent|A company manufacturing gramophones but not records was rather like one making razors but not the consumable blades ... I was not particularly excited at the prospect, for having seen the tremendous activity and great rise in the shares of [[Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia Graphophones]] and [[the Gramophone Company]], based on the boom in records, I felt that whilst the gramophone was a dull affair marketwise, records were like magic on the Stock Exchange.<ref name=b123>Barfe, p. 123</ref>}}
Lewis tried to convince Decca's board that the way forward was to expand into record production and manufacture, and recommended buying out the struggling Duophone Record Company in south London, arguing that "with the well-known Decca trademark and ... distributing organization ... a Decca record would surely succeed where others were failing".<ref name=b123/> The Decca directors were unpersuaded and Lewis raised enough capital to acquire not only Duophone but Decca itself.<ref name=b123/>

On 7 February 1929 the Decca Record Company's first discs were recorded: dance music performed by [[Ambrose (bandleader)|Ambrose]] and the May Fair Orchestra.<ref>Stuart, p. 4</ref> The first classical recording took place four days later at the [[Chenil Galleries]] in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], and featured the [[viola|violist]] Cecil Bonvallot in an arrangement of [[J. S. Bach]]'s {{lang|de|[[Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh|Komm, süßer Tod]]}}.<ref>Stuart, p. 32</ref> Among the fledgling company's releases in its first year were a set of numbers from [[William Walton]] and [[Edith Sitwell]]'s ''[[Façade (entertainment)|Façade]]'' conducted by the composer and recited by Sitwell and [[Constant Lambert]], and a set of [[Handel]] [[Concerti grossi, Op. 6 (Handel)|Concerti grossi]] conducted by [[Ernest Ansermet]], who made more than a hundred recordings for Decca between then and 1968.<ref>Stuart, pp. 36–38 and 407</ref> A premiere recording of [[Frederick Delius|Delius]]'s [[Sea Drift (Delius)|''Sea Drift'']] conducted by [[Julian Clifford#Julian Clifford junior|Julian Clifford]] was in less than ideal sound,<ref>"Gramophone Records", ''Music and Letters'', October 1929, p. 415</ref> but marked Decca's first association with the [[baritone]] [[Roy Henderson (baritone)|Roy Henderson]] which lasted for the rest of his career.<ref>Stuart, p. 35</ref>