We lost a pioneer in the music industry, September 22, 2012
Grammy award winning producer & composer Howard Hillison Scott (shown to the right of Aaron Copland in this 1974 photograph) started his career in 1946 at Columbia Records / Masterworks, the label's classical division. Soon after getting his start at Columbia Records, he was assigned to join a team of their engineers who were charged with developing a long-playing record to replace the brittle shellac 78 rpm disc (which could only hold about 4 minutes per side). The project was designated as top secret and had been in development since 1940. Nearing its completion, Scott was brought on board because the engineering team needed someone with musical training (who in addition to being able to read music, could more importantly read and interpret orchestral scores -- necessary to successfully transfer current 78 recordings to the new 33 1/3 long-playing format). The "LP" was realized in 1948.
Mr. Scott went on to become an invaluable member of Columbia's classical music production team, working with many Columbia artists including Glenn Gould, Isaac Stern, Aaron Copland, etc. The rest is of course history and Mr. Scott's invaluable contribution to both music and technology will continue be appreciated now as well as for future generations to come. Read more about Howard H. Scott here.