[crazyface]

Hello!

I am trying to find some orchestral or jazz recordings of popular music from the Western countries from 1900 to 1950. I have found many good recordings of songs from this period, in countries like USA, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, etc., but most of them have vocals recorded, and I would like to find some recordings which are music only to use in a film project.

Anything from jazz bands to crooners to Vaudeville - all those sorts of music.

Do you know any means of searching or purchasing which would help me with this search? Do you know of any albums in particular to seek? Thank you!

 

[Head_case]

Sounds like you want music for film then?

Shostakovich (USSR) wrote film music which was used in many wartime classics. Similarly, Tadeusz Baird (Polish), Wojiech Kilar (Polish) wrote many film scores for classic films. Kilar also wrote the film score which was recently used (again!) in Portrait of a Lady and some versions of Count Dracula. Philip Glass (British) doesn't fall into your time scale being more recent, but there were other film score composers of this era.

You shouldn't struggle to find references or specific albums by any of these three composers with google. None have vocals either, and are orchestral/film orientated, in that the attention span of the music is deliberately aimed at that kind of audience.

 

[priest]

How about the "Social Music" volume (volume 2) of The Anthology of American Folk Music?

 

[musicmind]

This page has a lot of orhestral suggestions that should fit your needs :

About.com: http://www.classical.net/music/rep/lists/20th.html