This bilingual (English & French) book comprises a listing of gramophone records of classical and traditional Indian music painstakingly compiled with available details. It also includes a very useful primer on Indian music and Indian musical instruments. Some archival photographs have been added. In the words of the compiler:
"The preparation of a catalogue of recorded music in India is, in a way, a distressing
task, for the best of the music recorded has been destroyed without any regard for
its artistic value.
Some of the most important recording companies were and still are mainly foreign concerns and have no responsible artistic adviser.
If the sales of a record fail to reach a certain figure during a three-monthly period, the record is automatically destroyed. The great majority of the records
which should figure in this catalogue are therefore no longer available and almost
all the records of musicians of the past generation have been destroyed.
Yet in order to give a reasonable idea of recorded Indian classical music, we have maintained a certain number of important records of which the matrices were
recently destroyed but which are to be found in the collections of every music lover
in India. A. D. " [Author’s Foreword/Avant-Propos of the book]