Peter Dawson
Peter Smith Dawson (31 January 1882 – 27 September 1961) was an Australian bass-baritone and songwriter. Dawson gained worldwide renown through song recitals and many best-selling recordings of operatic arias, oratorio solos and rousing ballads during a career spanning almost 60 years. Although Dawson's repertoire embraced a great deal of contemporary popular songs and light music, he possessed a remarkably fluent and technically adroit vocal technique which enabled him to excel in highly demanding classical pieces. His voice combined an attractive dark timbre with an ideal balance of diction and vocal placement. He also possessed a smooth legato, a strong but integrated 'attack' that eschewed intrusive aspirates, and a near-perfect ability to manage running passages and difficult musical ornaments such as roulades. These skills probably derived from his studies with Sir Charles Santley, a virtuoso English baritone of the Victorian era. If Dawson's interpretations were not profoundly penetrating, they were not shallow either; and in his chosen field of English concert pieces of the vigorous, manly, outdoors kind, he remains unequalled. The tremendously high technical finish of his Handelian singing sets an unmatched standard, too. In 1984, Dawson was chosen by the Guinness Book of Recorded Sound as one of the top 10 singers on disc of all time, listed alongside Elvis Presley and operatic tenor Enrico Caruso. In 2007, Peter Dawson's 1931 recording of the song Along the Road to Gundagai was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry. |
= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings
Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gramophone | 0B2663 | 10-in. | 2/9/1932 | Back your fancy (A race game for parties) | Peter Dawson | Talk, with orchestra | speaker | |
Gramophone | Cc3197 | 12-in. | 7/2/1923 | Death of Boris | Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ; Nellie Walker | Bass vocal solo, with male vocal chorus and orchestra | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | Bb3198 | 10-in. | 7/2/1923 | Veau d'or | Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin | Bass vocal solo, with male vocal chorus and orchestra | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | 7203b | 10-in. | 9/4/1905 | Old folks at home | Nellie Melba | Soprano vocal solo, with vocal trio and piano | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | 7204b | 10-in. | 9/4/1905 | Good night | Nellie Melba | Soprano vocal solo, with vocal trio and piano | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | 10418e | 10-in. | 7/2/1909 | Onward Christian soldiers | Westminster Cathedral Choir | Mixed vocal chorus, with band | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | 2EA4079 | 12-in. | 10/13/1936 | Britain's heritage : Patriotic songs, part 1 | Peter Dawson ; Clifford Greenwood | Bass-baritone vocal solo, with vocal chorus and orchestra | vocalist, bass-baritone | |
Gramophone | 2EA4080 | 12-in. | 10/13/1936 | Britain's heritage : Patriotic songs, part 2 | Peter Dawson ; Clifford Greenwood | Bass-baritone vocal solo, with vocal chorus and orchestra | vocalist, bass-baritone |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Dawson, Peter," accessed November 1, 2024, https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/103444.
Dawson, Peter. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved November 1, 2024, from https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/103444.
"Dawson, Peter." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 1 November 2024.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
External Sources
Wikipedia: Peter Dawson
Discogs: Peter Dawson
Allmusic: Peter Dawson
Grove: Peter Dawson
IMDb: Peter Dawson
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: Dawson, Peter, 1882-1961 - http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82006513
Wikidata: Peter Dawson - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1699181
VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/12503579
MusicBrainz: Peter Dawson - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/5aa05945-14f6-43ec-b583-ee93a1cd93bc
Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license
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