Richard C. Burns archive of Overtone Records, Inc.

Richard C. Burns was born in 1920 and raised in New Haven,Connecticut. His interest in classical music developed in his teens when he would listen to live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and other performances. Burns graduated from Yale University in 1942 with a degree in physics. He worked for a yearafter graduation at the Bureau of Standards, Washington DC, and then worked as a recording engineer for Soundscriber Corporation in New Haven. He began volunteering as a project recording engineer for various New Haven musical performances and church services in 1949. In the 1950s Burns began doing recording projects for Yale composer and faculty member Paul Hindemith, who also founded and was music director of the Yale Collegium Musicum. Burns then founded Overtone Records, Inc., in 1953 and served as the company’s producer and recording engineer. In 1966 he was appointed audio engineer at Syracuse University by colleague Howard Boatwright, for whom he had made several recordings in New Haven. Burns remained in Syracuse University until 1984. He also collaborated with recording engineer Tom Packard to invent and manufacture the Packburn, an analogue machine that reduces surface noise on 78-rpm and LP Recordings. Burns died in 2002.

Overtone Records, Inc.,was founded in 1953 by Richard C. Burns, who served as the company’s producer and sound engineer. Overtone published seventeen LP recording. The repertoire on the recordings primarily consists of baroque music, but also includes works from the Renaissanceera, as well as nineteenth and twentieth century music. Overtone’s recording of The Passion according to St. Johnby Alessandro Scarlatti won the Grand Prix du Disque at its French release. Featured artists on these recordings include Paul Hindemith, Luther Noss, Albert Fuller, Helen Boatwright, John Kirkpatrick, Aldo Parisot, and Howard Boatwright; and the ensembles recorded include the Yale Collegium Musicum, Yale Divinity Choir, the Choir of St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church (New Haven), and members of the Yale University Orchestra.

During the production of the seventeen Overtone recordings and in the years following, Burns engaged in several recording projects, mostly live events, that were loosely associated with Overtone Records and documented in the same administrative files (some recording numbers included the OV designation). Most of these projects were not released commercially.