The enchantment of phonography: Materiality and mediation in early twentieth-century children’s recordings

The world of early twentieth-century children’s records still hovers on the margins of mainstream discourses about phonography. Research on the topic has been almost exclusively devoted to the introduction of the gramophone as a didactic tool in schools, with particular reference to the activities of the so-called music appreciation movement in the UK, USA, and other European countries. However, a second type of children’s products can be identified, one focussing more directly on children’s recreation and entertainment. This chapter deals with this second type of products, aiming to broaden the scope of musicological discourse on recordings. Following a brief survey of the main commercial trends on the international market, the chapter focuses on the Italian context by analysing specific products issued by the local branches of His Master’s Voice and Columbia during the 1920s and 1930s. The analysis of contents, formats, and suggested uses of these products sheds further light on how the phonograph made its way into consumers’ homes by mediating children’s multifarious acts of social construction and performance of the self.