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  • Steve Thoroughgood
    replied
    Originally posted by Chris Scott View Post
    Anyone know the earliest surviving spoken word recording?
    Chris
    I don't know THE earliest, but one of the earliest spoken word recordings made in England was by Sir Arthur Sullivan on 5 October 1888, two days after the opening of The Yeomen of the Guard.

    Edison despatched a phonograph to one Colonel Gouraud, his representative in England. The Colonel's assignment was to record the voices of as many famous people as he could.

    Sullivan's message was recorded as follows:-

    "Dear Mr. Edison,

    For myself I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the result of this evening's experiment. Astonished at the wonderful form you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music will be put on record forever. But all the same, I think it is the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery.

    Arthur Sullivan"

    The recording is remarkably clear for its age, and I'll endeavour to upload it here (or somewhere) once I possess the 'know how'. It doesn't appear to exist anywhere on the web at the moment.

    Steve

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  • Suzi
    replied
    Nice one ! Although I heard that it was...'The Cat d...............'

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  • George Hutchinson
    replied
    Hi Andy

    I remember seeing a programme on that final nugget of information. Of course, it is indeed an extremely long-shot. All it might do is pick up pulses and vibrations of the hand rather than record any sound.

    I suspect, before the cylinder ran out, that Edison's first recording said "I am Ja-"

    PHILIP

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  • aspallek
    replied
    Phil --

    The recording was indeed at Crystal Palace. The narrative from that website is quite interesting. As far as I know, the Handel festival was always held there. I've always wondered who might have been at that concert in 1888....
    Yes, the recording technique was very crude. It amounted to suspending a wax cylinder recording device under the balcony and having someone crawl up there the change the cylinder frequently. But the cylinders are also in very poor condition after 120 years.

    As to Edison, the nursery rhyme was recorded in the first public demonstration of his device. I would presume that he had tested it earlier. What was recorded in that earlier test is unknown as far as I know.

    There have been unconfirmed theories that bits of pottery dating thousands of years old might have recorded the sound of the potter's wheel as the craftsman was decorating them with a stylus as they were rotating. In theory I suppose possible but highly unlikely as the sound from the wheel would not have been concentrated enough nor the stylus free enough to make an acoustic groove in the pottery.

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  • George Hutchinson
    replied
    Andy - shows how the memory plays tricks. I had always understood that the early recording was made at the Royal Albert Hall, not Crystal Palace, but if it's on a dedicated Crystal Palace page then maybe I'm wrong on this count. The playback quality is not simply the deterioration of the materials, but of the recording methods. Things needed to be close to the microphone to have a decent quality of playback because of the diaphragm that was used as the microphone, so it would never have been very good. I have an extensive collection of pre-electric 78s, and the quality of large ensembles is always very limited in tonal range.

    History does indeed claim that Edison was the first to record sound with the MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB nursery rhyme but, like many things, history often lies. Edison is credited with several things that someone else did first.

    This story about the recordings made in soot on sheets of paper is still intriguing me. If it's a spoof - why? It's not exactly a clever one, and it didn't happen on April 1st. I just think it's all unlikely but I really want it to be true. I suppose it could easily have been established earlier on that pressure from a diaphragm could possibly record sound but no one had the method of using it. Maybe a modern parallel would be cryogenic suspension?

    PHILIP

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  • aspallek
    replied
    On a slightly more serious note, the earliest recording of a live musical concert still exists on wax cylinder although it is very very poor condition. It was made in the summer of 1888 at the Handel Festival at Crystal Palace.

    Check it out at: http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace/

    See also: http://cylindersontheweb.angelcities.com/ especially "rare recordings."

    I don't know what the earliest recirded voice recording was. I suppose something spoken by Edison in his lab. There is the story that Edison's first live demo recording using his machine was of the inventor reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" but I don't think that was preserved.

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  • Magpie
    replied
    Apparently the BBC archive has audio recordings of Queen Victoria, Oscar Wilde and Henry Irving in their collection (Not together, of course).

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  • Notaro
    replied
    There's a couple of 2 disc sets of cds which are pretty interesting which contain many early recordings of historical figures. I picked these up myself and they're well worth a listen.



    All the best,
    Notaro

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  • Graham
    replied
    According to what I just dredged out of cyberspace, the earliest-known recording of the human voice was 'Au Clair de la Lune' by some French character in or about 1861. His name was Scott de Martinville.

    For my part, there were no worthwhile sound recordings whatsoever until Mississippi John Hurt's 1928 sessions, which sound as sharp and fresh today as they did then. And as fiendishly difficult to play.

    If Queen Victoria ever made a recording, it would have been something like, "Not tonight, Albert - pleeeese!"

    Cheers,

    Graham

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  • Robert
    replied
    Gareth, I'm told that one Chopin Prelude can last the crocs a whole year.

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  • Sam Flynn
    replied
    Originally posted by Robert View Post
    Superb playing - and horsemanship - by Chopin.

    Is there a recording of his Polonaise played on an elephant?
    Not as such, Rob, but I've a rendition of the "Raindrop Prelude" played on a herd of wildebeest leaping into the Limpopo river which is surprisingly good.

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  • Robert
    replied
    That galloping horse must have been awfully tired, having to suppport the weight of both Chopin and the piano.

    Superb playing - and horsemanship - by Chopin.

    Is there a recording of his Polonaise played on an elephant?

    Leave a comment:


  • Mike Covell
    replied
    Originally posted by Sam Flynn View Post
    Believe it or not, I was clearing out my old CDs yesterday, and realised that I'd put the very Classic CD coverdisc referred to earlier into the rubbish bin. I've just rescued it, and have made an mp3 of that spoof "Chopin jam-session" I mentioned. Here's a link to the mp3. Enjoy!
    Thanks for that, it sounds quite eerie!!

    I actually had a cd playing loud dance music and it kinda mixed in!!

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  • Sam Flynn
    replied
    Originally posted by Mike Covell View Post
    It's quite a spooky sounding clip almost like something the guys at Most Haunted would present as an EVP!!

    I just wonder what else is out there waiting to be found.
    Believe it or not, I was clearing out my old CDs yesterday, and realised that I'd put the very Classic CD coverdisc referred to earlier into the rubbish bin. I've just rescued it, and have made an mp3 of that spoof "Chopin jam-session" I mentioned. Here's a link to the mp3. Enjoy!

    Leave a comment:


  • Sam Flynn
    replied
    I should point out that the (admitted) hoax in Classic CD involved precisely the same "soot-cylinder" recording device as is mentioned here. The article also referred to a painstaking process by which the spidery trace carved by the bristle in the soot was decoded to reconstruct the Chopin jam-session. It would be remarkable indeed if the magazine had concocted something so extraordinary in practically every detail, only for this fantasy to come true many years later.

    PS: "Au claire de la lune"? Is this a pun on "moonshine"?

    PPS: I really don't mind being wrong on this if it's proven true!

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